Amazing denizen

The two men stand nervously in the Dragons' Den¹ studio, waiting for the verdict on their cheese business.² They need not have worried. "I feel like you're here for me," says the new judge, "I also feel like I'm here for you... so I am going to make you an offer."

The entrepreneurs are delighted: Steven Bartlett is agreeing to invest £85,000 in their company.

Appearing for the first time on the TV series, Bartlett came across as relaxed and friendly. But he has made himself less popular with comments he made last month in his podcast, The Diary of a CEO.

"I have a fear that Gen ZShort for Generation Z, meaning people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s. are the least resilientTough or able to cope with difficulty. generation that I've ever seen," he said. "I reflect on the storms that my father went through at work and I just know so deeply inside of me, some of these younger Gen Z people couldn't weather such a storm without quitting."

Critics pointed out that, with the pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis, Generation Z have had a huge amount to cope with. But Bartlett, who has earned success the hard way, is unrepentantShowing no regret for wrongdoing. .

He was born to an English father and a Nigerian mother. The family was poor, but lived in a wealthy part of Plymouth, where he and his siblings were the only non-White pupils at their school.

"People say: 'You're so ambitious, you're so driven,'" he says. "As I've got older I've realised that I was probably just insecure... I was trying to escape that life and fit in."

Poverty led him into business: "I would wake up and my lunch money would come from selling something." By 14, he was making money from organising school trips; by 17 he was starting businesses on the internet.

He went to Manchester Metropolitan University, but realised it was not for him and dropped out almost immediately. Being "a good quitter", he says, is essential to success.

In 2014 he set up Social Chain, a social-media marketing company; within five years it was worth more than £170m. In 2017 he started The Diary of a CEO, which is now the most downloaded business podcast in Europe.

He is thrilled to be on Dragons' Den, which he has watched since he was 12. He hopes that seeing him as one of the judges will inspire young people from backgrounds like his own:

"I really just want to represent my world view... and let them know that there's no stage too big to aspire to." 

Yes: Being an entrepreneur means achieving things without getting a job in a big company and take orders from someone else. All you need is some good ideas and the determination to see them through. 

No: You need to have a good business brain, which not everybody is blessed with. And you have to be prepared to take risks, which is not easy if you have a family to feed and bills to pay.

Or... It is something everyone can have a go at, but as Bartlett says, you should quit if things do not go your way. Then you can have a go at a different type of work that might suit you better.