"IT'S all about making memories," the country's most successful sports promoter said, "It's just that somewhere along the way someone figured out you can make some money out of it too."
Barry Hearn is sitting in his expansive office in Brentwood where for the past 30 years some of the most memorable moments in sport have been conceived.
He has come a long way from the modest Debden council estate he lived on until his twenties.
Matchroom, the company that Hearn started in 1982, has grown from a modest operation in Romford with three staff to a global powerhouse that has offices in Beijing and Shanghai.
This year it will be responsible for around eight per cent of Sky's output – 2,000 hours in total, 40,000 hours globally.
But Hearn's story doesn't begin as the youngest ever chartered accountant to become a member of the institute, nor of his genius in buying a string a billiard clubs at the bottom of the market.
It really begins in 1975 when a tall skinny ginger kid came knocking at the door wanting a try-out in a amateur competition at Hearn's operation in Romford.
"He was called Steve Davis and it just so happened that he would become the best in the world," Barry said.
"He's still my best mate and like I always say, you need a lot of luck in this game."
With the money from the sale of the billiard halls he would buy Mascalls, the impressive house in Mascalls Lane, Warley, with its huge views over manicured lawns towards London.
Steve Davis would eventually take the world championship in 1981 at the age of just 24.
And after him came the best players in the world of snooker – Tony Meo, Terry Griffiths, Dennis Taylor, Jimmy White, Cliff Thorburn Willie Thorne and Neal Foulds .
At the height of the boom of world snooker Hearn managed all four semifinalists in the 1988 world snooker championships.
Matchroom was on a roll and the secret was Hearn's critical take on how sport should be played – not with two gladiators sparring for the honour of victory. It had to be played out like a soap opera.
And with snooker he'd hit the jackpot.
He now works closely with his two children Eddie and Katie and lives in East Hanningfield, with his wife who breeds race horses.
"I was in the right time at the right place. it was like a soap opera. You have to take advantage of their natural persona," he said.
And snooker exploded. Even Steve "Interesting" Davis was given a life-long personality thanks to Spitting Image.
But by 1987 Barry was getting fidgety and saw boxing as his next challenge.
He said: "I thought to myself what would I enjoy watching?
"Well it would be Frank Bruno and Joe Bugner, The guy everyone loved against the bloke who beat Henry Cooper and who everyone hated.
"Frankly, there's only one way of making something happen and that's by throwing a load of money at it. It was a huge success, with 35,000 at White Hart Lane and one of the highest TV audiences of all time."
And from there he entered the ring with Nigel Benn, Lennox Lewis, Chris Eubank and Prince Naseem.
The match between Eubank and Benn is regarded as a defining moment in British boxing. The 1990 clash ended in a technical knock-out win for Eubank. Their second bout in 1993 ended in a draw.
Sport is Hearn's life – he owns Leyton Orient and adds the birth of his two children and his wedding day to his list of best memories, if only to keep his wife happy.
"Steve Davis winning the 1981 world championship, Chris Eubank beating Nigel Benn in 1990 which changed British boxing, My first horse, Charming Charles, winning at Market Rasen.
"Leyton Orient getting promotion by beating Oxford, Orient earning themselves a fifth-round replay with Arsenal after a drawing in the 89th minute."
He added: "But the thing is being lucky. Just like at the end of the 1980s with the explosion in satellite and cable TV when there was plethora of channels with not enough programming to fill it. So we expanded and created events in pool, fishing and tenpin bowling," he said
Along came Fishomania in 1994 and soon after he turned the darts world on its head by leading the breakaway PDC (Professional Darts Corporation).
He said: "We are the characters, the personality and the glitz.
"The PDC are the top players and the standard is much higher.
"But the marketing is exactly the same.
"Smash it up big, give the players plenty of opportunity, stick a load of money in there, let them change their lives. Let them inspire and aspire.
"Most working people's lives are pretty mundane and you need something to escape to from that.
"Events have got to be Hollywood and brash and so when you go to work the next day there's a talking point.
"I brought the president of Google and the president of ESPN and the president of Fox to the O2 arena in May to watch the premiership darts championships.
"They looked like they had never been so astonished. They were on another planet – 10,000 spectators drinking and watching darts.
"And that's another huge advantage. Now I pick up the phone to speak to presidents rather than brand managers – life's a lot easier when you have a credibility factor and that's a huge advantage over the Barry Hearn that started 30 years ago."
Hearn has never believed in the ideal of sport for the competitive ideal alone. His message is fast brash, glitzy and glamorous.
"I should have been the guy who started 20:20 cricket," he said regretfully. "That has my name all over it. Except they're overdoing it and if they're not careful, they're going to kill it."
And so next month he will put on a show that could revolutionise table tennis – ping pong as he calls it. "The problem with modern day table tennis is the rallies are over too quickly."
So, for Hearn's newest production, 128 players (both men and women) will compete over two days for a $100,000 prize fund.
Importantly they will be using old-style hard bats. No foam rubber, just sand-papered ply-board.
"It's going to be aerobic, exciting and telegenic."
And that's his secret and the love of what he does.
"Every day is a holiday to be honest.
"I could never retire. The way to go is to die at a major event just when I've given it the right touch."
