When I opened the first 'Body Shop' in 1976 my only object was to earn enough to feed my children. Today 'The Body Shop' is an international company rapidly growing all around the world. In the years since we began I have learned a lot. Much of what I have learned will be found in this book, for I believe that we, as a company, have something worth saying about how to run a successful business without giving up what we really believe in.

It's not a normal business book, nor is it just about my life. The message is that to succeed in business you have to be different. Business can be fun, a business can be run with love and it can do good. In business, as in life, I need to enjoy myself, to have a feeling of family and to feel excited by the unexpected. I have always wanted the people who work for 'The Body Shop' to feel the same way.

Now this book sends these ideas of mine out into the world, makes them public. I'd like to think there are no limits to our 'family', no limits to what can be done. I find that an exciting thought. I hope you do, too.