Top 55 Karren Brady Quotes

I’m the sort of person who doesn’t hear the word ‘no’ – I hear ‘find another way to get what you want.’

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.

There’s only two things that I really care about – apart from family – one is business and the other is women in business.

I don’t believe in quotas for quotas sake, but I think companies without any women on their boards should write to their shareholders and explain why – explain how many women they’ve interviewed, why they haven’t taken anybody on.

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.

By the time I sold Birmingham City football club in 2009, 75% of the directors were women, which I take great pride in – that’s unique in business, full stop.

I prefer my men slightly overweight. Having said that, my ultimate dream man is Jimmy Nail and he’s skinny.

People who see successful young women think that there must be an angle there. It’s too good to be true that woman from a good upbringing can walk into a good job and be director.

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.

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.

When I’m at home I’m ‘Karren Peski Solido mother-of-two’ when I’m at work I’m ‘Karren Brady don’t mess with me.’

I love to think about business. It’s what makes me happy.

The toughest thing about being a success is you’ve got to keep on being a success.

I think it’s a very old fashioned attitude, that you’ve got to wear short skirts and a lot of make up to get on in life. I think most women look at that and laugh. I think those are antiquated views from a bygone age that thankfully is no longer around.

Winning the BAFTA for ‘Young Apprentice’ felt great. It’s really nice to be part of the winning team.

I think it doesn’t actually matter what your political persuasion is, but if you are interested in the country that you live in and the way in which it’s run, everyone has to do something about that.

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.

I hate fad diets.

The one thing I wanted was independence. And I realised to have that independence, you needed financial independence.

I worry I look posh and fat. I can’t do anything about posh – I’m accentless – but I’ve spent 20 years battling my weight.

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’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.

The worst kind of businesses are ones where there are no expectations set out for employees.

I remember when I was young, I used to love hockey – I was selected to play for my county – and my dad said: ‘Well, there’s no money to be made in hockey,’ and it put me off for ever.

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.

I’m not going to become an MP and I’m not going to be London Mayor. I have no political ambitions.

My greatest mistake? I once took a three-day maternity leave. I had my daughter on a Wednesday, and then went back to the office on the Monday to sack a manager.

On a personal level, the ‘Young Apprentice’ schedule is very long. The children needed long breaks so the sheer amount of time it took made it tougher. There was a lot more hanging around. But as a show, championing young people and promoting young people who are willing to have a go, I thought it was great.

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.

Good managers ensure good outcomes, but great leaders can deliver a vision by getting people to work together.

Life is very short, and if you worry what people think of you, if you second-guess yourself, you’re in trouble.

I couldn’t think of anything worse than drinking a load of gunky-green stuff and sweating in a gym. I would rather sit in front of the TV and have a glass of wine.

I’m very rational. I tend to let my head rule my heart.

When you’re starting your own business it’s really important to think through your plan: what’s the idea, why is it relevant to the market, how much money you are going to invest, how are you going to tell people about it.

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.

The problems children bring get bigger as they get older.

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.

It is critical to create opportunities to identify talented women in business, then support them to develop their confidence to aim for the boardroom.

What I love about London is you can go out of your door and turn left or right, and you could eat at every restaurant and still never go round in a loop.

I rarely indulge in sweet things but when I do I do not like to share.

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.

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.

The most important characteristics you need to succeed in business are resilience, determination and persistence.

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 want people to think about what I have achieved and not what I look like.

I love and embrace change.

In ‘The Apprentice,’ they don’t re-do shots, it’s all one-take. We literally follow the decisions that the candidates make.

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.

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’m not friends with politicians.

It’s really important that young people realise very rarely do you become an overnight success.

I did indeed put on weight after I got married.

You have to have two personalities: your home personality and your work personality and the trick really is not to allow one of those personalities to drain the life out of the other.

Though I don’t have time to go to the gym, I am fit and active, and have a healthy diet.

I’m a hard cheese person and I could have it with biscuits for breakfast, lunch and dinner.