If The Apprentice was around when I was young I would have won it, boasts Lord Alan Sugar as he gives verdict on Trump
HE learned how to do business the hard way – buying car aerials and selling them from the back of a second-hand van.
And Lord Sugar — now worth an estimated £1.2billion — is in no doubt how he would have fared had the show that gained him millions of TV fans been around when he was an entrepreneurial teen.
He said: “I was 16 or 17 when I started, and if The Apprentice was around then, I would have won it.”
Lord Sugar has filmed the 17th series of the hit BBC business show — but he admits that he had no grand plan for the UK version of the programme when it began.
He said: “I had no vision for the show. The original was formed in America where Donald Trump was the equivalent of what I do. He was useless, to be honest with you.
“The BBC wanted to find a businessman to replicate it and I thought it was exciting.”
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Growing up the youngest of four children on a housing estate in Hackney, East London, Lord Sugar earned pocket money boiling beetroot for a grocer.
He left school at 16 and began selling electricals from a £50 van.
In 1968, he founded Amstrad — the computer and hi-fi firm that made his name.
‘I’m not out of touch, believe me’
He went on to become the chairman and part-owner of Tottenham Hotspur, selling his remaining stake in the club for £25million in 2007.
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That same year, he sold Amstrad to Sky for £125million.
The Apprentice began in 2005, with Lord Sugar offering the winner a job at his firm before the prize was changed to a £250,000 investment from 2011 onwards.
And the tycoon — famous for his “you’re fired” catchphrase — isn’t afraid to admit that boosting his own bank balance remains his biggest motivation.
Speaking at the Oxford Union, he said: “I like to do a deal, closing a deal and keeping me occupied.
“A bit of aggravation and doing a deal. That is what I am. That’s it.
“Who told you it is not a motivation to work for money? I mean, that is it.
“I always want to make a profit. I am a deal maker — that is what I am.
“You have to work hard. Nothing comes without working hard. I am switched on 24/7, all the time.”
This straight talking won’t be unfamiliar to viewers of The Apprentice.
The show has so far produced 16 winners who meet his high standards — and a new batch of fresh faces will be unveiled when the new series begins next month.
Whoever secures Lord Sugar’s backing can count on one thing for sure - their contract will exclude all working from home privileges.
He has been vocal about his hatred for the practice, which he feels is bad for business.
But at 75, he’s prepared to admit his study at home looks more and more tempting.
Speaking about his working schedule, the dad-of-three told the Oxford Union: “I have been a five-day-a-week bloke. I have never worked on the weekends.
“My wife reminds me I used to leave at 6am and come back at 7pm and I would not see the children at all as they would be in bed by the time I got back.
“I don’t see myself slowing down.
“I am going to be a little bit contradictory as I can do a lot of work from home but I am on the ball working from there.
“I am sick of this working from home culture. The people who benefitted the most from Covid are a bunch of lazy layabouts.
“Working from home was necessary at the beginning but we are well past that now. I was told I was out of touch. I am not out of touch, believe me. You know nothing until you are in a workplace bouncing off other people.
“It is debatable if the quality of work is the same.
“All those casual conversations you have at work — that is how it all works.
“You won’t learn anything from these jobs unless you get stuck in with your colleagues.”
It’s a message he will likely be hammering home to this year’s Apprentice hopefuls.
The Sun has revealed that the 2023 line-up, which features a former Waterloo Road actor and a TikTok star, appears to be the series’ most fame-hungry ever.
Some contestants already have massive social media followings, while another has a lengthy CV of TV work, making this year’s intake a far cry from the show’s original aim to champion unknowns.
But Lord Sugar has perhaps seen something more inspiring in the new breed.
He said earlier this year: “I get asked about 20,000 times what makes a good business partner.
‘I’ve been screwed over but it makes you tougher’
“But you can’t go into Boots and buy a bottle of entrepreneur juice. Neither can you go into WHSmith and buy a book which tells you how to do it.
“An entrepreneur is built in a person’s DNA.
“If you locked me in a room for two years with a piano teacher, after two years I may be able to render a version of Roll Out The Barrel. Would I be a concert pianist? Never in a million years.
“And it goes the same for certain people. You have to bring it out of people.”
The last series was won by Harpreet Kaur, who used Lord Sugar’s investment to fund new stores for her dessert parlours.
Other winners’ businesses range from beauty gurus to luxury swimwear.
Last month it was revealed that 2014 winner Mark Wright has sold the recruitment business he set up with Lord Sugar’s investment for £10million.
Not all the mogul’s proteges have been so successful, though. Stella English triumphed in 2010 but went on to unsuccessfully sue Lord Sugar for constructive dismissal after complaining the job she won was as a “glorified PA”.
Lord Alan will be hoping to continue on the sunny side when the new series launches with a task in Antigua next month.
But his business regrets are never far from his mind.
At the Oxford Union, he told how his 2000 Series computers remained his biggest disaster.
He said: “I knew exactly the mistake I made and it was lack of investment in engineers and cost and infrastructure.
“But everybody makes mistakes in business.”
Sun columnist Karren Brady is back as Lord Alan’s aide alongside long-term advisor Claude Littner, who returns for two episodes this series after time off recovering from an accident.
The first Apprentice winner Tim Campbell, who last year made his debut as one of Lord Sugar’s wingmen, will help out later in the series.
Lord Sugar added: “In The Apprentice there have been a couple of candidates who won but did not last very long.
“You hope to make more good moves than wrong ones.
“I have been screwed over, but it is part of learning and makes you tougher.
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“You just make sure it does not happen again.”
- The Apprentice returns to BBC1 on January 5.