Sir Dominic Cadbury

I look on a career as a whole succession of start-agains and I think you've got to look at life that way: I started again when I retired three years ago from Cadbury Schweppes and came to the Wellcome Trust. I don't think' 'Would I have done things differently?', because I'm always thinking, 'if I do something else, what will it be?' There's no point in wishing to be something that you obviously couldn't be. From the moment I thought about what I wanted to do, I expected to go and work in the Cadbury business.

I didn't give very much thought to doing anything else, because I was always enthusiastic about business and it seemed to me that I work in a business that I knew something about.

I don't have any regrets on the really big issues because I was fortunate - I had a very good example set for me by my family and the people I worked with. Of course there are small, tactical mistakes that you make: things you pay too much for, marketing mistakes, promotions that backfire, ad campaigns that don't work. That's part of the excitement of business.