What ‘Apprentice 2’ Applicants Should Have Learned

The challenges can show Trump some things about contestants. For example: Sam was nuts. But failure at a given challenge does not mean you will lose; success at a number of challenges does not mean you will win. Many viewers expected Amy and Troy to be the Final 2. Troy showed himself to be an excellent salesman and thus helped his team do well in challenges. Amy won every challenge she was in for weeks on end. But neither of them were what Trump was looking for, long-term.

9) Think Outside the Box, But Not Too Far

There is a fine line that applicants need to walk for this rule. Trump is not looking for an applicant who is too conservative, too stuck in the usual way of doing business. Applicants need to look at what they are asked to do and see how they can do it in ways nobody has thought of before.

Think of Protégé’s advertising campaign for the jet company. The men went conservative and lost. The women went bold – maybe even over the top – and won. An even better example is Troy in the Trump Ice challenge. He had the idea to write long-term purchase orders and court distributors rather than just trying to sell a case or two at a time. It was a big idea, and it won. Similarly, in the rickshaw competition, Versacorp didn’t limit their thinking to how they could get more riders – they focused on how they could make money in other ways, in this case by getting ads. It was a brilliant idea and easily beat Protégé.

Sometimes, you can go too far, though. Sam’s idea of selling lemonade for $1000 was crazy. But he didn’t get fired that week. Trump thought Sam could have some potential – he liked the outside-the-box thinking. Eventually, Sam showed he wasn’t just outside the box but outside Earth’s orbit, and was fired. But he was an extreme case. If you try something big and it doesn’t work, Trump will likely still appreciate the effort. Just don’t overdo it.

10) Use Common Sense

Do I really need to say this? Well, yes. In the first season, Jason made a huge (or “yuge” in Trump-speak) mistake when he was Project Manager. He had the opportunity to talk to the client and find out what kind of advertising campaign they wanted. But he blew them off. About 99% of people watching were yelling at their TV sets for Jason to talk to them – it was common sense. He didn’t have it. He was fired.

Similarly, in the Trump Ice challenge, Ereka blathered about "creating a buzz," while Bill cut to the chase and talked cost to clients, getting got much better results. It's common sense that bottled water is bottled water, and people are really just looking for a good price.

Now, bring yourself back further in the first series. Remember David? No, you don’t. My point exactly. To remind you, David was the first person fired. Why was he fired? In large part because when Trump asked him if he would have been a better leader than Troy, he said no, because sales are not his forte. Never admit that you would have been worse than the other guy when you’re in a competition!

Finally, you should use common sense when you are the Project Manager deciding who to bring with you into the Boardroom. You don’t want to go up against two strong people, so you should always do your best to bring at least one weaker person in. When Ereka didn’t take Katrina in, as discussed earlier, she made more than one mistake. Yes, she let her friendship get in the way of her decision-making, but she also brought two very strong competitors in against her. She was the weakest link – goodbye.

Conclusion

These are the most important lessons that should have been learned ahead of time by the Apprentice 2 contestants. Bill played by these rules and came home (literally, since he got a job in Chicago) with the big prize. He didn’t win every challenge, but he showed that he knew how to handle himself in a variety of situations.

This second time will definitely have added difficulty just as the second Survivor did. People have a better idea what they’re up against. They know more of what to do and what not to do. Indeed, I’m sure we will see situations that fall outside the boundaries of what we discussed here. But these ten rules provide the best chance to hear the words, “You’re hired!”

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com. Thanks to Betsy Wasser and Mike DeGeorge for their contributions to this article.

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