What You See Is What You Get: My Autobiography

'Lord Sugar is a self-made man and one of Britain's finest business brains. His story so far is inspirational to the end' The Sun

'Sugar is unusual among celebrity memoirists in that he's a clever man who has done a lot with his life, and the tale of his rise from nothing, and nowhere is genuinely revealing' Private Eye

From a Hackney council estate to the House of Lords, this is the extraordinary story of one of our greatest entrepreneurs.


Alan Sugar was born in 1947 and brought up on a council estate in Clapton, in Hackney. As a kid he watched his dad struggle to support the family, never knowing from one week to the next if he'd have a job. It had a huge impact on him, fuelling a drive to succeed that was to earn him a sizeable personal fortune. Now he describes his amazing journey, from schoolboy enterprises like making and selling his own ginger beer to setting up his own company at nineteen; from Amstrad's groundbreaking ventures in hi-fi and computers, which made him the darling of the stock exchange, to the dark days when he nearly lost it all; from his pioneering deal with Rupert Murdoch to his boardroom battles at Tottenham Hotspur FC.

In this compelling autobiography, he takes us into the world of The Apprentice, and describes his appointment as advisor to the government and elevation to the peerage. Like the man himself, What You See Is What You Get is forthright, funny and sometimes controversial.

'I'm addicted to autobiographies and What You See Is What You Get is one of the best I've read. Love him or loathe him, Baron Sugar of Clapton is the walking, snarling embodiment of all the values he espouses on The Apprentice' Piers Morgan

1100277060
What You See Is What You Get: My Autobiography

'Lord Sugar is a self-made man and one of Britain's finest business brains. His story so far is inspirational to the end' The Sun

'Sugar is unusual among celebrity memoirists in that he's a clever man who has done a lot with his life, and the tale of his rise from nothing, and nowhere is genuinely revealing' Private Eye

From a Hackney council estate to the House of Lords, this is the extraordinary story of one of our greatest entrepreneurs.


Alan Sugar was born in 1947 and brought up on a council estate in Clapton, in Hackney. As a kid he watched his dad struggle to support the family, never knowing from one week to the next if he'd have a job. It had a huge impact on him, fuelling a drive to succeed that was to earn him a sizeable personal fortune. Now he describes his amazing journey, from schoolboy enterprises like making and selling his own ginger beer to setting up his own company at nineteen; from Amstrad's groundbreaking ventures in hi-fi and computers, which made him the darling of the stock exchange, to the dark days when he nearly lost it all; from his pioneering deal with Rupert Murdoch to his boardroom battles at Tottenham Hotspur FC.

In this compelling autobiography, he takes us into the world of The Apprentice, and describes his appointment as advisor to the government and elevation to the peerage. Like the man himself, What You See Is What You Get is forthright, funny and sometimes controversial.

'I'm addicted to autobiographies and What You See Is What You Get is one of the best I've read. Love him or loathe him, Baron Sugar of Clapton is the walking, snarling embodiment of all the values he espouses on The Apprentice' Piers Morgan

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What You See Is What You Get: My Autobiography

What You See Is What You Get: My Autobiography

by Alan Sugar
What You See Is What You Get: My Autobiography

What You See Is What You Get: My Autobiography

by Alan Sugar

eBook

$21.99 

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Overview

'Lord Sugar is a self-made man and one of Britain's finest business brains. His story so far is inspirational to the end' The Sun

'Sugar is unusual among celebrity memoirists in that he's a clever man who has done a lot with his life, and the tale of his rise from nothing, and nowhere is genuinely revealing' Private Eye

From a Hackney council estate to the House of Lords, this is the extraordinary story of one of our greatest entrepreneurs.


Alan Sugar was born in 1947 and brought up on a council estate in Clapton, in Hackney. As a kid he watched his dad struggle to support the family, never knowing from one week to the next if he'd have a job. It had a huge impact on him, fuelling a drive to succeed that was to earn him a sizeable personal fortune. Now he describes his amazing journey, from schoolboy enterprises like making and selling his own ginger beer to setting up his own company at nineteen; from Amstrad's groundbreaking ventures in hi-fi and computers, which made him the darling of the stock exchange, to the dark days when he nearly lost it all; from his pioneering deal with Rupert Murdoch to his boardroom battles at Tottenham Hotspur FC.

