Over 170 students attended an event to hear the former star of hit BBC show The Apprentice share his views, at the introductory event of the Young Entrepreneurs Society last week.
Alex Wotherspoon shared his views on business, education, and life in the media spotlight. The event was well attended, with over 170 students packed into an intimate Management School lecture theatre. The audience were eager for the opportunity to hear, question, and even share a complimentary glass of wine with the Bolton-born celebrity businessman.
The event was the latest of its type held by the Young Entrepreneurs, a group that offers students the chance to network with companies and hone their business skills. Alex, who now works in business consultancy, was full of praise for the ‘lively society’, and encouraged students to use their membership as an opportunity to “implement a social network which you can later draw from.”
The 25 year old Mr Wotherspoon—whose youth was a constant topic during his time on The Apprentice—told the crowd how his childhood was spent in a ‘business focused’ family, repeatedly stressing how both his family and his time with the Young Entrepreneurs at Aston Business School helped him achieve his professional success.
He was less complementary about his experiences in reality TV, complaining that the editing of the show “made a character” out of him and claiming that he was “thrown to the mercy of the BBC”. The audience was told of the “horrific pressure” involved throughout making the show, which was the “most intense experience” of his life. “I only slept two hours a day” he claimed, and told how he had lived on “a diet of Alpen Bars. It was terrible. It definitely got to me”. Yet when inevitably questioned on the nature of the show’s most famous figure, Sir Alan Sugar, he was more restrained, commenting merely that the business legend was “very small”.
Conversation later turned to Alex’s status as a celebrity. He insists that he has deliberately shunned the limelight and chose not to “sell himself” to the media—unlike fellow Apprentice contestants.
