Stelios Haji-Ioannou Quotes & Sayings

I have a feeling that there is a gap in the food retail market - a niche below some of the current budget operators such as Aldi and Lidl. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I decided very early on that the way to make a difference in my life and in other people's lives was to give them services and products that are actually for the many and not for the few. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I didn't want people to say: Stelios does everything on the cheap at work, and in private he lives in the lap of luxury. That's not me. I don't need those status symbols. I don't need a private jet either when I can go everywhere with Easy. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Unfortunately I have no rags-to-riches story to tell. Money never played a big role for me. My parents just had it. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I've always been conscientious and hardworking. I've never wasted time. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I know easyJet is not luxury, but we certainly don't charge for wheelchairs or take away essentials. You have to make the passengers reasonably comfy for the sake of health. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Greek shipowners like to boast, 'I bought ships at the bottom of the market, and now they're worth ten times as much.' It goes back to the days of Onassis and Niarchos competing with each other over who had the biggest fleet, the biggest yacht and the most famous girlfriend. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I have to manage and protect my brand. For the details I can always hire people who can knuckle down much better. For that I need people who are different to myself. People who compensate for my weaknesses. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

My biggest mistake was when I started up easyEverything, a chain of Internet cafes. The idea that people would go to a shop to use a computer was revolutionary in 1999. It worked for a while, but cheap technology almost killed it. One silver lining of the problems I faced was that it gave me experience of turnarounds. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Failures teach you more, there's always something fundamental about them. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

There are still too many people out there who are claustrophobic. On easyCruise, we are going to open up as many cabins as we can. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I've made mistakes in business, but none so big I couldn't recover and learn from them. The more you try to change consumer behaviour, the riskier it gets. You have to work out your potential losses against the obvious gains. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I like organised things. I don't like the corruption and slowness of Greece. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Sir Richard Branson is probably the best communicator ever. He was an inspiration for me - contrary to some reports, we've never done business together, although we did discuss an aviation venture very early on. I don't think easyJet competes with Virgin - we're in different areas. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Even if someone is competent, it's so damned easy to crucify him as long as he's only working on his father's account. So at the beginning I certainly wanted to prove myself to my father and the rest of society. That quickly turned into a greater challenge. My lifestyle hasn't changed as a result. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Successes are always unique and hard to copy. The fact that easyJet became a success is due to a mixture of talent and luck. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

This industry attracts more capital than it deserves. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Passengers don't like changing planes. That means waiting time, stress, running around. There's a joke that the hub principle is supposed to have been invented by cargo firms. The baggage doesn't care where and how it's pushed around. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

In America you can be Donald Trump, have a business go wrong, and file for Chapter 11. You can move on, and no one complains. When his casinos were in Chapter 11, he was still on TV telling people how to get rich. I had to persevere for years with easyInternet because I couldn't afford to hurt the brand. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I wanted to be my own boss. I was fascinated by airlines and how I could change travel for the average person. Then I wanted to diversify. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

America has its roots in a tradition of risk-taking pioneers. In more conservative Europe, if you fail in business or actually end up going to jail for it, you're finished as a businessman for good. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

As a self-employed person, the idea of a break is completely foreign to me. If I completely switch off for any period of time, I know I'm going to pay for it several times over. For me, it's a lot better and easier to stay in touch and know what's going on seven days a week than to switch off. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I see easyHotel as one of the best, most natural extensions of the 'easy' brand from the airline. EasyHotel is raising money to accelerate growth at a much faster rate than I could have grown it as a private company, whilst enabling me to spend more time on my diversified portfolio of other investments. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

On reflection, I am always pleasantly surprised when ordinary members of the public stop me in the street to say, 'Thank you,' I guess for making travel and other goods and services affordable to them. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I think that my original drive as an entrepreneur was precisely that desire to get away from the image of the shipping magnate's son. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

When I opened the world's largest Internet cafe, certified by the 'Guinness Book of Records,' in Times Square in New York, I was live on 'Good Morning America,' and for me, that was an achievement. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I'm sure there are managers who have had far greater financial success. But my companies such as easyJet have changed the lives of many people. We haven't just made flights affordable for a lot of people. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

You can divide airlines into two camps: expensive and cheap. But I believe that we will only distinguish between long-haul and short-haul airlines in the future. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

In simple terms, I realised that food is the most fundamental need for a person. In difficult economic times, people's priorities change, and they might be willing to do something that secures for them the lowest possible weekly food bill. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

There is a place and a time for philanthropy, and there is only so much money you can give away. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

The whole concept of the travel agent is absurd. They appear to be agents of the traveller but are actually agents of the airlines. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I'm not a communist - I believe in the free market and that entrepreneurs should be allowed to take risks because it creates wealth and jobs, but I draw the line at people risking other people's money. That's deplorable. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

My cosmetic range, easy4Men, is not going that well. It's meant to be for the no-nonsense man, but now I don't know if the no-nonsense man exists. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

People are grateful when you make a difference in their lives. That is the essence of any successful business — Stelios Haji-Ioannou