What ‘Apprentice 3’ Applicants Should Have Learned

There are other aspects of this as well. If you are the Project Manager, you should never let people know you’re planning to take them to the Boardroom. Doing so only gives them a chance to get their stories straight and figure out ways to attack you. For example, in the first series, Ereka told Nick and Bill that she would be taking them. Guess who was sent packing? Hint: It wasn’t a guy.

Meanwhile, Omarosa had not told Jessie or Heidi that she planned to take them to the Boardroom, and both of them kissed up to her during the initial phase, apparently in hopes they wouldn’t be chosen. Surprise! They were, and Heidi ended up suddenly changing her tune about Omarosa, which only made the way she had kissed up earlier look worse. Of course, if Omarosa had warned them that she was taking them, she might have gotten hit right from the start.

Furthermore, if you let people know who you will be taking, it also gives those who won’t be going the freedom to say whatever they want. When Ereka told Bill and Nick they would be going, what if Katrina had said something that made Ereka want to change her mind? It would not have looked good and Katrina could have accused her of stabbing her in the back.

There can be a small role for some alliance-building, but there is an even greater danger of plotting and scheming too much.

5) Play Well With Others, But Stay Professional

Playing well with others has two sides to it – positive and negative. First, let’s go over the negative.

Yes, this is a competition. Yes, there can only be one winner. But don’t come in with the “I’m not here to make friends” attitude. We’ve seen it before – it’s the standard line of the reality show villain. And even if you aren’t quite that bad, you cannot allow yourself to be controlled by anger. This is not to say you cannot ever show anger. Certainly, if you are accused of something you didn’t do, you need to show some anger and be appalled that anybody would ever say such a thing about you. But you need to do it in a calculating manner, as we’ve already discussed. You need to control your anger; you can’t allow your anger to control you. If you take either the villain attitude or you can’t control your anger, your fellow contestants might not be the ones who will vote you off, but they can certainly make life miserable for you.

Take Omarosa (no, really, take her – please!). She was so obnoxious that people didn’t want to be teamed up with her. She let her opinion of the other players get in the way, when she'd have been better served by keeping her mouth shut a little more often. She let her emotions control her and she had the bad “villain” attitude as well – it was a double-whammy. In response, blame was cast on her whenever possible (that’s not to say she didn’t deserve it, because she certainly did). Eventually, it was the end for her.

Similarly, Maria on the second series behaved miserably several times, with the worst being during the Levi’s challenge. She screamed at Project Manager Wes, then she bit off another teammate’s head. It was so bad that Trump fired both Wes and her that week.

Trump doesn’t need somebody who will cause tension and problems in the ranks. You have to remember that this is not just a competition for a prize, but a job application. “Winning” means being able to do the job, and if you can’t get along with people, that’s a big strike against you.

If, however, you at least appear to be nice to people, they are less likely to blame you for things, less likely to single you out for bad tasks, and less likely to call you into the Boardroom. However, you can’t be so nice that you appear to be a kindergarten teacher. Jessie was too nice, and people didn’t respect her. There is a fine line.

Applicants should also remember that while everybody has their quirks, the middle of a competition like this is not necessarily the best place to show them. In the second season, Stacie’s team ganged up on her because of her odd behavior in the first challenge. Remember that people are just looking for reasons to target you, so especially in the beginning, try to appear, well, normal.

The other side of playing well with others deals with the most positive emotions, like friendship. Yes, you will likely make friends (unless, as we’ve discussed, you’re Omarosa). But you need to understand that only one person can win. Troy and Kwame knew this, and they agreed that if one of them needed to bring the other into the Boardroom, so be it – may the best man win! Katrina and Ereka didn’t know it – Ereka let Katrina escape the Boardroom because of their friendship, and Trump knew it. Remember his “Your girlfriend Ereka just gave you a break” comment. Ereka ended up going home.

Then, of course, there is the issue of loyalty. As we discussed earlier, The Apprentice puts people into a weird situation (for business, though not for reality TV). You compete as a team, with a specific team leader, but then if you lose you compete as individuals to avoid being fired. Being loyal helps you in several ways.

First, of course, if you are loyal to your Project Manager, there is less chance that person will pick you to face Trump in the Boardroom.

Second, Trump told Newsweek: “You must work well with others and be loyal to your team. Disloyalty is the worst of all traits.” Simply put, he doesn’t want to see you turn on your cohorts just to try to win. Yes, it’s a game for individuals when it comes right down to it, but those individuals still have to work together. If we need a case in point, we only have to look at Tammy from the first series. “I think we were duped.” Yeah, well, maybe your Project Manager was duped. But you were fired. Who got the better deal?