Lib Dem London Mayor hopeful: people assume if it doesn't affect them then all is okay
18th October 2018
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Dinesh Dhamija is a fascinating individual, who has had extremely successful career in business. Now he is setting his eyes on giving back to society, by turning his interests to frontline politics.
He has gone from running a kiosk outside Earl's Court Tube station to being a potential nomination for the next London Mayoral Election.
I was lucky to be given the chance to interview Dinesh about his career, plans for the future and any advice he would like to give to entrepreneurs.
Business was not Dinesh's first calling in life, as he previously worked for IBM. After that, he set up his highly successful multi-million travel business, ebookers which was his first step into the business world. "I looked at the tax structure in 1979, when old Labour was in power. The lowest tax band was 40% and national insurance amounted to 10%, so tax was at 50%. "Therefore, I thought, if I could start my own business and earn the same amount of money I was on at IBM, I could expense a lot of it and increase my standard of living." By his own admission, things were not easy for ebookers: "We had ups and downs. We nearly went bankrupt three times, but the important thing is that we didn't. We had a bit of luck, which all businesses need. Only one in five businesses succeed and we were one of those."

Business was not Dinesh's first calling in life, as he previously worked for IBM. After that, he set up his highly successful multi-million travel business, ebookers which was his first step into the business world. "I looked at the tax structure in 1979, when old Labour was in power. The lowest tax band was 40% and national insurance amounted to 10%, so tax was at 50%. "Therefore, I thought, if I could start my own business and earn the same amount of money I was on at IBM, I could expense a lot of it and increase my standard of living." By his own admission, things were not easy for ebookers: "We had ups and downs. We nearly went bankrupt three times, but the important thing is that we didn't. We had a bit of luck, which all businesses need. Only one in five businesses succeed and we were one of those."
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