Published on 07 October 2003: Cambridge Evening News Business Feature

What was your first job and how much were you paid?
It was a holiday job in the late 1960s with the firm my father, Robert Hirsch, owned, Camlab. I earned £17. It was good training because he had grey paper and in those days the only Tipp-ex was white.

My first proper job was with a travel company in St Albans. It was an incentives business for companies to send their top salesman to the Algarve, that sort of thing. I invented the job as I went along.

Before that I had been to theatre school in Paris, but I had one of those rare moments of recognition that I was very good, but not excellent, and that I would be better at being on an even keel rather than going through the highs and lows of the theatre world.

How did you decide on your career and when?
I have always invented myself as I have gone along, trying out different things and marrying different work experiences, combining theatre, business and counselling, which have turned me into a personal and business coach.

No decision has ever been made. I have just turned my natural inclination and ability to work with people into a profession, and I think I am the luckiest woman in the world to be doing my hobby as a job.

What is your biggest satisfaction?
Watching individuals, couples and colleagues gain sufficient insight and understanding to make the little adjustments so they can do things differently and achieve more.

What do you most regret?
Being told I was useless at sport which meant I had to learn to play tennis as an adult, oh, and not having sufficient faith in myself at an early stage.

Who do you most admire and how would you sum up your approach to life?
On the world state, Nelson Mandela, for being a tireless peace-broker, mediator and fundraiser for AIDS, but still a big kid who loves meeting pop stars. More generally, people who fall flat on their face and get up and have another go, and don't whinge.

My own approach to life is that the glass is half full.

You're the Chancellor for a day - what would you do to help business people?
I would give tax breaks to businesses so mothers can have the opportunity to work on a reasonably even playing field with men.

How do you think others see you - and how do you think your family sees you?
Hopefully, others see me as approachable and confident, but they probably don't see the insecure and vulnerable bit. My family sees me as small and bossy.

How do you make a decision - off the cuff or after days of thought?
Spontaneously, but then giving myself a hard time about it.

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