The Apprentice 3: Why Brian Lost

At first glance, it might seem like answering the question of why Brian lost is – like the Boardroom session itself in the second episode – a waste of time. But if there is something to be learned, not to mention an idiot to be poked, then it’s never a waste! With that in mind, we will look back at What ‘Apprentice 3’ Applicants Should Have Learned to see where Brian went wrong (in so many ways), and why Brian lost.

The first, and always most important, rule is to show leadership. Once again this week, I was happy to see both teams actually picking leaders according to who felt they could do the best job rather than randomly drawing lots. And Brian does get one point for volunteering when nobody else (including Kristen, who also has real estate experience) did.

He gets one more point for following the portion of the rule that says not to let other strong personalities overwhelm you and if you’re going to be blamed for the loss, make sure it was a loss that you created. Well, this was definitely a loss that Brian created!

However, those are the only two points Brian will get, and they were quickly subtracted by the way he led. He was arrogant, condescending, obnoxious, short-tempered – I could get my thesaurus out, but you get the point. And although he took a stand and made decisions, he later tried to blame other people for the problems caused by those decisions.

For example, he decided to bust the budget by buying new toilets. Then he yelled (because that’s the only way he knows how to communicate) at Kristen about it (of course, yelling is the only way she knows how to communicate too).

When John tried to give Brian advice on leading, Brian didn’t want to hear any of it. He said he didn’t yell, he just has a naturally loud voice. You know what? I have a naturally loud voice too. But if I don’t want people to think I’m yelling at them, I make a conscious effort to tone it down. Brian didn’t seem to get that point.

Brian also seemed to think that Project Manager = Dictator. People should have just listened to him and did whatever he said, and all would have been fine, in his imaginary world. No amount of advice could persuade him otherwise. And in large part because of that, he completely lost the respect of his team, not to mention control of it.

What else does the first rule say? “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.’” Brian at least didn’t try to claim it wasn’t his fault – he admitted it up front. But that was likely because he finally listened to John (who obviously has been reading my articles), who said Brian would look foolish trying to blame other people.

Moving on, the second rule says to stay cool under fire. Mostly, this rule is aimed at preventing behavior like Verna’s on Magna, who completely cracked under the stress. However, it also applies to Brian, who cracked differently.

Brian let the “power” of being Project Manager go to his head. He wanted to win, and he was going to dictate how everything went, so everybody who disagreed with him had to be squashed like a bug. However, Brian would have done well to listen to Donald Trump, who told Newsweek last year, “Good leaders handle conflict easily and bad ones are eaten up by it.” Brian was eaten up – he had to argue every single point. Even when John was trying to help him out, he argued. And when arguing didn’t hold the day, he flat-out lied, as he did several times in this episode about things that we had seen on camera.

Also, whether it was the pressure of the situation or just the way Brian is, he never took the time to sit down and think about their plan. In the Boardroom, he blamed the short turnaround time, but then was forced to admit (after lying about it when first asked) that he never had a budget and never had a timeline. It seemed like the stress just got to him and he was reacting rather than acting.

Brian had no problem with the third rule, having a backbone. In fact, he seemed to have enough backbone for everybody – until he got into the Boardroom. Then the backbone collapsed and he admitted it was all his fault. Mind you, I’m not disagreeing with him, but I’m not sure what he expected to accomplish with that “strategy.” Did he think others would speak up and say, “Oh no, Brian, it wasn’t all your fault. We deserve blame too!” Yeah. Sure.

The fourth rule says scheming and plotting usually doesn’t work, but you still shouldn’t show your hand. Well, I suppose Brian did okay here – but mostly because there was nobody to scheme and plot with and everybody already knew what he held in his hand because he screamed it at them! So because he believed they all had better hands than him, he folded. That may be fine in a long round of poker, but this was his last hand and all the chips were on the table. He should have at least attempted to bluff.

Now that we’ve beaten the card metaphor into the ground, what does the fifth rule say? “Play well with others, but stay professional.” Oy. Brian did neither of these. While Brian, in his delusional world, might have thought that he and Trump were very similar, the fact is that, as the rule says, “Trump doesn’t need somebody who will cause tension and problems in the ranks.” Brian definitely did that.

What’s worse is that if Brian had been nicer, there was at least one other person he could have blamed – Kristen. There is a reason Kristen was called the “Alien Queen” by RealityNewsOnline’s recapper when she had been on Murder in Small Town X. She has lost none of the charm that made her the villain of that show, and she drove several other teammates crazy with her yelling and attitude during this challenge. Brian could have used that to his advantage, if he hadn’t been driving everybody crazy with his yelling and attitude! Kristen turned out to be the lesser of two evils, and that is saying something!

The sixth rule is to focus on the long-term, and again Brian failed. He was so focused on winning this one challenge that he lost sight of the big picture, which is to stay around as long as possible. He became so caught up in this one challenge that, as we’ve already discussed, he became impossible as a Project Manager.

Seventh is to think outside the box, but not too far. Brian was not exactly what we would call an outside-the-box thinker. He saw a couple broken toilets, so he replaced them all. He wanted something done, so he yelled about it. I saw no hints of creativity in him.

Contrast this with Magna, who held a party for their guests. Is that something a hotel would normally do? Probably not. But for this task, when they were being rated on a variety of aspects, it was a brilliant idea.

So how did Brian do on the eighth rule, against being one-dimensional? Poorly. Indeed, the only dimension we saw of Brian was acting as a steamroller. Maybe he was a good negotiator. Maybe he got the toilets and contractors for a good price. Yippee for him. While he was doing that, he blew everything else.

Finally, we come to the rule that says to use common sense. I don’t think Brian would know common sense if it bit him on the arse.

Common sense says a leader cannot simply bowl over his entire team, but actually has to listen to them, assign them to specific tasks, and oversee those tasks. Brian did assign at least some people to tasks, but then ignored them when they wanted to discuss their issue.

Common sense says a leader should not admit to one of the judges that he has lost control of his team. Yet when George came to visit the motel, Brian told him, “Right now, I am the team,” and proceeded to discuss how everybody was mad at him. Brilliant strategy.

Common sense says you shouldn’t lie about things that have been seen on-camera. As we’ve previously mentioned, Brian did that.

Common sense says you shouldn’t drop the f-bomb at the dinner table with Donald Trump, or in the Boardroom with Donald, George, and Carolyn. Brian did both.

Of course, common sense says you shouldn’t walk into the Boardroom and admit that it was all your fault and you should be fired – yet that’s exactly what Brian did!

By the time he got to the Boardroom, Brian’s goose was likely cooked – but he was the one who lit the fire! Still, we’ve seen Boardroom sessions that look like they are going in one direction suddenly turn into another, and Brian didn’t even try (at least not until it was too late).

Brian was a horrible leader and not even a nice person. He had no idea how to tackle this job, other than screaming at people. He refused to take good advice. He made rash, stupid decisions. And he ended it all by plunging the knife into his own heart. That is why Brian lost.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the Apprentice 3 Episode 2 recap:

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

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