PROFILE NIGEL STELJES

"As far as career direction goes I didn't set out to be a dustman, an electronic presentation equipment company, Steljes Ltd. It is currently the fifth fastest growing company in the UK and made the top 30 in the recent Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100. Here he tells Catherine Toole how he did it. it's just that it was well paid and I wanted to go travelling.

I left school with no interest in going to University, I just wanted to enjoy life. In fact, that's my philosophy: get out there and enjoy yourself. For me, the cup has to be half full. I try and make someone else happy every day, if I can. If you're not happy, what's the point of coming into work and making everyone else miserable?

My mother had cancer for 25 out of 26 years of my life and I think she gave me very strong guidance: you only have one life, so see the good in it!

I thought it would be a lot more exciting to be on a beach in Greece than in an office, but I had no money behind me so I took a variety of unusual jobs. As well being a dustman, I put up circus tents and sold ice creams. At one point I took a job as a van driver for a company in the then burgeoning corporate video industry. It was quite exciting driving the van around shoots. They knew I was saving to go abroad so they said, 'Oh, when you get back from your fortnight's holiday, how about a permanent job?' I'd been planning to go for much longer but instead I came back after two weeks and worked for them for the next four years.

Then the entire salesforce, of which I was now part, was made redundant.

I decided that I liked doing things my way, so I set up as a sole trader in 1985, with no funding but talking a good talk! We were fairly early to adopt factoring and that's been all we've needed. It's given us the ability to trade above our size every year. This year we made the top 30 in the Virgin Fast Track 100 League.

I think my success in the early days was down to total belief in the product. LCD technology was shown to me in its prototype form and I felt that the industry would grow. Now, I work because I enjoy it. I'm not a workaholic: my aim is to have fun and if you can make money while you do, then it's the best thing in the world."