Shaun Wallace was told by a teacher that he would likely "end up in prison".
Shaun Wallace was told by a teacher that he would never become a lawyer
The 64-year-old star is best known to audiences one of The Chasers on the ITV teatime quiz show 'The Chase' and also has a long-running career as a barrister alongside his TV work but revealed that a careers advisor once told him he would never make it in the legal field and would "at best" become a factory worker.
Speaking on ITV's 'Lorraine', he told stand-in-host Ranvir Singh: "On the 27 November next month I'll be celebrating 40 years at the bar and as a young boy, I always wanted to be a lawyer. I wrote to the Bar Council when I was 12 years old and I got the letter back and I kept that as a source of inspiration. But then I was told by my careers teacher 'You, a lawyer? At best you're going to end up working in a factory but someone like you is going to end up in prison'.
The quizzer then noted that while it was "demoralising" to hear that as a teenager, he just used the whole incident as motivation to get to where he wanted to be in life.
He said: "So to be told that as a 15 year old is demoralising but as far as I was concerned, the only way I could stay in charge of my own destiny was to make sure I had an educated mind. I had a wonderful sister who was my big heroine, Sandra, she taught me the importance of reading, the importance of education and I brought that through to my life in terms of championing the importance of having an educated mind to stay control of your own destiny."