1. Read as far as ... His home town, Alexandria in the article and then answer these questions.

1 What kind of family does Mohamed Al Fayed come from? What is his family like now?

2 What are the things that show that he's successful?

3 Which of his symbols of success would you like? Are there any that you wouldn't like?

BUSINESS, THEN AND NOW

2. Read to the end of the article and answer these questions.

1 What were the qualities that helped Al Fayed to succeed?

2 How has business changed since he was a young man?

3 What's the most popular career for ambitious people today?

4 What was Al Fayed's priority when he was a young man? What are the priorities for young people today?

1. What are the top three priorities in your working life?

RELATED WORDS

3. Find words in the article to complete this table.

noun	verb	adjective	adverb
			ambitiously
	differ
	prioritise
			socially
			successfully
wealth

4. Look at the article again. Can you find words in the article related to the words below? Which parts of speech are they (noun, verb, adjective or adverb)?

competition fly glamour incredible marry

Who's ambitious now?

MOHAMED AL FAYED knows all about ambition; he is an incredibly wealthy and successful man. His businesses include the Ritz Hotel in Paris and London's most exclusive department store, Harrods. He

gives millions to charity every year and his family socializes with the most glamorous people in the world. (Tragically, his son, Dodi, died in the same car as Princess Diana.) He also owns a huge yacht, several private planes and he even has his own football team, which competes in the top English league.

But Al Fayed grew up as part of an ordinary Egyptian family in the 1930s; his father was a schoolteacher and they certainly didn't have a lot of money. In fact, one of his first jobs was selling Coca-Cola on the streets of his home town, Alexandria.

Al Fayed has succeeded because of hard work, talent and a little bit of good luck. But society has changed since he was a young man. So, how different are today's young high fliers?

One key difference is that business is now more about ideas and less about things. Al Fayed has always worked in businesses that deal with something that you can see and touch: industries like shipping, construction, and retail. But ambitious young people today are more likely to spend their careers dealing with ideas. A recent survey of business schools has shown that the most popular field of work is management consultancy, followed by marketing and the media.

Perhaps modern businesspeople also see things differently. One of the secrets of Al Fayed's success is that he has always put business first. He was just twenty-four when his first marriage ended and he stayed single for the next twenty years so that he could priorities his work. Are people still prepared to do the same thing? In the business school survey, most students said that their number one priority was a balance between work and their family and social life. (Travel opportunities and the chance to do challenging work were numbers two and three.)

But maybe the figures don't tell the whole story. The top tycoons are always an exception. You could find them in the world's top business school or on the streets of your home town. Who knows where the next Mohamed Al Fayed will come from?