The Way I See It: Rants, Revelations and Rules for Life

Sugar, Alan. The Way I See It.

Alan Sugar, the epitome of the self-made man, is never lost for words or targets. As a controversialist he’s unrivalled. But love him or loathe him one has to admit that he talks a lot of sense. A moral hardliner who admires honest endeavour, Sugar enjoys ranting and raving at what one might call ‘the usual targets’: the benefit culture, the EU, spoilt brats, reality television, overpaid footballers, lawyers, political correctness, young folk who are either wafflers or inarticulate, and bad business practice in general.

Lord Sugar, egotist and proud of it, climbed the ladder the hard way and has little time for British workers, whom he sees as largely unmotivated and dishonest scroungers, encouraged by weak Labour government policies. He admires successful entrepreneurs like Murdoch and the Beckhams and he laments the decline of industry in the West. The future, Sugar believes, lies not with America but with the Far East and China.

In spite of his aggressively progressive stance at heart Sugar is a sentimentalist. He is frequently caught looking back to the good old days when you paid your way in pounds, shillings and pence, or you went without. He’s also a dreamer, as his chapter ‘Fantasy Football’ illustrates. Having failed to make Tottenham Hotspur a top club, he imagines life as a manager doing some straight talking to the players: ‘And it won’t be all that crap about “We’ll go away and regroup,” … No, none of that nonsense.’
The subtitle of the book, ‘Rants, Revelations and Rules for Life’ underline the essentially didactic nature of the man so many love to hate. Not that Lord Sugar cares; he’s happy sitting on top of the pile.