In this compelling autobiography, he takes us into the world of The Apprentice, and describes his appointment as advisor to the government and elevation to the peerage. Like the man himself, What You See Is What You Get is forthright, funny and sometimes controversial.

'I'm addicted to autobiographies and What You See Is What You Get is one of the best I've read. Love him or loathe him, Baron Sugar of Clapton is the walking, snarling embodiment of all the values he espouses on The Apprentice' Piers Morgan


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780230754737
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Publication date: 09/30/2010
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 656
File size: 3 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Sir Alan Sugar is chairman of Amshold Group Ltd. In 2009 he was appointed by PM Gordon Brown as Enterprise Champion to advise the government on small business and enterprise, and was also awarded a life peerage, becoming Alan, Baron Sugar of Clapton in the London Borough of Hackney. He continues to appear in The Apprentice. He is also the author of The Way I See It and Unscripted.

Lord Sugar is the owner of Amshold Group Ltd and the popular star of the long-running BBC series The Apprentice. Born in the East End of London, he is a self-made multi-millionaire whose entrepreneurial flair and talent for innovation saw him take his electronics company Amstrad from a one-man operation to an international market-leader. He was knighted in 2000.

In 2009 the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, appointed him as Enterprise Champion, to advise the government on small business and enterprise and he was also awarded a life peerage becoming Alan, Baron Sugar of Clapton, in the London Borough of Hackney. He is the author of two top 10 bestselling books, What You See is What You Get and The Way I See It. His latest book is Unscripted.

Photographer credit: Paul Marc Mitchell

Table of Contents

1 The Lucky Mistake: Tar Blocks, Ginger Beer and Other Childhood Enterprises 1947-60 1

2 'Shame About the Spelling Sugar': School Days - 'Sugar's Got Rolls of Film for Three Bob' 1960-3 27

3 The Man at The Ministry: And Leaving To Be 'A Bloody Salesman's 1963-6 42

4 'Who is Going to Pay You on Friday?': The A M S Trading Company 1966-8 69

5 The Truck Driver and His Wife: Learning What People Want and Developing a Bullshit Radar 1969-72 93

6 A Taste of Japanese Culture: From the East End to the Far East 1973-6 121

7 'Young Man, You Have a Good Business': Should I Take the Money and Run? 1978-9 155

8 'Amstrad to Go Public': A Towering Success 1980-3 180

9 Young Businessman of the Year: 'And the Award Goes to the Amstrad Blockbuster Computer' 1982-6 218

10 'I Am Changing Your Lives, Gentlemen': And Burning the Harvard Business School Manual 1985-6 253

11 Everything Was Going Wrong at Once: Losing the Midas Touch 1987-9 289

12 'Who on Earth Is Rupert Murdoch?': When You See a Satellite Dish, Think of Sugar 1988-90 317

13 'Terry Will Look After the Eleven on the Pitch …': 'I'll Look After the Eleven Million in the Bank' - Buying a Nightmare 1991-2 338

14 Bungs and Barristers: A Backseat at Amstrad and showing Bambi's Mum 1992-4 356

15 The Prune Juice Effect: And Carlos Kickaball, Tottenham 1993-5 393

16 A Magnificent Deal: New Inspiration with New Amstrad 1996-8 427

17 'Suger Out!': Arise, Sir Alan - The Nightmare Is Over 1998-2001 466

18 'I Don't Like Liars, Bullshitters, Cheats and Schmoozers': Hired on The Apprentice! 2002-6 498

19 Luvvies and Darlings: And the End of an Era at Amstrad 2005-7 527

20 'Mum, It's Not Lord Beaverbrook, It's Lord Sugar': A Journey from Clapton to Clapton 2008-10 556

Acknowledgments 591

Index 593

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