Alan sugar autobiography vs biography

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 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.

British businessman and media personality (born )

Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar (born 24 March ) is a British business magnate, media personality, author, politician, and political adviser.

Sugar began what would later become his largest business venture, consumer electronics company Amstrad, in In , he sold his remaining interest in the company in a deal to BSkyB for £ million. He was also the chairman and part-owner of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from to , selling his remaining stake in the club in as well, for £25 million. He is the host and "Boss" for the BBC Television reality competition series The Apprentice, which has been broadcast every year, with the exception of and , since He also assumed the role for The Celebrity Apprentice Australia for Australia's Nine Network in

Sugar was elevated to the House of Lords in as a Labour peer and was one of the party's biggest donors, but left the party in and subsequently expressed support for the Conservative Party. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, Sugar became a billionaire in In , his fortune was estimated at £bn, ranking him as the th-richest person in the UK.

Early life

Alan Michael Sugar was born on 24 March in Hackney, East London, into a Jewish family. His father, Nathan, was a tailor in the garment industry of the East End. His maternal grandparents were born in Russia, and his paternal grandfather was born in Poland. Sugar's paternal grandmother, Sarah Sugar, was born in London to Polish parents.

When Sugar was young, his family lived in a council flat. Because of his profuse, curly hair, he was nicknamed "Mop head", a name that he still goes by in the present day. He attended Northwold Primary School and then Brooke House Secondary School in Upper Clapton, Hackney, and made extra money by working at a greengrocers.

autobiography by Alan Sugar

What You See Is What You Get is the autobiography of British businessman and TV personality Lord Alan Sugar. The page book, which was published in May , tells the story of Alan Sugar's birth and childhood in a deprived part of London, how he founded the company Amstrad aged just 21 years old, and how he eventually became a multi-millionaire tycoon, received a knighthood, and was appointed to the House of Lords. Sugar also reveals his main method of business and entrepreneurial activity: (a) observing what market leaders are doing, (b) making better and cheaper products than the market leaders, and (c) not focusing on the exclusive or more expensive parts of the market, rather selling to the mass market.

Further reading

• Thomas, David. Alan Sugar&#;&#; the Amstrad Story (), paperback ISBN&#;

I’ve been extremely lucky recently with some book recommendations. I’ve been recommended a number of titles including “Who Moved My Cheese?”, “Tipping Point” and “When I Stop Talking You’ll Know I’m Dead”.

Both my father (coincidentally a &#;Happy Anniversary&#; to my parents today) and brother-in-law have been reading Alan Sugar’s autobiography recently – called ‘What You See Is What You Get’ and they kept saying I should read it. My brother-in-law was first to finish it, and I read it cover to cover in under a fortnight. I just couldn’t put the thing down. For the first time ever, I missed my tube station on my way home from work!

Sugar is incredibly frank in the book. He regularly refers to a number of his suppliers and customers as tossers, wankers and other similarly colourful adjectives. He is completely transparent when it comes to costs and profit margins in certain deals, and just as open to boast how he screwed over a number of retailers at certain points in history.

Sir/Lord Alan Sugar&#;s early years are just as interesting as his recent political appointments. I found it fascinating how he watched road workers digging up lumps of wood in the s that burned really efficiently and so he sold them to his neighbours. He bought a batch of radios that didn’t quite work, so he setup a production line at home to tweak a single component in each radio to enable them to work. One night all his stock was stolen from his rear garden, so he build a concrete out-house. Self-made? Quite literally.

At the start of one of his chapters he explains how a psychotherapist would have a field day with him. That’s an understatement. He switches from this openly caring fellow to admitting he was bored senseless at the lunch table with the Queen (not sure if he would have been knighted after being so open with his encounters with royalty).

His time as the owner of Spurs