Jeremy Coller, CEO of Coller Capital, reckons "the secret of success is to do what you enjoy". When he left university he was adamant he didn't want to go into business, so it's strange that he now heads what he calls "a solution provider for illiquid assets".
He managed to delay that for quite some time though - until the age of 25 - having studied at three universities.
Coller took his first degree, in management sciences, at UMIST, part of the University of Manchester in the UK. His subject included accountancy, law, industrial sociology and marketing. What particularly appealed was organizational psychology and motivation - hence perhaps his mantra.
At UMIST he managed to find time to pursue informal business ventures, including selling cut-price jeans to fellow students after securing a wholesale contract with a big manufacturer.
Not all of his projects were so successful. He once proposed providing free hotel "do not disturb" signs with ads from car-hire firms such as Hertz and Avis. But he could not persuade anyone to buy the idea. That turned out to be good practice for the launch of his first fund.
After Manchester he did a masters degree in philosophy at the University of Sussex.