The Apprentice Show 1 review...

The Apprentice has gotten me. I am somewhat ashamed that I sat the first week with 27 million of my fellow Americans and watched this new twist on Reality TV. During the first 15 minutes I switched over to Tivo and set up a seasons pass. This is real drama! Here are all these young people from all over the country trying to impress the self-styled King of Capitalism. I am not sure you would want Donald’s hair or his garish apartment, but I am sure many would want his money.

Being a venture capitalist, it is in part my job to try to figure out who would make a good CEO and who would not. That is the whole purpose of this show! So I watch and try to figure out who will likely win the weeks competition and who I would fire in the end. Now this task is complicated by the fact that you only see the highlights of what went on and not all of it. Also, the question of what Donald Trump would do and what Martin Tobias would do are two different things. But it is a fun mental exercise to see if the criteria by which I make the decision match up with Donald’s. I don’t expect a 100% correlation, but I do expect to understand the logic behind my decisions and hope to figure out the logic behind his (if different) and see if there is anything to be learned. In this case there is MUCH to be learned and that is the surprising AND fun part.

OK, Episode 1, the Phantom Menace. We get introduced to the plot and the characters. The producers did a good job of mixing up MBAs with corn fed bootstrappers. To keep things interesting they threw in a few wild cards that begin paying off right away. The first task Don gives them is to sell lemonade. Men against Women. Each team gets $250 bucks and one day. The one with the most money at end of the day wins. I like the idea of pushing people to do something they have never done, never thought about doing. It sees who is creative and can think under pressure. But lemonade on the streets of NYC? Of course the women are going to win. That was my first thought, sex sells. Then the teams get started and the women are totally confused and disorganized. The men get right out there and start selling. So I think the men actually have a chance. But they choose a crappy spot by the Fulton Fish market and sell their drink for only $1 per cup. Sam, the loose cannon, tries to sell one cup for $1,000 and goes down in flames. Dr. David Gould, the venture capitalist runs after people on the street hounding them with different (increasing) prices. He looks like a sports mascot. At the end of the day they have doubled their money, but are dispirited.

The women, meanwhile are being caty and have trouble finding each other. But they choose an uptown location and start selling their lemonade for $5 per cup. Kisses extra. they all tie up their shirts to expose their belly buttons and take their shoes off. Of course they make 4X their money! The women won and all got to stay even though the girl from Seattle was a disaster.

So the first thing I was wrong on was thinking the men had a chance. The second was on who would get fired.

So the men go to the board room to face Donald Trump hatchet. He uses a very interesting technique of having everyone in the room talk and say who they thought was responsible for the failure. It gets people to say difficult things in front of their peers. Very interesting. Donald was fishing for who was most responsible for the failure of the men’s team. I was rooting for Sam to be killed. I thought Don would pitch him for being an ass. He chose three to keep, David Gould, Sam and of course the team leader Troy. Troy led the team poorly. David admitted he was not a good sales person and would not be a good leader. Sam just was an asshole. Everyone on the team voted for Sam to be fired.

Donald went for Dr. David Gould. He said because he didn’t step up at all. Sam he said was a loose cannon and he didn’t know if he was going to be a disaster or a star, but was willing to give him another chance. I called it wrong because I forgot that Trump is a gunslinger. He is a risk taker. He is not a cerebral thinker and intellect like double PHD Dr. David Gould. He doesn’t have any time for people without guts. Or for people without discretion. So he let Sam live another week just to see how it would turn out and he fired the person who was the most wet noodle. The VC. ouch.