When the financial world - as we once knew it - is falling apart around you, being fit and healthy is crucial.

Training is horrible and boring, but it makes you feel fantastic afterwards and it gives you the edge in business. They tell me it's the endorphins. I don't know what they are, but they make you alert and give you loads of energy. So many people don't look after their bodies. Like me, they wait until a doctor tells them they are overweight, have high blood pressure or too much of the wrong cholesterol. My trainer tells me: "It's not how good you are on a good day, but how good you are on a bad day." You have to push yourself. I see kids training and I think that any young person who has the discipline to train seriously for years on end in dreadful weather must have a good attitude, and I think I'd like them to work for me. A lot of the people in my office go to the gym at lunchtime. You see them going off with their kit and coming back refreshed. In these difficult times, which make the early 1990s look like a walk in the park, I want my business to be slick and lean and functioning perfectly. We're still recruiting, but cutting out anything that doesn't help our enterprise.

The most important thing is to make sure that all our properties are let. If we succeed in that, we can hope for a healthy future.

David Pearl is chairman of The Structadene Group, a commercial and residential property investment company