DUNCAN BANNATYNE left school three months after his 15th birthday, without any qualifications, and joined the Royal Navy. Today, the Sunday Times Rich List puts this self-made entrepreneur’s wealth at £168million and he is recognised everywhere as the suave and steely star of the hit BBC2 show Dragons‘ Den.

So how did this 57-year-old Glaswegian, one of seven children and the son of a steelworker, make this remarkable journey of success?

According to him, it’s all down to determination, plus a lot of hard work. “The route to success in business is simple - you’ve got to want it,“ he says. “If you really want it enough and you work hard enough you will succeed. There are going to be setbacks, of course. You may not succeed first time.”

After he left the Navy, Bannatyne got a job in a bakery and then one day he bought an ice-cream van at a car auction and launched his first business.

"I bought it for £450, got the Yellow Pages and looked up ice-cream suppliers," he says. "I did that for five years and ended up with five vans." Then he sold that business for £45,000 and ploughed the cash into building a nursing home. This led to a chain called Quality Care Nursing Homes, which Bannatyne floated on the stock market in 1992. Five years later, the business was sold for £46million.

Bannatyne also set up Just Learning, a chain of children's day care centres.

Then, as he was building up his leg muscles after a skiing accident, he decided to build a health club.

"It was a 25-minute drive to the health club I used at the time - and I thought I could build one nearer my house," he says.

Now, with Bannatyne Fitness augmented by the recent £90million purchase of 24 Living Well clubs, he has 60 fitness clubs.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing, though. Asked to name his worst business disaster, Bannatyne says: “Buying shares in a company called Lady In Leisure. I lost £1,040,000 when it went bankrupt.”

What advice would he give someone starting out in business today? “Go straight to the internet,” he says. “It’s a massive market place and in many ways just about the perfect one. I’d get on eBay and start trading. Do the research and find your niche and you’ll get there. If you fail early on, keep going. I can’t stress this enough. If you really want to do it, you will succeed.”

Once again, the emphasis is on determination - and this is even reflected in the title of Dragon Duncan’s best-selling autobiography. It‘s called Anyone Can Do It…