Herts alumnus and ‘The Apprentice’ contestant returns to the University of Hertfordshire to unveil the secret to his success

Herts alumnus and contestant on this year’s The Apprentice, Frederick Afrifa, came back to his former University last week to talk to students, staff and alumni about the importance of self-belief and networking.

During the specially organised talk titled ‘How to be a Go-Getter’, the former athlete, motivational speaker and co-founder of professional training and coaching company Believe in Greatness shared his story of ambition, overcoming challenges and major setbacks and seizing opportunities. All of which, he explained, led him to launching his successful business and landing a place on The Apprentice.

Hosted by Hertfordshire Business School, his former School at the University, Frederick – who studied accounting and French before graduating in 2019 – started by telling the audience: “Nine years ago when I walked through these halls at Herts for the first time, I had no idea where life would take me. But fortunately, I’ve been able to do some pretty cool things.”

In fact, university wasn’t the place Frederick had ever intended to end up. An extremely talented runner – who had competed at national level as a youth – his dream was to become a professional athlete, although his father wanted him to pursue higher education. So, they made a compromise: if Frederick failed to get a professional contract within two years, he would enrol at university.

Two years later he enrolled at the University of Hertfordshire.

But Frederick wasn’t ready to give up yet. “I continued training full-time around my studies – and sometimes even during my studies,” he admits. “There were a couple of occasions when my tutor, Rex, emailed asking why I hadn’t turned up for lectures, and I ended up having to retake my first year.”

Frederick persevered with both his sport and his studies, and eventually his hard work paid off. “Not only did I get my degree, but in my last year at Herts, I finally signed my first professional contract. It had taken me seven years but I’d finally achieved my goal – and a degree to boot.”

Things were looking promising for Frederick’s sporting career, with him gaining national champion status the year before the Olympics, opening up a “whole new world of opportunities”.

“All of a sudden, American universities wanted me to do a scholarship with them. I didn’t have to pay or attend class, I just had to run fast – which suited me perfectly! I sold my car and said my goodbyes, ready to start my new life in America.”

But then Covid hit, and Frederick’s dream came crashing down. The American university hosting Frederick pulled out of the deal, his sponsor dropped him, and his hopes of competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) – one of the US’s biggest sporting competitions – was gone.

He returned to the UK as a delivery driver for Sainsbury – something far from the career he had envisioned. However, ever the optimist, Frederick continued to search for his next opportunity.

“It was while doing seven-hour shifts for £9 an hour as a delivery driver for Sainsbury that I stumbled across a YouTube video on personal development that said, “You need to work as hard on yourself as you do on your job,” he explains. “It inspired me to attend a Professional Speaker Association event where I discovered Roger Harrop, who charged £10,000-£20,000 an hour for speaking and who became my hero.”

This was a significant increase from the £150 Frederick was charging at the time, and – after also managing to convince Roger to meet him one-on-one to provide additional advice – inspired Frederick to up his rates and truly market himself as a top, professional motivational speaker. Everything was going so well, he ended up launching his own public speaking company.

However, that wasn’t the end of his setbacks. Frederick was initially rejected from The Apprentice when he applied to appear on season 18. Undeterred, he re-applied for season 19, currently airing, and successfully secured a place.

Frederick concluded his talk by reflecting on the importance of staying motivated, seeing role models and believing that success is possible even during difficult times.

“It’s important to understand that things in life will happen to us, but we also still have choices,” he finished. “When tough things happen, we can either complain or decide what we will do about it. My advice is to take action on your goals and don’t be deterred by setbacks.”

Watch Frederick on season 19 of The Apprentice, currently airing every Thursday at 9pm on BBC 1 and available on iPlayer. Discover Hertfordshire Business School courses