For a nasty old dragon, he comes across as a pretty decent bloke, does Theo Paphitis.
He arrived in London in 1965 from Cyprus with his family as a dyslexic child who spoke no English.
The 52-year-old is now worth a lazy £210 million ($NZ418 million), give or take.
"Being a migrant gave me challenges which I had to overcome at a young age. It was a traumatic introduction to the UK, because I was a 6-year-old who didn't understand the language and you're trying to join in; so it's tough," Paphitis tells Signal from his Surrey home.
"You learned the language of the playground, but I'm dyslexic, so I was struggling with the language of the classroom. But that sculpted my character and ethos. It was tough. Having those issues, I had to work really hard.
"Harder than other people. But that helped when it came to adult life."
He discovered an entrepreneurial streak when he started running his school tuckshop, at the age of 15.
"It was at school that I realised shopkeeping was my bag. If you enjoy something and are passionate about it and work hard at it, then you're going to succeed."
Paphitis is now one of the most high-profile businessmen in Britain, with an empire spanning retail, property, finance and consumer goods.
His first job was as a tea boy and filing clerk with a Lloyds of London broker, before joining Watches of Switzerland in Bond St as a sales assistant at 18.
At 21, he started selling commercial mortgages and had set up his first company at 23.
Two years later, he established a property finance company just in time to milk the 1980s commercial property market boom.
When the Ryman stationery stores went bankrupt, Paphitis bought the company from administrators and turned it around by revitalising management and schmoozing with suppliers.
He earned a reputation for turning failing companies into highly profitable businesses, but rejects any talk of a Midas touch.
"Success is no one thing. There's always a number of things.
"I was lucky I found something I was passionate about. You have to find your passion and drive it. The harder you work, the luckier you get. We're all wired differently."
Paphitis is all about passion and became chairman of his beloved Millwall Football Club in 1998, taking the club out of admin-istration and winning the Division Two championship.
He appointed Dennis Wise as manager, who repaid his faith by guiding Millwall to the 2004 FA Cup final.
"That was up there with the birth of my children," Paphitis says.
"One of my old Millwall boys, [Wellington Phoenix striker] Paul Ifill, is actually in New Zealand. I bought him as an 18-year-old from Brighton for £50. Actually, it might not even have been £50."
He is still passionate about football, sponsoring Isthmian League side Walton and Hersham and his company Ryman stationery is the major sponsor of the Isthmian football league, which is called the Ryman Football League.
Despite his wealth and fame, Paphitis says he still has plenty of unscored goals.
"My bucket list is still huge. I'm not a third of the way there yet.
"Getting to New Zealand would be a good start. It's very up there on my bucket list. That would be something to drag Mrs P around to do."
Until then, he will have to be content with appearing on New Zealand television screens as a dragon in the new BBC show Dragons' Den, which features entrepreneurs trying to win funding for business ideas from a panel of venture capitalists.
"This is the best thing in the world. It doesn't get any better than this," Paphitis says.
"The test for me is are they prepared to work on a Sunday?
"The other things are execution, vision and and make sure you do your homework. That's very important."
And the biggest mistake would-be entrepreneurs make?
"Kidding themselves," Paphitis answers immediately. "You're always the easiest person to fool."
The other dragons are James Caan, Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne and Deborah Meaden.
And they are sure to be much meaner.
- Series 8 of Dragons' Den premieres tomorrow at 7.30pm on BBC Knowledge.
