Few can say they are entirely free of snobbery of one type or another – be it social, financial or intellectual. After all, everyone occasionally likes to feel superior to others. I suppose it is a permitted vice, like greed or lust. The world of business is no exception – although I suspect it is not as bad as certain professions.
One of the reasons I like enterprise is that it is largely a meritocratic sphere. Entrepreneurs are the essence of self-made individuals. They come from all backgrounds and cultures, occasionally from privilege but mostly not. All have prejudices alongside their competitiveness, but overriding such tendencies are ambition and dynamism. They are successes not because of whom they know or where they went to school or who their father was – but because of what they’ve done.
Of course, once they have made money, lots of new tycoons try to join the modern day establishment – hanging out in Klosters or St Tropez, joining clubs such as White’s or Mark’s Club, and buying tacky contemporary art.