A BUSINESSMAN from a humble background who built a fortune from scratch wrongly believes his example proves that anyone can be rich.
Martin Bishop, 43, started work as a receptionist but thanks to freakish character traits and circumstances managed to grow a successful online retail empire. This, he feels, conclusively proves that poor people want to be poor.
Bishop said: “My story shows that anyone from an underprivileged background can amass a fortune. There’s no way the capitalist system only rewards a tiny, lucky few with large fortunes.
“I started with nothing. Grew up in a council house, mum always had to buy me and my brothers the cheap trainers. Look at me now. If everyone took my highly unusual career path there’d be no more poverty.”
However Bishop failed to add important facts such as going to an excellent comprehensive school, a surprise inheritance of £30,000 from an aunt he used for a start-up, and benefitting from flexible government loans scrapped under austerity.
He also omitted to mention that his company began trading exactly when its niche IT skills were hugely in demand, making it almost impossible to lose money, a situation which has changed permanently now.
He went on: “It’s all a matter of positive thinking. That and the fact that I am a driven, workaholic sociopath who’s prepared to work 20-hour days.”
Bishop has now published a memoir, Go For It!, featuring a photo of himself with arms crossed, as if being a successful entrepreneur were a simple matter of crossing your arms.
