Lord Sugar has revealed how he will curb his angry outbursts on The Apprentice – by CHANTING.
The billionaire tycoon is back this week for a new series of the reality show with sidekicks Karren Brady and Claude Littner – who has called this year’s contestants “more irritating than ever.”
Lord Sugar, 72, said rather than using the Buddhist “Om” mantra he chants the number from 1 to 5.
“I haven’t lost my temper for a long time but I have lost it,” he revealed. “I haven’t punched anyone.
“I’m now trying to teach myself to count to five before reacting. Not meditation, chanting. I know how to adapt in certain circumstances.”
The 16 new wannabe tycoons aiming for the BBC show’s £250,000 prize look like they may test Lord Sugar’s resolve.
Claude, 70, said: “There’s some very annoying people. Sometimes they become annoying. But this year you’ve got some irritating characters from week one.
“Maybe I’m getting old and can’t take too much nonsense.”
Lord Sugar was said to have threatened to quit unless producers stopped portraying him as a “bloody ogre.”
Brought up in a council flat, he sold TV aerials and was a market trader before making millions with electronics firm Amstrad and even buying Tottenham Hotspur FC.
“I pride myself in being able to talk in the company of anybody,” he told Piers Morgan on ITV’s Life Stories.
"In my football days after the game if a referee made a bad decision I’d go to the dressing room and I be effing and blinding with the manager and the players.
“The next morning I’d go for lunch with the Queen and Prince Philip.
“As you can imagine it wouldn’t go down too well me saying, ‘Here Liz, what do you think about that bleeding referee yesterday?”
He revealed he will stay for at least one more series of The Apprentice after this – his fifteenth since its 2005 debut.
And colleague Karren, 50 – made Baroness Brady in 2014 – has revealed that the presenting trio have a pact. “If Alan goes both Claude and I would too,” she said. “We’re a pack.”
Lord Sugar also revealed he admires his old counterpart on the US Apprentice Donald Trump – now President – despite welching on a deal with him.
“He told me he was going to pay for a meal for me at his Key Largo gaffe,” he revealed. “He did not pay for it. I was after a freebie, why not?
“It’s one of his many lies and promises like ‘I’m going to build a wall. I’m going to stop people coming into the country.’ Anyway I paid. It doesn’t matter.’
Lord Sugar – married to former hairdresser Lady Ann for 51 years – added: “He’s hilarious. Ann and I love him.
“When we’re in America we watch CNN non-stop. Only in America can somebody like him succeed. It’ unbelievable.”
The Apprentice, BBC1 Weds 9pm
Meet the six new business flop candidates
Six of the 16 wannabes in this year’s Apprentice have already tasted failure, we can reveal.
Birmingham engineer Shahin Hassan, 36, was behind three companies which folded recently. His machine rentals firm shut in June with a £27,582 loss.
Bay Laundry made just £1,233 in its first year. Diamond Parul Nivas, which he owns 25 per cent of, made £4,346 but owes creditors £465,491.
Pillow salesman Thomas Skinner, 28 – a former Essex paperboy who says he’s “streetwise” – had one firm Essex Furniture. Companies House says it shut in 2015.
He said: “I’m always having a go at new businesses and trying different ideas.
“And you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth. Not every company can be successful but that’s business. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. I thought God loved a trier?”
Scarlett Allen-Horton, 32, quit as a director of West Midlands recruiter Clement Pierce Ltd 15 months before it shut. Her own firm Harper Fox Partners had just £1,700 this year.
Paralympian Souleyman Bah, 20, from South West London, ran Shield Fitness Limited for 18 months. It was dissolved after a compulsory strike off last February.
Women’s wear consultant Ryan-Mark Parsons, 19, from South East London set up Luxury Consultancy Limited in December 2018, but it closed six months later.
Events manager Riyonn Farsad, 31, saw three firms shut – movie maker Swappsies, a games firm Riyonn and Middle Eastern Kitchen, which the Londoner relaunched.
