Alan Sugar Quotes
160 Alan Sugar Quotes
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I’ve often wondered where my entrepreneurial spirit came from. It certainly didn’t come from my father.
Alan Sugar
At home, lack of money was always the main item on the agenda.
Alan Sugar
Many’s the time I’d have to play down the success of my business activities because my father could not believe that someone so young could make so much money. To put things into perspective, his take-home pay at the time was 8 pounds for working a forty-hour week. How could an eleven-year-old boy go out and make 4s 6d in just a couple of hours? Basically, I’d spotted some stuff in one place and seen another place to sell it. And what’s more, I really enjoyed doing it.
Alan Sugar
Not all my early enterprises made money or got me a pat on the back.
Alan Sugar
Even with the best intentions in the world, some parents’ actions can end up subjecting their children to ridicule.
Alan Sugar
[As a child] The necessity of supplementing my pocket money was of prime importance to me.
Alan Sugar
The commodity may be different, the environment may be different, but the presentation and selling skills are exactly the same – and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Alan Sugar
I will say, with the greatest respect, that the army doesn’t hold the monopoly on toughening people up.
Alan Sugar
I try to explain to young people that when you’re at school, you may think you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, but you don’t. Your biggest problem is whether you’re going to get those new trainers or that you mobile or iPod needs charging. The reality is that you have no worries…
Alan Sugar
Problem: I’ve got to tell my father that I’m leaving Richard Thomas & Baldwins. Bigger Problem: I’ve got to explain that I’m leaving the job that was going to help me become a professional to become a salesman.
Alan Sugar
I guess if you’re not trained as a kid to the decent things in life, you simply don’t think to do them.
Alan Sugar
There’s nothing better than investing buying power in the bloke who normally has to rely on head office to send him stock. Most shop managers relish the chance of picking products to sell other than those foisted upon them by some buyer sitting in his ivory tower at head office.
Alan Sugar
It’s never a good thing to be seen to be rushing to conclude a deal.
Alan Sugar
If you decide to work with a partner, make sure that you know their abilities. Also, do a bit of due diligence to see if all that glitters really is gold.
Alan Sugar
The death of a parent or someone close to you is a very traumatic event.
Alan Sugar
Let your opponent win something… I realised that it’s no good boxing people into a corner; if you really want to succeed, you need to let them win a little and leave them with a nice way out.
Alan Sugar
My limited company was formed on 8 December 1968. By June 1979, turnover had risen to 5.6 million pounds, with profits of 908,311 pounds.
Alan Sugar
I always say that you have to take whatever claim is being made, divide it by two and take away the first number you thought of, and then maybe you’ll get to the real situation. People are passionate about their businesses and ten to overlook certain issues which others may deem negative.
Alan Sugar
When someone is cocooned in a particular industry, such as computers, with no other point of reference, such as to low-priced consumer electronics, it is understandable how they can believe the hype that there’s some mystique in computer technology.
Alan Sugar
The gamble I had taken telling Rupert Murdoch I’d have his product in the market was massive, given we had no idea about the technology, but we were learning fast…
Alan Sugar
Can I only concentrate on one thing at a time? I guess the answer to that must be yes. It is perhaps because I have to be in total control and understand everything about everything – every last nut and bolt.
Alan Sugar
I don’t like liars. I don’t like cheats. I don’t like bullsh*tters. I don’t like schmoozers and I don’t like arse-lickers.
Alan Sugar
Don’t start telling me that you’re just like me, because no one’s like me; I’m unique.
Alan Sugar
[When asked what Amstrad’s P/E was.] Twenty press-ups every morning.
Alan Sugar
Not everyone can be an entrepreneur, but people have a fixation that Shell or BP are the backbone of the country. They’re not. The actual backbone of the country is Fred with six employees in the garden centre, or in the garage. They’re the ones who employ the majority of people in this country.
Alan Sugar
[On a female employee whom he hired at the age of 19.] She is mustard. Unbelievable. I’d match her against any businessman in the world. Personally, I would trust her with all my money.
Alan Sugar
What you see on screen is me, there’s no question of that.
Alan Sugar
I’m a firm believer that, if you’ve got what it take’s you’ll have a feeling in your gut, a hunger in your belly – and you’ll know you want to be your own boss.
Alan Sugar
[On his children] I wanted them to see how the rest of the world live, to realise they have a privileged life. If think they are all fairly well balanced… They’ve never been the Ferrari-driving, cocaine-sniffing, party-going type. They’ve got the right values.
Alan Sugar
My wife Ann came from a similar background. That’s why we’ve been together 37 years.
Alan Sugar
[In 1984 at the age of 37 being awarded a ‘Young Businessman of the Year’ award.] I think it shows how someone can start from a humble background and go on to be very successful. It is just a great shame that my mum and dad can’t be around to see what happened.
Alan Sugar
I could still to this day build a brick wall if I had to.
Alan Sugar
You cannot make someone into an entrepreneur, just like you can’t make someone a pop singer or an artist. It has to be in-built in you; it’s a kind of a nose for things, a smell for things, and then an instinct to do it and a focus.
Alan Sugar
If you wanted your own pocket money you had to go and get it yourself.
Alan Sugar
I haven’t applied for a job since I was a teenager.
Alan Sugar
I was sick of putting money in other people’s pockets when I knew I could earn more on my own.
Alan Sugar
I would never be able to stay the course working for someone else.
Alan Sugar
[On his boss cutting his sales commission rate after a big order.] Instead of being rewarded, my commission rate was slashed… Here’s the payback. Had my ex-boss not been so ungrateful, I might still be working for him today. I can’t thank him enough. He made me determined to work for myself.
Alan Sugar
You can’t learn to be an entrepreneur by reading a book. You can only find out by giving it a try.
Alan Sugar
[On quitting his fourth job in a year. And his father asking ‘Who’s going to pay you on Friday?’] I’m going to pay myself.
Alan Sugar
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