Lessons from The Apprentice
I got caught up in the series a few episodes in. I had heard about it from friends and tuned in just by chance. Weird little Sam was on the hot seat then and I thought it was kind of amusing how a team of cocky guys misled by an equally self-assured but incompetent Trump-wannabe got bested by a group of then cooperative and collaborative women. I decided to check back the next week.
The show made for great drama. I don’t usually care for reality shows, but this was Survivor in business suits. Sports, action adventure, type “A” individuals clawing their way to the top. Skillfully edited, each episode built tension from first minute to last. Each episode played up the kind of personalities, cunning, guile, and back-stabbing that soap opera producers can only dream of, except this wasn’t scripted.
And then there was The Donald. The ugliest hair on television, the billionaire uber-ego who puts his name on everything he owns, had an entire hour each week to self promote, something he does even better than manage real estate.
I suppose that’s where I am most conflicted. This show I made sure to watch each week espoused the very values I absolutely loath. It is naked capitalism at its very worst.
I made the conscious decision not to work in the private sector almost two decades ago after a brief stint with a very successful AM radio station that along with its sister FM station was garnering 53% of all the advertising revenue in a 20 station market. When they told us this information, we looked at our paychecks and something didn’t add up. Despite the best intentions and hard labor of any worker, in the private sector you’re really only working to make the top execs and stockholders richer. At the first sign of an economic downturn, they will always remind workers of their true worth to the company.
So I cut and ran for first government work, then the arts, now the non-profit community and I haven’t looked back. Despite the recent challenges, I have the most important thing to me: self respect and the knowledge that my work makes a contribution to the greater good of society.
After firing a bunch of competent, capable and possibly decent people who had dutifully jumped up and down like trained animals for the opportunity, it came down to just two for Thursday night’s two hour finale.
Bill beat Kwame and now gets to go home to Chicago and manage another exclusive luxury building that will bear the Trump name. He’ll be paid handsomely no doubt, but The Donald will get paid a thousand times more. And do the folks barely scratching out a living in the Windy City need another temple of ostentatiousness? I’m sure neither Trump nor Bill cares.
Don’t worry about Kwame, that handsome and unflappable brother will land on his feet despite Omarosa’s best attempts at sabotage. Some company will snap him up, and he’ll get a six or seven figure paycheck again one day, a nice house in the country and a trophy wife. Will any of his efforts wind up helping people like his grandparents who never got to go to a prestigious school like Harvard? Who knows?
And Omarosa. Oh Omarosa. She once said, if Kwame took her to the boardroom she was gonna take him out. Maybe that’s why she did what she did. I could make analogies to slaves selling each other out for the right to sit closer to master, but I won’t. Supposedly she has endorsement deals on the horizon as a result of this show. She’d better make the most of them, because nobody will be calling with a regular job any time soon. Out of 15 minutes of fame, she’s got about 12 left.
Next September, they’ll give us The Apprentice 2, and who knows how many more years it will continue. Maybe Trump will re-staff his entire corporation through this process? Other companies are already imitating the competitive team concept as a way of weeding out their weakest links. God help us all.
It all smacks of so much greed and misplaced values.
TrackBack
Just another day in the good ole U S of A - greed an' misplaced values, and capitalism at work - giving the fanatical and faddish something on which to focus until the fall when the 2nd version begins.
As for Omarossa,,,,,well ain't it typical for black folk to sell out on the plantation that is corporate america? Girl'fren was true to form, but karma will come a knockin'!
Dateline NBC tonight (friday april 17, 2004), ended with her as the last contestant on the red carpet as the crowd outside Trump Tower "booed" her, and I guess no one inside really wanted to hang around her. Karma's already knockin'! Yet, I'm sure Trump will cast the bitch nex' season.
NEXT!
Posted by: Kevin at April 17, 2004 2:08 AMI just don't understand if she was Just A Bitch or if she was paid to mess things up. Would she have screwed up Bill's situation as well? Did she *really* think she did nothing wrong? Is she watching all of this and laughing? Has Kwame had her killed yet?
Posted by: Jimi Sweet at April 17, 2004 9:35 AMThe sad thing is I was rooting for Omarosa until she screwed Kwame... I hope they were paying her because it wasn't worth it...
Great observation though...
Posted by: The Rock at April 18, 2004 11:14 PMAt first, part 1 of the finale - i thought it was all a set up, orchestrated by Trump to see how Kwame navigated the waters, but then when Trump said on NBC 4 news @ 11 that Omarossa backstabbed Kwame, I then thought it was NOT a set up! Who knows?
Kwame's better off not being the Apprentice anyway. He's got other options, and his 15-minutes of fame:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1784150&partnersite=espn
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4609983/
Karma already @ work!
Posted by: Kevin at April 22, 2004 10:33 AM