What ‘Apprentice 4’ and ‘Martha Stewart Apprentice’ Applicants Should Have Learned

The Apprentice does not just look for a winner, like on most reality shows, but for somebody to actually get a job. It is, as Donald Trump is fond of saying, a long job interview. As with any interview, there are some things applicants should know going in.

Regular readers of RealityNewsOnline are familiar with my weekly columns on why people from various shows lost. As we have done for the past seasons, this article will serve as the blueprint for evaluating Apprentice 4 candidates as they are fired. It will also serve as the first blueprint for The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. We don’t have anything specific to use in gauging different ways Stewart will handle her candidates, but most of what we have here should be applicable to both. That said, we can make a few guesses specific to Stewart, which we will include as well.

The Apprentice is very different from Survivor and Big Brother in an important way: Fellow contestants don’t decide who is going. Sure, one person picks two (or three) others to take into the Boardroom, and people can point the finger at each other, but only Trump or Stewart pick who doesn’t return to the suite. That means the rules for succeeding on The Apprentice are quite different from those for succeeding on shows driven by strategy and alliances – which is something that several contestants on The Apprentice 2 learned the hard way.

With three seasons under our belts, this article has been modified to better reflect what we know about how and why Trump fires (and hires) people and how Stewart will likely handle the same tasks. So what should Apprentice 4 and The Apprentice: Martha Stewart contestants have learned from the first three series? Let’s take a look.

1) Show Leadership

Trump and Stewart are looking for apprentices – but they is looking for apprentices who can lead, not follow. That is what makes this the #1 rule to remember.

On several occasions, people have been taken to task because they had not volunteered to be Project Manager as many times as somebody else who was with them in the Boardroom. By not being Project Manager, it could look to Trump and Stewart like you’re trying to hide. Indeed, in the first season Trump told Nick flat-out that he wanted Nick to be the next Project Manager (which Nick did, and won, thus impressing Trump). In the second series, it seemed almost everybody (save perhaps finalist Jen) understood this and competition for leadership positions was so great that they were forced to pick names at random. In the third series, there was more thought given to it, but in the end, avoidance of the Project Manager spot was one way of trying to detract from opponents.

Players need to avoid random draws and push themselves as the best choice for Project Manager. Doing so will be rewarded – presuming, of course, that they are good leaders.

Sure, the Project Manager can end up getting more than his or her fair share of blame. After all, only the Project Manager is guaranteed to go to the Boardroom if the team loses. But the rewards are well worth it. Trump and Stewart will notice if your team wins when you’re in command – especially if it happens more than once. Look at the Final Two from the second season – Kelly was praised for taking on leadership roles, while one of the strikes against Jen was that she seemed to be shirking that role.

Besides, we know that Trump doesn’t usually fire people based on one bad performance (other than early on when he has nothing else on which to base it) – he keeps a mental tally. It would make sense for Stewart to behave similarly. You want to add up all the pluses you can to keep you going when you eventually hit a minus.

This could even be the case as early as the very first challenge. In the second series, Pamela volunteered to leave the women and lead the men – and nobody else fought with her for it. Even though her team lost and an argument could have been made that Pamela should have been fired on the spot, Trump gave her another chance, in large part probably because she had stepped up sight unseen into a leadership position.

When you are the Project Manager, by all means be the manager. Don’t let other strong personalities overwhelm you. Show your strengths. And if you’re going to be blamed for a loss, make sure it’s a loss that you created and that you took a stand! In Season 1, Kwame showed leadership in the art challenge when he picked Meghan, the weird artist. Yes, it cost them the challenge, but he took a risk that could have paid off. When he got into the Boardroom, he didn’t make excuses or blame somebody else – he explained his reasons and came across as strong and decisive, even though he was wrong.

I should note that when you take a risk, it needs to be an intelligent one. Tara in Season 3 failed to understand the point of the PS2/graffiti challenge and led her team to defeat. She was the manager, she took a risk, but she blew it for other reasons. It is likely that Stewart will put a bit more emphasis on creativity than Trump, and so incorporating riskier ideas like Tara did might be more acceptable to Stewart. However, you need to still be intelligent about it.

On the flip side of Tara’s problems we have Elizabeth from the second series, who was a perfect example of how to be a horrible leader for another reason. Her inability to control her team or push her own idea, not to mention constantly changing her mind, almost brought about the first Apprentice mutiny. When she got to the Boardroom, Trump didn’t even bother to ask her who she would bring with her – he fired her without a final session.

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. Yes, this portion of the rule was here before Elizabeth appeared on Apprentice 2, she simply had not learned it.

Let’s also talk a bit about leadership under different circumstances – when you’re not the Project Manager. In that situation, Trump and Stewart will still want to see leadership. You should volunteer for a significant role, step up, take a stand. Don’t just hang back and wait for the Project Manager to screw up.

If you take such a leadership role and you screw up, be prepared to defend yourself and talk about how you stepped up when nobody else would, etc. Just as volunteering to be Project Manager can bring along with it some risk, so can stepping up in other roles. But the reward is worth it when it’s done right.

I know, Kendra played under the radar through the early goings of the third season, but that particular behavior by her should not be emulated. Trump, George, and Carolyn all commented that they were disappointed in that aspect of her behavior, and it could have worked against her if only her final competition had done a better job.