Karren Brady
On 'The Apprentice,' I'm 100 per cent certain I'm paid the same as Claude Littner. I insisted on equality when I negotiated my contract. I would not have allowed anything else.Collection: Equality
The only thing I wanted when I left school was independence. I had been at boarding school for many years. When you're boarding, nothing is your own and your whole day is scheduled. You're told when to sleep, what to eat and when. You have zero independence.Collection: Independence
Though I don't have time to go to the gym, I am fit and active, and have a healthy diet.Collection: Diet
The world is divided into three types of people in business: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.Collection: Business
The characteristics of successful business people, whether they are male or female, are very similar. It's about determination, it's about enthusiasm, it's about strategy, it's about communication, it's about integrity. And sometimes men and women display those differently but fundamentally they are the same qualities.Collection: Communication
The most important characteristics you need to succeed in business are resilience, determination and persistence.Collection: Business
The biggest lesson my kids have taught me is to find the joy in little things, along with a healthy dose of patience.Collection: Patience
The one thing I wanted was independence. And I realised to have that independence, you needed financial independence.Collection: Independence
You don't really do much in life unless you take risks, push yourself and find your passion.
It's rubbish to say you can't be proper friends with the opposite sex.
As long as you like yourself, as long as your family like you, as long as you are good at what you do, your staff respect you, and your board have trust in you, that's what is important.
The most beautiful women in the world, I find, are those who have inner confidence.
I am a faithful companion of Jesus. I probably wasn't when I was 12 or 13 when I was in the convent, but I think having a spiritual side means that you live your life with an open heart, and you embrace things that are difficult, you want people to do well.
There's only two things that I really care about - apart from family - one is business and the other is women in business.
My grandmother had a motto that you should never look down on people unless you are helping them up, and I think that's a very spiritual way of living.
I've experienced a lot of sexism in football.
I'm proud to say that, leading by example, I've tried from day one to help recalibrate views of women in the world of football.
I don't invest in shares in companies that don't have women on their board.
Life is very short, and if you worry what people think of you, if you second-guess yourself, you're in trouble.
I hate fad diets.
I rarely indulge in sweet things but when I do I do not like to share.
I have met people in the street who say, 'You look like Karren Brady, but she is fat.' But I don't care. I am happy with the way I look; it's not something that drives me mad.
I want people to think about what I have achieved and not what I look like.
I did indeed put on weight after I got married.
I didn't really know what I was going to do with my life. I've taken every opportunity, pushed myself in ways I'm not sure I knew were even possible, I've made the best of my life and career. So yes, I do feel proud of myself.
The toughest thing about being a success is you've got to keep on being a success.
To any man currently thinking it's not safe to say anything to women these days, allow me to offer you a rule of thumb. If you're in any doubt about something you're going to say to a woman, just ask yourself if you'd say the same thing to a man.
Let's face it, when is it actually ever funny to joke about hitting someone? Never, right? The threat to give someone a slap, no matter how you look at it, is aggressive.
Too many women don't see themselves in senior leadership and so don't push themselves to advance their careers as their male peer group do.
It's depressing that ambition and feminism have become almost dirty words for working women. But, there is no reason that they should be and, increasingly, I am struck by how the next generation is challenging conceptions of what it means to be successful at work.
Any board executive can forget just how many people helped them get where they are. Those women who have got to the top need actively to ensure there is a pipeline of younger women, whether by networking or mentoring, who in turn are encouraging those below them.
It is critical to create opportunities to identify talented women in business, then support them to develop their confidence to aim for the boardroom.
It really annoys me when magazines put up these 'superwomen' with the perfect blow-dry, the perfect life - but nothing's perfect. People have a whole bunch of problems and it's how many solutions you can find to those problems as to how happy you are.
We've got to start making people realise that it's a proud thing to run a business, to export your goods around the country.
I look at people like Helen Mirren, Emma Thompson, Goldie Hawn, they're the people I want to be.
It's really important that young people realise very rarely do you become an overnight success.
Good managers ensure good outcomes, but great leaders can deliver a vision by getting people to work together.
The worst kind of businesses are ones where there are no expectations set out for employees.
English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish football gains so much from being in Europe. Clubs and fans all benefit from European action, laws and funding.
For clubs, free movement plays a big role in transfers and players' contracts. Players from the E.U. can sign for U.K. clubs without needing a visa or special work permit, making it quicker and easier to secure top talent from across Europe to come and play in our leagues.
I think young people respond much better to openness and frankness and practical stuff than speeches.
You have to have a very thick skin to run a business.
In my experience, not all women want to run the world. Not all women want to run a big banking conglomerate. Not all women want to be prime minister. What a lot of women want is a good career that respects them... and high-quality, affordable childcare.
I believe that hardworking people should retain as much of the money as they can in terms of the taxes that they pay. But I think everybody should pay their taxes.
I live day by day. There's no other way.
Running your own business can be the loneliest job in the world. You are the MD, answer the phone and make tea, handle the invoices and have to make payments on time.
Our supermarkets sell us horsemeat as beef, our politicians fiddle their expenses, and our bankers risk money that isn't theirs. So it's not surprising the public don't trust anyone or anything.
On holiday, I don't want any plans or structure. If I want to wake up at lunchtime or have breakfast for dinner, then I will.
I can never fully switch off given my work, but laying on the beach replying to a few emails on my mobile is much better than being stuck in the office.
I love knowing that if I was dropped off in Trafalgar Square, I could walk in any direction and see something amazing or eat something delicious.