The Apprentice

My favourite reality TV show is the Apprentice. It used to be The Amazing Race, but it's getting abit too boring, emphasising more on facets of team bickering than issuing good challenges. Now, the Apprentice is into its 3rd season, but it is interesting to see how the contestants still commit some real common mistakes.

Yesterday night's episode saw a repeat of such simple yet fatal mistakes. The challenge was to design an office tool which helps to reduce office clutter. This particular challenge was hosted by a company called Staples - a mega-sized corporation that has a turnover of US$15 billion a year. That's more than US$1 billion a month!

Mistake #1 - The leader of the losing team chose to do a pseudo-market survey by seating in the office and flipping the phone directory. (The winning team went down to a Staples store to conduct an actual survey)

Mistake #2 - The leader again decided that it was pointless to meet with the Staples executives, the very ones who would decide on the winning product. He felt that a phone conversation would suffice. (The winning team met with the executives face to face)

In past seasons and episodes, leaders who made such lousy calls were fired in the Boardroom by the man himself, Mr Trump. However, this time round, the leader went away unscathed. Well, Mr. Trump has said himself that that leader is one of his favourites.

Now, while seating comfortably on my new sofa and cursing at the contestants' stupid decisions, it is easy for me to pinpoint their mistakes. But of course, I have the power of 6/6 hindsight, a great bystander's view and without the actual heat of being grilled in the show. Or are the contestant's just plain silly? Hmmm.....

What set me thinking was this - is knowledge and work efficiency less important than the ability to "PR" and form relationships with the Boss, to get to the top? A recent comment from an associate had already started me thinking about this. This associate drives a premium soft-top, has a company car at his disposal, another spare car for the wifey, and owns 2 condos, all at age 31. In jest, yet I'm sure there's more truth than not, he said,"I don't know much but I can play politics and mind games real well".

Friends from various industries are always complaining that it's not how well you do your job, but how you can bring in cold hard cash for the company. That's why the rich, with their gold-plated network, get richer. The diligent working class never gets to breathe the air above that glass ceiling.

In my own experience, I left my first workplace cos I didn't know how to suck-up and bootlick. It was impossible to find that impetus to betray yourself, especially when our system promised a good life as long as you did well in school. People I know have had better corporate career paths by helping the boss move house (yes, hard labour, and I helped!), be the boss' caddy in the wee hours of the morning, and even handing the boss a box of luminous Hello Kitty condoms from Bangkok. Really, I'm not kidding.

For me, it's not so much of not being able to swallow my pride and go down that road. It's more about me not being able to kiss the boss' ass without feeling too cheesy about it. When I hear what people do to get a step up, including what I mentioned above, I just cringe. It's simply beyond me to pull such stunts with a straight face and still be able to see myself in the mirror. I'm a Heineken guy (in more ways than one) --- Be True to Yourself.

Well, I guess there's alot to learn in life. At times, you do need to carry some balls to get ahead, or even just to keep up. As a friend once said,"What's pride? Can eat or not?"; and then there's the proverbial "Pride comes before a fall".

Me? I'm still an apprentice myself in the school of life. So, I'm gonna keep on watching The Apprentice and pick up a few tips from the master developer himself, and from all the contestants. As someone once said,"Life is too short to experience everything yourself, so learn from other people's mistakes".


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