But remarkably, the London tycoon, who is ranked 200th on the Rich List, has achieved his success having never learned to read.
The son of Greek-Cypriot immigrants, Mr Panayiotou was raised in London's East End and at school proved to be a useful boxer.But when he looks back on his school days, it is not the fear of stepping into the ring that the 45-year-old recalls. Instead, it is his 'secret shame' - the terror he would feel when asked to read aloud in class.
'I can remember it with absolute clarity,' Mr Panayiotou told the London Evening Standard.
'The teacher is going round the room asking different kids to read. I am praying he won't call me. He calls one kid. Then another. I am getting hot and anxious. Sod's law, third kid, he turns to me.
'That moment has stayed with me because it was the day I realised I had a problem.'
Mr Panayiotou learned to memorise words but never did learn to read in the conventional sense, leaving school at 14 without a single O-level.
Despite his lack of qualifications, he went on to achieve stunning business success. As a young man working for his father, he bought a small property in Islington, converted it into flats, and started what would become one of the biggest buy-to-let empires in Britain. In 2007 he sold thousands of flats, focusing instead on building a portfolio of hotels.
His firm, The Ability Group, now has seven. His latest development, the £70million Waldorf-Astoria, has just opened at Syon Park. He is about to put 'Britain's most expensive house' on the market - a redeveloped property in The Bishop's Avenue in Hampstead, which he hopes to sell for £100million.
Mr Panayiotou lives on a 20-acre estate in Epping Forest and owns £40million Gulfstream G450 jet, a £12million Mangusta 130 yacht, and two Cessna Citation jets.And he believes none of this would have been achieved had he not been handicapped by dyslexia.
'Everything - my massive drive to prove myself as a "somebody", my rigid discipline, my pride in what I've achieved - stems from the feelings of shame and inadequacy I experienced of being "perpetually behind" all the other kids and unable to read,' he said.
'The flip side of dyslexia is that you develop other gifts. I've trained my mind to have a photographic memory. I have a phenomenal memory.
'It also makes you more creative in solving problems because your mind is always in a fight to comprehend the world around you. It's always fighting, fighting, fighting. That makes you stronger because you learn to handle problems as part of life.
'It also makes you super-focused. I can tell you where every suit in my wardrobe is, every car in my garage, I can remember the profit figure on a hotel I was told about three months ago. You learn to simplify things, to get to the bottom line which is good for business and decision-making.'
Despite his success, Mr Panayiotou, who was speaking out to highlight the Standard's literacy campaign, believes being unable to read today is far more devastating than when he was growing up in the Seventies.
'Although I have been successful beyond my dreams, jobs are a lot more sophisticated than they were 30 years ago,' he said.
'I would hate for any child to have to go through what I did.
'I am amazed to see the problem in our schools is still so bad. Being able to read is as fundamental as eating. You can't get by without knowing how to read.'
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1394042/Andreas-Panayiotou--400m-British-mogul-unable-READ.html#ixzz2pU5RsARf
amazing person!! ive been reading his bio at http://andreaspanayiotou.org/ and im just amazed by all the stuff hes accomplished!
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