The Apprentice 2: Why Pamela Lost

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Pamela went from being the star (at least in her own mind) of Mosaic to the scapegoat of Apex. And, of course, she was fired. How did this happen? Why did Pamela lose?

As always, we will seek our answers in that blueprint for business, What ‘Apprentice 2’ Applicants Should Have Learned. And we will begin with the first rule: Show leadership.

There is no doubt that Pamela showed quite a bit of leadership. Indeed, the main reason she wasn’t fired the first time her team (then Mosaic) lost was because she had volunteered to switch from the women to the men and to lead the men’s team. When she took control of Apex this past week, she quite literally took control. In previous challenges, there was some doubt as to who was really leading the group, but there was no doubt this time. In the final discussion between George, Carolyn, and Trump, George noted that Pamela was definitely a strong leader.

But Trump noted that perhaps she was too strong. She didn’t listen to the others, and she kept making the wrong decisions. Admittedly, there is a portion of the rule that says, “Don’t let other strong personalities overwhelm you. If you’re going to be blamed for a loss, make sure it’s a loss that you created!” Pamela certainly created the loss.

But there was one thing that was missing. The sentences immediately following the quoted portion talk about how Kwame took responsibility when his team picked Meghan, the weird artist, in the first challenge. Pamela refused to take any real responsibility for the loss. She even went so far as to call it a “tie.” Trump didn’t like it, George didn’t like it, and I don’t like it. The guy who is .01 seconds too slow in the Olympics doesn’t get to share the gold, he gets a silver. The person on eBay who bids one penny too low doesn’t get to share the item up for auction. And Apex, although only ten dollars and change behind Mosaic, didn’t avoid the Boardroom. It wasn’t a tie. Apex lost. Period.

Also, I really question whether Pamela truly was a good leader for another reason: throughout the entire episode, she kept referring to the rest of Apex as “them.” It was never “us.” It was as if she was still viewing them as another team, rather than herself as part of that team. If she could not view herself as part of the team, how could she truly lead it?

Moving on, the second rule is to stay cool under fire. Pamela definitely did well at this – so cool she was cold, in fact. She remained calm during both the challenge and the Boardroom.

She also followed the third rule in standing up for herself. When the others blamed her for the price, she claimed nobody had opposed her on it. When Stacy pointed out the legal issues, Pamela claimed they were minor. Unfortunately, standing up for yourself is not necessarily going to get you out of a large hole you’ve been digging.

Fourth is the rule to not be one-dimensional. This one doesn’t really apply to Pamela, because both times her teams failed, she was the Project Manager. So, really, Trump was looking directly at her leadership skills rather than, for example, sales or what have you.

The fifth rule says to be loyal. Once again, it didn’t really come into play here, so let’s move on to the sixth rule, which says to not show your hand. Pamela didn’t really have a hand to show, so it didn’t matter to her. But the whole rest of the team joined forces in an effort to blame her, and to some extent it worked. It makes sense that they would all oppose her, since she even called the others “them,” as mentioned above. But she apparently didn’t see it coming.

How did Pamela do in terms of the seventh rule? Well, she definitely held to the second part, about staying professional. And she did generally play well with others. But there were also a couple times when she really went after people and didn’t need to. For example, she called out Stacy on the pricing issue. Why? What was gained by that? As far as I could see, nothing – other than maybe embarrassing Stacy or showing the others how much power Pamela had. Pamela wasn’t awful, but in a situation where you are new to the group, playing a little bit nice wouldn’t be such a horrible thing.