Despite completing the first solo helicopter flight around the world, Dick Smith would not call himself a big risk taker.

"I calculate the risk," he told Jane Hutcheon on One Plus One.

"I'm actually quite a coward and I do get frightened on some of the adventures I've been on," said the entrepreneur and adventurer.

The 72-year-old has climbed the most remote of the seven summits, as well as the tallest sea spire in the world, which happens to be in Australia.

But flying across Australia in a hot air balloon was what he called his riskiest move yet.

"We were doing 160 kilometres an hour in the jet stream and the balloon weighs about 2.5 tonnes. We knew we had to get it down with virtually no wind," he said.

"It was frightening because we could have been killed."

From bullying victim to business owner

Richard Harold 'Dick' Smith was born in 1944 and grew up in east Roseville, Sydney.

He had a speech defect and, not surprisingly, an inferiority complex.

"I suppose you'd say I was even bullied," he said.

"The teacher put me out in front of the class to say my name and I said Dick Fish and Dick Miff because I couldn't say Smith. Everyone laughed.

"I was hopeless at school, I couldn't learn."

Thinking he was not going anywhere in life, Dick Smith left school at 15 to work in a factory.

At 17, he got his amateur radio licence and worked as a taxi radio repair technician into his early 20s.

Then in 1968, with $610, Dick Smith founded Dick Smith Car Radios, which later became retailer Dick Smith Electronics.

"When I was about 25, my accountant said to me Dick, you've made more money than the Prime Minister of Australia," he said.

"I said: How have I done that? I haven't got any money.

"He said: You've increased your stock and you've paid your tax and all of these things. I didn't even understand that. Today I still can't read a balance sheet.

"But believe it or not, after a few years we started ending up with millions of dollars in the bank."

Dick Smith is an avid flyer and says helicopters are "the most wonderful magic carpets". ( ABC News: Tom Hancock )

When the money started rolling in, Mr Smith decided to learn to fly, initially in a fixed-wing aircraft.

"I didn't really like fixed-wing flying," he said.

"One day I'd been forced down in bad weather at a country airstrip and a helicopter came in and landed. I walked over to the pilot and I said this helicopter, is it designed to fly in cloud?

"He said no, you just fly under the cloud. And if ever the cloud gets too low, you land and have a cup of tea with somebody.

"Wow I thought, so I ordered a helicopter, learnt to fly it and the rest is history.

"They are just the most wonderful magic carpet," he said.

'I don't want to make any more money'

Dick Smith credits his leadership skills to his many years in the boy scouts movement. He has also learned from other people's good ideas along the way.

"My success in Dick Smith electronics and Australian Geographic was just to go around the world and copy the best, pinch the best ideas from everyone I could see," he said.

"I noticed that each company I went to — I'd go to England, Canada, America — had different ideas, so I took the best of them, and that's why I made so much money."

In 1982, Dick Smith sold his electronics business to Woolworths for $24 million.

It was then he decided he did not need any more money.

"It's amazing how people don't understand that. They think if you're a successful businessman you must want to make more money," he said.

"I don't want to make any more money. If I did, I would have stuck to electronics.

"I could've become a billionaire, but no, I wanted to spend time with my family, to go adventuring, to put something back in, which I learnt from the scouts, and all of those things I've been so lucky to do," he said.

Population and winning the 'lottery of life'

In recent years, Dick Smith has waded into the population debate, but concedes he is losing heart with his cause.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia's population is just over 24 million people.

Smith believes there is only adequate resources for around two million more.

"To me, we should stabilise our population at about 26 million and we have a chance of having a good quality of life, otherwise most people in Australia will be poor," he said.

Sorry, this video has expired Dick Smith speaks to One Plus One about taking calculated risks and having enough money ( Jane Hutcheon )

Dick Smith describes himself as having won the "lottery of life".

Born in Australia during World War II, he missed out on the Vietnam ballot by just a few months.

"I was starting Dick Smith electronics and making myself millions of dollars when my friends were fighting in Vietnam," he said.

"So I've had this incredible luck all the way through life and I'm always trying to repay."

Despite a long list of achievements, what he is most proud of is having a successful marriage.

"I took Pip out when she was 17, engaged at 18, married her at 19 and we're still very happily in love," he said.

"I've just been incredibly fortunate and I have to be very careful not to be too selfish."

For the full interview with Jane Hutcheon, watch One Plus One at 10:00am on Friday on ABC TV and 5:30pm on Saturday on ABC News 24.