The Apprentice 2: Why Elizabeth Lost

As I noted at the beginning of my Survivor article on why John K. lost, the pair of “Lost” articles this week could hardly be easier. However, we still want to make sure we get all the way to the heart of the matter, so we’ll look into What ‘Apprentice 2’ Applicants Should Have Learned to see what Elizabeth did wrong and why Elizabeth lost.

Well, lookee here – the very first rule is to show leadership. Did Elizabeth? Chalk up a big NO! to that one. Let’s see how many problems we can find just by quoting from the rule:

when you are the Project Manager, by all means be the manager. 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!

What is worse than walking into the Boardroom after having lost? Walking into the Boardroom and saying, “Yes, we lost, but it wasn’t my fault because I had no control over my team” or making some other similar excuse.

In the Boardroom, Trump clearly spelled out that a leader needs to stand up for his or her ideas. As Mike DeGeorge pointed out in the recap that’s precisely what Andy did when confronted with Maria’s idea to “sex up” the ad – he stood his ground and said no. Elizabeth kept complaining that she didn’t like the idea, but in the end the ad pretty much was a militaristic campaign – I honestly have no idea how she could sit there and say she softened it up. Then again, I have no idea how she can claim she was the leader on this project.

Time to move on to the second rule, staying cool under fire. Oy. Another big loser here for Elizabeth. She folded so many times in this episode that it’s a wonder she isn’t an origami swan by now.

Let’s look at just one example: Elizabeth was unhappy with the militaristic ad campaign and stayed up late into the night working on an alternative. She and Kevin discussed it and were absolutely certain that they would go with it. The next morning, Kevin left to do other things and Elizabeth presented the new idea to the group. They didn’t like it. So did she stand up for her idea? We already know the answer to that. Instead, she collapsed under pressure. She caved in to what the others thought.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time Elizabeth had fallen apart under pressure. Remember the restaurant challenge, when she thought she was being set up to fail and broke down crying? Not exactly a shining moment.

Another broken rule was the third: Have a backbone. Elizabeth had about as much backbone as an earthworm. She utterly failed to stand up for herself or for her ideas. We’ve already beaten that point into the ground, so let’s move on.

The fourth rule says you can’t be one-dimensional. I’m not entirely sure that Elizabeth had even one dimension. I mean really, what did she do well? I can’t really recall anything. No, don’t e-mail me and remind me of the one thing she might have done alright at – it isn’t worth worrying about.