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Submitted by TheJudgeAnyone watch that show? The Apprentice? I do. And the more I watch, the more I’m frustrated. I’ve been watching it from day one. If you don’t know what this show is, here’s a summary: Donald Trump decided to produce a show in partnership with NBC. Essentially, he has a bunch of people divided up in teams and he assigns various business tasks to each team. After each task, the loosing team will have one of its members fired. And it goes on like that until there’s only one person standing. The person who wins will be appointed president of one of Trump’s organizations for a year with a salary of $250,000.
Initially, the show focused on the task at hand. I remember the very first show. Each team had to sell lemonade on the streets of New York. Each team had a budget to buy supplies (cups, lemonade mix and what ever else they needed). From that initial capital, they had to make the most profit in order to win the game. It was interesting to see the various tactics they would come up with. Some used the “sex sells” approach. Some tried to make partnerships with other businesses, one spent half his day trying to sell one glass of lemonade for $1000 and some just had no clue (including the guy trying to sell a glass of lemonade for $1000). Since everyone was new, everyone was being polite. The true personalities of each individual only surfaced after a few shows. Then something happened…
Like in any reality show, which I normally never watch, the pressure was rising, people became more chaotic and more direct, cat fights began, people got on each other’s nerves, etc. I don’t have a problem with that. It’s normal and it’s to be expected. What I have a problem with is the fact that suddenly, the entire focus of the show wasn’t towards the business task, towards the game, but it was focusing on dysfunctional group dynamics. When that happened, this show became a copy of any other reality show out there. And that pissed me off. I thought they had something good going. They had something unique. Yet, they had to wreak it. Thanks a lot morons! Just to give you an example, the task from last week’s show was to renovate an apartment and rent it for more than what it used to rent for. Great! That’s neat. Question: What’s the renovation budget? They never even mentioned it once! Not once! In the world of business, most critical decisions are directly based on the financial state of an enterprise. And for a project such as renovating an apartment, finance is the basic foundation of the entire project. So instead on focusing on the business side of the story, they focused on Omarosa who kept whining because a panel of sheetrock fell on her head. Then she decides to use it as an excuse not to work and she goes out on the street to play basketball with some kids. Hello? Did you forget where you are? I would kill to be in your shoes and have the opportunity for a dream job. In fact, I recall Omarosa still whining about her “head injury” during this week’s episode. Fuck the hell off you dumb bitch. And you have another player who just learned that her mother has cancer. Is she whining? No. But regardless of those situations, the reason why I watch the show is to learn things about the business end of things. I’m getting less and less of it and it’s pissing me off more and more.
Another thing that frustrates me is Donald’s inconsistencies when it comes to firing people. On some shows, he’ll point out that he’s looking for certain qualities in people and that the objective for him is to find the ideal president for one of his companies. So he’s looking at the overall performance when he makes decisions based on this principle. Other times, he will make decisions based on the task at hand. He will examine the performance of one person specifically during that task and will ignore past performance. Other times, he’ll just spot a weakness that he doesn’t like and he’ll fire someone based on that. For example, he thought Tammy was disloyal at some point because she stood up to her team and spoke the truth. He himself had reached the same conclusion that Tammy did, but because she said it, he viewed that as disloyalty to her team. So he fired her based on that. Yet, she wasn’t really the reason why her team had lost. She was not assigned any critical tasks, thus was not responsible for the crash and burn. That decision he made really pissed me off. It was obvious that Tammy wasn’t going to make it to the end. He was looking for a way to get rid of her. That was a low blow Donald and you behaved like a coward because you didn’t tell her point blank that she wasn’t president material based on her entire performance. You didn’t cite examples. You said “Because you were disloyal, you’re fired”. I don’t think she was disloyal. I think she was realistic. And the best way to learn from ones mistakes is to acknowledge the mistake in the first place. Otherwise, you don’t learn. The team leader in this case should have been fired. She did a poor job. She had important responsibilities and she fucked up on each one of them. When she got pinned in a corner, she freaked out and became very emotional. She is a ticking time bomb. Here’s another example. Remember Sam? I knew that guy was full of shit from the beginning. He was delusional from day one. He was an ass kisser from day one. He was a drama queen from day one. And he never delivered results from day one. That’s mostly because he relied on luck more than anything else. Yet Trump intentionally kept him around stating “I haven’t figured you out yet Sam”. Hello? Are you a dumb ass? He was easy to figure out. I figured him out in 5 minutes. I wanted to slap him around. Again, I think Donald wasn’t honest. He kept him around because Sam created tension in the group.
So what’s it going to be Donald? What guidelines are you using to fire people? Overall performance? Task specific performance? Character traits? Disruption to group dynamics? A gut feeling? Frankly, you’re all over the place here. Get your shit together. You have a unique show with a lot of potential.
You know what else is bugging me? The contestants are plain, dull, idiots. There’s only two who shine so far: Country boy and Amy. Troy has been doing well from day one on various aspects such as team building, decision making, performing under pressure, conflict resolution, etc. Sure, he has his weaknesses too. But overall, he’s doing a great job. Amy is always very professional and rational. She also doesn’t screw around with conflicts. She doesn’t have time to baby sit and she’s not afraid to point out those who hamper the team and deal with them.
People I don’t like: Nick. He’s a pussy and he’s full of shit. Early on the game, he figured that the best way to stay in the game was to make sure he had no huge responsibilities. Good strategy. Let everyone else do the important stuff and let them get fired. Well that doesn’t work anymore. Too many people have left. And why oh why must you be so defensive every time someone criticises you? Sit the fuck down, let them finish, shut the fuck up and wait your turn. “I’m a born leader” That sentence was used by Nick and Omarosa. What the fuck does that mean? Were you leading all the babies to the altar when you we baptised? Born leader is a term with no meaning. Stop using it because everytime you do, the people sitting across you can’t hide the fact that they need to roll there eyes. Didn’t you pick up on that yet morons? Omarosa… Well she’s something. She thinks she has this power over people. “I think you should buy this water because it’s a good thing for your business”. And she talks slowly and fixes the potential client in the eyes. Hypnosis isn’t the best tool for closing a deal. And last night, in case no one picked up on her strategy, she was trying to make her team loose on purpose in hopes that Heidi would be fired. That’s a dangerous game to play. And it’s a good thing for her that her team won because her ass would be on the street by now.
So to conclude this little rant, Donald, if you happen to be a regular at the Geekery (OMFGLOL!!11) and you read this article, for the love of God don’t turn your show in another typical reality show. Bring the focus back on the business end and be consistent in your process of elimination. Thanks.
If you would like to learn more about the show and the participants,
http://www.nbc.com/nbc/The_Apprentice" target="BLANK">click here for the official site.
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