The Apprentice 4: Why Toral Lost

Last week on both Apprentice shows, people were fired who didn’t really cause the loss but also didn’t want to do the work. First, we said goodbye to Dawn on Martha’s show. Then it was Toral’s turn with Donald. And Trump didn’t even bother to hold a final Boardroom – he fired her during the main session! How did Toral manage to get him that annoyed? Why did Toral lose?

I’ve got to warn you, fair readers, that Trump was not the only one annoyed by Toral. So was I. And what’s worse is that I had a really lousy day at my job today – in fact, I had to deal with a few people just like Toral. So don’t be surprised if I rip into her a bit more than perhaps I normally would. She deserves it – and so do the people who I work with. Unfortunately, the people at my job who have angered me don’t work for me, so I can’t tell them, “You’re fired.” I’ll just have to live vicariously through Trump.

In any case, we will still evaluate Toral’s performance – or lack thereof – through the lens of What ‘Apprentice 4’ and ‘Martha Stewart Apprentice’ Applicants Should Have Learned. We’ll go through the rules and see if Toral did anything right.

Let’s start with the first rule and… nope, she blew that one right off the bat. It says to show leadership. Toral’s version of leadership was that she volunteered to be Project Manager if nobody else wanted it. Oh, you go, girl. Wow us with that team spirit!

Gag.

Of course, as soon as somebody else stepped forward and showed some actual interest, the team lined up behind her and away from Toral. Toral either wanted to play below the radar or just didn’t know how to actually step up. She claimed she wanted to show her team what she could do, but as soon as the opportunity presented itself, she backed off. I have no idea how she could possibly think that behavior like that is what Trump is looking for.

What about the second rule, staying cool under fire? Well, that depends on what we mean. Obviously, Toral didn’t let the pressure get to her – in fact, she seemed totally oblivious to any pressure at all. It didn’t matter that Trump had made it clear that he wasn’t happy with her and he was putting pressure on her to perform; it didn’t matter that most of her team had made it clear that they were unhappy with her and they were putting pressure on her to perform; it didn’t matter that even her lone supporter, Rebecca, made it clear that there was pressure on her to perform. Toral didn’t let it get to her – in any way, shape, or form.

But that in and of itself is a problem. Part of the rule specifically notes, “This is not to say you should ignore criticism – especially if it comes from Trump…” Toral did ignore criticism. She didn’t step up. She didn’t show that she belonged to be there.

Toral did show that she could follow the third rule – she had a backbone. Unfortunately, once again, she went too far. She didn’t want to wear the costume and she simply refused to do it. OK, she was standing up for what she thought was right. The problem with that is that she wasn’t right. She was wrong, dead wrong. And she, frankly, looked more like an idiot by refusing to wear the costume than she would have if she wore it!

The fourth rule says scheming and plotting doesn’t usually work. Last week, I defended Toral against the slings and arrows of the other women, who seemed more like a mob than a working team. They tried to get Toral out and it didn’t work then. So did it work this time?

Not really. Toral showed her true colors to one and all in this episode. She turned me from a defender to an attacker. Nobody needed to plot against her – she was her own downfall.

A large part of the reason for that downfall can be seen in the fifth rule, which says to play well with others. Put simply, Toral didn’t. Sure, most of the others were against her, but she was just as against them, making cracks about how she wouldn’t even hire them as secretaries. She was seen as a snob, and she proved herself to be just that.

As I mentioned earlier, Toral’s situation was similar to Dawn’s on Martha’s version of the show. So let me quote from “Why Dawn Lost” to show you just how much – I’ll just change “Dawn” to “Toral” and the specific tasks to match what happened:

The sixth rule may be the main cause of Toral’s downfall – she failed to focus on the long-term. As mentioned earlier, Toral did not cause her team to lose this task. She didn’t wear the costume, but who was in the costume wasn’t why they lost; she lied, but lying wasn’t why they lost; she whined, but whining wasn’t why they lost.

However, Trump is looking at the long-term. … Toral’s attitude had nothing to do with her team losing the task. But it did become clear to Trump that Toral was not the type of person who should become his Apprentice. Looking at the long-term, Toral should have realized that her childish behavior would have a negative effect – but she didn’t seem to care.

The seventh rule says players should understand the challenge. Almost the entire group of women failed at this rule – other than Jen, who told them they should put some branding on their creation. But that wasn’t really what caused Toral to lose.

Toral failed to understand how her role in the challenge would be judged. It wouldn’t have mattered who was in the suit, but Toral refused to be a team player and just get in the silly thing. Does she really think she would have lost more respect by getting into it than she did by acting like a snobbish bitch on national television? Hell, one of the had to get into a woman’s costume, and he didn’t whine about it!

Eighth is to be creative. Toral wasn’t. ‘Nuff said.

The ninth rule says applicants can’t be one-dimensional. Toral seemed to only want to rest on her business degree and background. But that simply is not good enough. This is not a standard job interview where you can present a résumé and let your hopes ride on it. You have to prove that you deserve this apprenticeship. Toral utterly failed.

Finally, we have the rule that says contestants need to use common sense. Oy. Where do we begin with Toral? I believe when common sense was being handed out, Toral refused to accept it because she felt it would be beneath her. Let’s look at just a few of the things she did that defy logic:

• She knew she had to step up, but didn’t.
• She refused to wear the costume, even knowing full well that everybody was just waiting for her to slip up again.
• She made horrible excuses about why shouldn’t wear it.
• She realized how bad those excuses were and later tried to blame her religion.
• She lied in the Boardroom about what Felisha said.
• When caught in her lie, she tried to act as if it wasn’t important and then repeated it.

I could go on, but the point is obvious – Toral didn’t have the foggiest idea how to behave.

As mentioned earlier, Trump was so annoyed at Toral that he didn’t even wait for Felisha to bring her into the final Boardroom (as she was obviously going to do). Can you imagine if Toral worked for Trump and she told him she wouldn’t do something because it was beneath her? I’m not talking about refusing to do something ethically or morally questionable – just something she didn’t want to do. She’d have been fired on the spot.

Oh, wait. She was. And that’s just it. Toral seemed to believe she was above everybody else, but when push came to shove, she couldn’t even prove she was equal to them. She believed she was so smart, but I believe she was one of the dumbest players in the four seasons so far. Everything was laid out for her as far as what was expected, and she ignored it. That is why Toral lost.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other Apprentice 4 Episode 4 articles:

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

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