Goodbye: John

Okay, so I already fell off the wagon. I was out in Salt Lake City skiing last week and missed The Apprentice. But, I read up on it on The Apprentice website (www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_3) and it sounds like John got what was coming to him. I did believe that he'd be a strong player, but as with anything you do in life, if your ego gets in the way then you are destined to fail quickly.

Hiring anyone is a difficult decision. Sometimes there is a fine line between self-confidence and arrogance. No one wants to work with or for an arrogant person. When I've interviewed people in the past, that is the first thing I look for. I tend to let a person's resume do the talking when it comes to hard skills, things that they learn through education and experience. When I interview someone, I want to know who they are as a person because that ultimately reflects what they will be like to work with. I've known of quite a few people that had all the right skills, education and experience, but when it came down to it, they were simply not a good fit for the team. John made it clear that he was not a good fit for Mr. Trump's team by focusing on himself and refusing to accept the input and ideas of other people. His attitude towards women also became even more of a problem in this last task and honestly, you just can't have that sort of attitude anywhere you go.

I'll definitely be watching tonight and will have a post up tomorrow about who gets fired...

By the way, Yahoo! has a pretty cool Fantasy Game that lets you score points for your predictions...

Goodbye: Audrey

Finally. This was long overdue, in my opinion, and last night's episode was the opportunity to get rid of Audrey. Throughout the entire show, she has been harshly critical of virtually every other person on her team. At the same time, she hasn't really been shown to step up to the plate and perform.

When in a leadership position, she essentially decided that she would manage from 50,000 feet. She essentially wanted a team that managed themselves independently so she didn't have to do anything. Maybe this was a means of pushing the work off on others or maybe it was her way of trying to make sure that other people were set up to take the fall, keeping the spotlight off of her. Whatever it was, it didn't work. It just showed her inability to lead and her inability to work well with people. Couple that with the fact that she had a complete mental breakdown the night before because she was called out for lack of performance in the previous boardroom and you have a recipe for getting fired. So, goodbye and good riddance, Audrey.

A word on Chris' tobacco-chewing-clown stunt: How ridiculously unprofessional. (And I'm sure he scared the crap out of more than a few kids.) I think Chris should be the next one to go. He's got way too much of a temper to lead a Trump company. I think he has potential to be a strong leader, but it's that temper that will get in the way. Yelling and screaming in the boardroom is uncalled for and inexcusable. (Remember the episode where they remodelled the hotel and he ended up yelling at someone in the boardroom about not being a construction worker? Yeah, that's great.)

And for John: I think he's got potential to go all the way to the end. But, it did seem to me that he was trying to set Audrey up for a fall in this one. Not that I can blame him for that. Overall, I think John is going to finish strong. I'll predict that he makes it at least to the top 4.

Welcome to my Apprentice Commentary

Welcome to my Apprentice Commentary. This is really just a place for me to rant about The Apprentice, Donald Trump's hit show on NBC that follows a 16 week "job interview" for 16 candidates. If you don't know much (or anything) about The Apprentice, check out the attached link (goes to NBC's web site) and watch the show. It can quickly get addictive. It's something about hearing a billionaire say "You're Fired" that hooks people, I suppose.

The Apprentice airs on NBC every Thursday at 8 PM CST. (Check local listings for show times.) I'll try to post here about each episode at least by Saturday or Sunday following the show. Once the season is over, I'll try to go back and start posting commentary on other episodes. I welcome commentary and feedback from all my readers and hope that this can be an interesting place to stop by every week.