By Vicki Owen, Financial Mail on Sunday.

It was a little bit of ego. His telecoms technology business Phones International Group had already earned him a fortune when he joined the Dragons, eight years ago. His personal wealth is estimated at almost half-a-billion pounds.

Despite its success, most people will have never heard of Phones International Group. But in his latest venture he is rather more in the limelight. In March he bought high-street photographic chain Jessops. Peter Jones encourages schoolchildren to achieve success in business. Our sales are up like-for-like over 30 per cent, compared with last year. About 85 per cent of the staff are original employees.

When you see that passion you realise Jessops was not a job for these people, it was a life. You will not find anybody in a Jessops store who is not camera mad. Now it still has a chance of survival. I had no idea really. At 16 I had my own company, a tennis academy, and I was still at school. By the time he was 22 he had his own house, a BMW and a Porsche, but the recession in the s saw his computer-making business go under.

A bar in Windsor inspired by the Tom Cruise film Cocktail also failed. In Jones launched mobile phone distributor Phones International Group.

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Inthe BBC called Jones about a pilot for a TV show. The year-old is clearly exasperated at times by the effort that is wasted: But of course some participants can make it big, such as the Reggae Reggae Sauce creator Levi Roots.

Levi is doing well, but not as well as Jones, who despite his fairly ordinary offices has most of the other trappings of success. Jones set out on his path to wealth at a young age and is now insistent that educating and encouraging interest in business skills among schoolchildren is vital. He runs an enterprise competition, Tycoon in Schools, which received ideas pitched by 3, pupils of whom have been selected this month to get backing from Jones using his own money, with a little extra from the Government.

He is particularly scathing about Business Studies, as taught in schools. That proves how easy it is. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

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