Knowledge-based apprenticeships kickstart careers. Just look at British fashion designer Karen Millen, for example, who learned her craft through an apprenticeship scheme.
When I was eight, my parents saved up to send me to private school, but I found it so tough that I often escaped through the back fence to walk the four miles to my father's office in Windsor. I only lasted a few terms, but it didn't curb my ambition.
I passed my Lawn Tennis Association coaching exam, and I persuaded my local club to let me use a court after school and on Saturdays.
I'm 6ft 7in and I was a bit like a giraffe on the tennis court, though I did play at county level.
American Inventor', a show I came up with launched in 2006. It's all of America's greatest and wackiest inventions rolled into one with a judging panel including the legendary George Foreman.
When I was 12 I worked with someone - it was actually an English teacher at my school, John Woodward. He was the only teacher in the school to have a top-of-the-range Porsche and all the trappings of success, so it was very interesting for me to find out how he did it. He was probably the wealthiest English teacher in the community.
