Free My Fight to the Top by Michelle Mone Page B

it no longer spat it out with a ‘F-off’. Yeah, we bought a flash car, a Bentley GT Sport, and I had an extension built onto our house to double its size, but when your business starts flying, you don’t get time to stop and party. It wasn’t like that. I was run off my feet trying to meet all the demand for Ultimo. I was constantly setting more goals. More targets.
    And I was as nervous as hell when I was invited to have tea with Prince Charles. I got that same feeling I had when meeting Michael’s parents for the first time – I was out of my comfort zone. I may have moved to a posh part of Glasgow but I was still an East End girl.
    ‘Here are three notepads I want you to get signed for family and friends,’ Mum said. She was so excited for me.
    ‘Mum, Prince Charles is not going to sign your books,’ I sighed.
    ‘Well, I’m not going to watch your kids on Saturday night, then,’ Mum bartered. She crossed her arms in defiance. I took the notepads to keep her happy.
    I was very nervous when I arrived at Clarence House, on the Mall, but I composed myself. I was
me;
I wasn’t going to be something I’m not. Michael wasn’t invited because it was me who originally got the grant from the Prince’s Trust. He was now working full-time for Ultimo and looked after the finance, manufacturing and operational side of the business. Michael took on the title of managing director although I think he found it hard to see me take the spotlight.
    It was a really intimate gathering; there were only a handful of us there. I remember sipping from a beautiful, posh fine china cup and thinking, My Gran would love this, because she was always into tea and reading leaves. And then this guy came over with a tea strainer. What’s that for? I thought. I had no idea at first. I smiled politely as he refilled my cup. I went to the toilet, and it was so posh. Even the toilet paper was different.
    I suppose it was a dream come true. I had a flashback to July 1981, to the street party we’d had in the East End when Charles and Diana got married. We’d blocked off Bathgate Street and I’d hung the bunting out of the windows. I was only ten, but I remember bossing everyone around and knocking on doors to see if our neighbours had any tables to spare. We filled the street with long wallpapering trestle tables, covered with red, white and blue crêpe paper. We had a TV in the street – someone’s tiny set with the cable running out of the window. We all crowded around as we watched Diana walk down the aisle. What a fairy-tale! And now here I was having high tea in Clarence House next to St James’s Palace. I felt like I really clicked with Prince Charles. He was so interested in how I managed to start up Ultimo. He asked me what I did with the grant from the Trust.
    ‘Well, I bought my first computer.’ I smiled. It was like talking to a normal person. Prince Charles thanked me for joining the board and he asked what I felt the next generation of entrepreneurs needed. I reflected on my rollercoaster ride over the past three years. I told him that start-up businesses need mentors, someone whose shoulder they could cry on. I guess I felt like I hadn’t had a shoulder to cry on when things had become tough. I’d bottled my stress up inside.
    My mum and dad had been a massive support, which is why they were the first people I wanted to repay. I’ve never thought that I work every day for
me
. I’ve always felt I’m responsible for my mum and my dad and my three children. Mum and Dad had just moved into a bungalow seven minutes down the road. Dad needed a bigger bedroom so he could move around in his wheelchair, so I paid for a massive extension. I bought my mum a car. She was doing the ironing when I turned up at the house. I casually put the keys on the ironing board.
    ‘Mum, there’s something outside for you.’ I smiled.
    ‘What do you mean, what do you mean?’ She started panicking.
    ‘There are the keys.’
    ‘Oh, my god,