Be right when the crowd is wrong.

This is his clearest stated principle. The crowd cannot, by definition, earn an above-average return, so consensus is a reason for caution, not comfort. The money is made where you are right and most people are wrong.

"We've all got to realise that the majority doesn't succeed; it's always the minority. So I am always looking for a minority view."

He pairs it with the flip side: "If you were to go by what the majority say, you'd never do anything." Consensus is the enemy of action.

He calls himself an "eclectic investor" and refuses to be governed by formulas or price targets. The decision to buy, hold or sell flows from one question: what is right for the business and right for him as an owner.

"I don't have any rules about holding on to something or selling."

This is not recklessness. It is the confidence to judge each situation on its merits rather than hide behind a system that was built for a different one.

In 1995, with Docklands in recession and neighbouring Canary Wharf in receivership, Desmond bought London City Airport for about £23.5m. Eleven years later he sold it for a reported £750m, roughly thirty-two times his money.

The pattern repeats across Celtic, Betdaq, Daon and more: buy quality when the market is pessimistic and cheap, then hold while the value compounds. Maximum pessimism is the entry price; years is the holding period.

Cash, to Desmond, is the irreducible store of value and the floor beneath a share price. A strong balance sheet is what lets you act when others are forced to sell, and ensures you are never forced to sell yourself.

"Nobody can ever take cash away from you."

At Celtic he is associated with the same discipline: keep real reserves, so the club keeps its independence and never has to panic.

When Desmond took a third of Latvia's Rietumu Banka, the reported reason was that he was impressed by its management team and its capital structure. He reads the people and the financial architecture before the asset.

A great asset with weak management or a broken balance sheet is a trap. A capable team with a sound structure can turn an ordinary asset into a compounding one.

Desmond did not just find an edge; he created one. In 1986 he wrote the proposal for a low-tax financial centre and sold it to Charles Haughey. Legislated in 1987, the IFSC reshaped Dublin and anchored his own firms. He calls it the best thing he has been involved in.

He thinks the same way about the future: "I think you need to look at what's going to happen in the future and then plan backwards." The deepest edge is shaping the environment, not just reacting to it.

Desmond is famously private, and deliberately so. He treats discretion as an operating advantage and autonomy as the actual point of wealth.

"The reason I left is to have the freedom to do what I want to do."

In the same breath: he is "avoiding politicians, avoiding the press and avoiding small-minded people." Freedom of action, not applause, is the prize.