Baroness Karren Brady says she was warned she had to be "twice as good as the men" at her football job.
Baroness Karren Brady claims she was told she had to be ‘twice as good as the men’ at her football job
The 54-year-old businesswoman and TV star, best known for appearing in 'The Apprentice', landed her role as Birmingham City FC's managing director when she was 23, but says she was immediately told by her boss she would have to fight hard to prove herself in the male-dominated world.
She told The Sun newspaper: "He said, 'Football's very male-dominated. You'll have to be twice as good as the men to be half as good.’
"And I said, 'Well, luckily that's not difficult.' That's my ethos on everything."
After shifting her career to TV, acting as one of Lord Alan Sugar's advisors on the BBC’s ‘Apprentice', Karren has been offering support to young people who want to follow in her business footsteps.
She said: "I tell young people, ‘Do not worry what someone you'll never think of you. It’s more important what you think of you think of yourself and what family and friends think of you.’
“I was a young woman in a male-dominated world, but I believed I could do a job and do it well, and I stuck to my values and did all the things I wanted to do with my career.”
When she was quizzed about what the future holds for her on ‘The Apprentice’, Karren insisted she would leave the show when 76-year-old Sir Alan goes.
She told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “It's not a discussion him and I have ever had, but as long as he does it, I’ll do it, and when he leaves, I’ll leave, because I do it for him.
“I don’t do it to be on the TV. There's nothing scarier than being 54 and seeing your face on a 50-inch television screen, I can assure you!
“I do it because I genuinely believe in him, I like him, I enjoy the show, and the team around it are fantastic.”
But Karren said she believed there was “no reason” Sir Alan would not carry on fronting ‘The Apprentice’ for “a long time”.
She added: “I think the question of how long he’ll go on for is a question for him.
“But a long time, I hope. I mean, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t.”