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

I suspect that Stewart will put a great deal of emphasis on this particular rule. She is going to want candidates who are creative and resourceful, and who stick up for their own abilities. And while Trump plasters his name on everything he does, Martha Stewart arguably even outdoes him in that area – after all, her company is named “Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia” and it’s a success for one reason: Martha Stewart. She is the brand and she knows how to stand up for herself. She will be looking for somebody with similar characteristics. You will need to convince her that you are what she needs – and that takes backbone.

4) Scheming and Plotting Usually Doesn’t Work, But Don’t Show Your Hand

Before the second season began, when I was putting the first version of this article together, I originally planned on putting something in about plotting and scheming because I figured people could plan on who they should focus on – as the women’s team did with Stacie, for example. However, upon further deliberations and discussions at the highest levels of RealityNewsOnline, I decided it shouldn’t be in there. And further seasons have proven that decision correct. After all, as we already discussed earlier, unlike Survivor or Big Brother, The Apprentice does not have fellow contestants vote people off. The decisions are made solely by Trump and Stewart, so all the plotting and scheming in the world might not help you.

The more we saw of the second season, the more this truth was hammered home. Yes, plotting and scheming did work about Stacie. But many more times we saw it backfire. We saw project managers bring people to the final Boardroom who should not have been there based on that challenge. Trump did not respond kindly, often specifically noting that he couldn’t figure out why that person was there this time, or why another person had been saved when they had done something wrong. I suspect Stewart will be even less forgiving of such tactics.

A perfect example of this is when Jen C. took Stacy and Elizabeth to the final Boardroom in Apprentice 2, even though Sandy had clearly done the worst job during that task. Jen only did it because she didn’t like the other two – Carolyn knew it, Bill (sitting in for George) knew it, and Trump knew it. So Jen went home.

That said, playing things close to the vest can still help. Before Boardroom sessions, it can’t hurt to feel out where people are leaning, without giving away too much of your own thought process. If you find that most people are gunning for the same person, by all means join in! If you find that people are trying to avoid you, then you’d better be prepared to have all the guns turn on you.

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.

However, one place where plotting will help you is in plotting out your own defense. Sometimes, you will be targeted for reasons beyond your control. For example, how many times did we hear that Andy was too young? What Andy needed to do was plot out how to rebut these charges – it isn’t scheming with somebody else, but plotting a course and knowing how you can respond ahead of time.

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. And if it continues, as it did with third season’s Chris, your fellow players will repeatedly point it out to Trump or Stewart as a reason you should go. Eventually, the drumbeat of criticism can certainly get you fired.

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.