Alan Sugar has fronted business reality series The Apprentice since it debuted on screens in 2005, and has come across countless hopeful entrepreneurs in that time.
Raj Dhonota, who took part in the second series of the show, talked exclusively to GB News and detailed a piece of advice Sugar gave him that he doesn’t fully agree with.
The 49-year-old took part in the series back when it was in its early days, but admitted he hadn’t watched it before or since and wouldn’t have taken part if he knew sooner the show was “more about entertainment”.
When asked when he last heard from business magnate Sugar, he recalled: “The last I heard from Alan is when he'd written a book at the time, so he sent us all a personally signed copy.
“My message from Alan was 'no more Mr Nice Guy now,’ to get me to stop being too nice!”
He went on: “There's a certain way you can do business. It's not that I don't have another side where I can be a lot harsher and a lot more strict.
Former The Apprentice star Raj Dhonota talked about some advice Sugar gave him
Anna Gordon Photography
“But I think if you can do it in a nice way doesn't stop you from being successful.”
“I think the message was probably, you know, ‘Don't let people take advantage of you,’ and I think it's wrong to confuse being taken advantage of with being nice, so that you can be nice in business and succeed.
“I have also had business failures, but I’ve had six out of eight ventures that I've run successfully.
“But yeah, I think we can be nice ultimately, but at the same time you do need the ability to be able to put your foot down and obviously be able to follow your part of them. I'm not afraid to do that either.”
Sugar urged the former Apprentice star to 'stop being nice'
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Discussing Sugar, 76, in more detail, he reflected: “I know Alan Sugar has this really harsh section but I think he is really quite fair and obviously really astute.
“I think he can read into people in terms of picking the right people.”
Elsewhere, the former candidate gave his view on the series, admitting: “Had I seen the first one, I wouldn't have gone onto the second one, but at the time that it came out, it was kind of a completely new show and it was targeting entrepreneurs and I thought it was right up my street.
“But it turned out to be more entertainment than business and I think I'm quite boring in that respect, from the entertainment perspective.”
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Sugar is currently fronting the 18th series of the show
BBC
When asked about the future of the reality series, he admitted: “I think the show had it's day about five years ago! It's time for a change.”
He went on: "Even if the new angle still had [Alan Sugar] at the helm... From what I've understood, you know, it's gone downhill since the first [series].
“I think maybe bring a new agenda to make it up to date, or a different angle."
After fronting several successful business ventures, Dhonota is now gearing up to move to the US to start a new tech company.
