The Apprentice 5: Why Summer Lost

Loyalty is also a topic covered by this rule. Way back in the first series, Tammy showed us how not to be loyal by saying, in front of Trump, that her team was “duped.” Summer showed similar disloyalty by saying, before the results were even given, that she would have done things differently. Was she being honest? Yes. But was this really a time for complete honesty? I don’t think so. It was a time for team spirit, rah-rah, go team! Summer missed that completely.

Another thing she missed was the sixth rule, which discusses focusing on the long-term. It was only the first task, and already Summer seemed to have forgotten why she was there. It was not to win the Sam’s Club challenge – it’s to become The Apprentice. So even if Tarek and the Gold Rush team never came up with a hook, even if their ideas about giving out free duffle bags were the dumbest in the world, even if she knew they were going to lose, Summer should have been a team player. She should have made those phone calls. She should have dialed her fingers off. She should have done everything she could to get those restaurant owners into Sam’s – or at least made it look like she was. If she had, she would not have been Tarek’s easy target and could have progressed. But she lost sight of the goal and focused on the small task in front of her.

Summer at least did okay in the seventh rule, understanding the challenge. She knew that she needed a hook to get people into the store on that particular day. Unfortunately, her project manager didn’t really understand the challenge. He gave away duffle bags to people whether or not they got a new/upgraded membership. So where was the incentive? And what happened if the duffles ran out? As was pointed out in the Boardroom, they had seed money, but they failed to make good use of it. Tarek blew this one, but Summer knew better. The problem is, as we’ve already discussed, she let that knowledge overwhelm her.

The eighth rule tells players to be creative but not go overboard. Frankly, nobody on Gold Rush showed much of a creative spark in the first challenge. Well, except maybe Tarek got a bit creative with the truth once he got to the Boardroom.

Ninth is the admonition not to be one-dimensional. With Summer, we never even really got to see what dimension she might have had. Obviously, her expertise did not lie in making cold calls.

The final rule tells applicants to use common sense. Here’s a quick question for readers: Does it make sense to interrupt your boss during a meeting? Even worse, does it make sense to interrupt the person you want to be your boss during a job interview? And beyond that, does it make sense to interrupt when he is criticizing a person who is competing with you for that position? No, no, and hell no! I don’t know exactly what Summer was trying to explain, but she should have kept her mouth closed, like Lenny told her.

The other aspect of common sense that Summer missed has already been dissected in earlier paragraphs. Simply put, when you’re given a task, don’t just decide on your own that it’s stupid and you won’t do it!

Carolyn believed that Trump made the obvious choice in firing Summer. I’m not so sure. Going strictly on the task itself, I think Tarek was mostly to blame. He failed to think creatively, he failed to come up with a good idea for Summer to use. And besides that, the man bragged about being in the top 2% of intelligence, but what he really showed was that he’s in the top 2% for jerky, egotistical behavior.

However, Tarek had two things going for him. First, he was the project manager as picked by Trump, which gave him a bit more room to screw up and get away with it. Second, and more importantly, Summer kept shooting herself in the foot.

Summer had the opportunity to shine and show that she really knew the customers they were trying to get through the doors. Instead, she gave up, shut down, and tuned out. She was given one specific task that she should have done well, but instead she did nothing. To make things worse, just when the tide appeared to be turning and Tarek was getting the majority of the body blows in the Boardroom, Summer spoke up and interrupted Trump. She lost sight of the big picture, she failed to stand up for herself, but then she did try to stand up for Tarek, abandoning any shred of common sense. That is why Summer lost.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other Apprentice Episode 1 articles:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

Be sure to sign up for our e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on the site! And take a look at the rest of the site. You can find all of our recent articles on this show at our The Apprentice page and take a look at our sections on Survivor: Exile Island and American Idol 5. You can even buy reality show stuff at our Reality TV Store!

For more news about The Apprentice, be sure to check out SirLinksALot: The Apprentice!