Donald Trump and The Apprentice Rules Applied to Dating
I was reading an article about the Apprentice and some of the
rules that Donald Trump and his apprentice assistants had come
up with about business. While reading a lot of them I saw a huge
relation to how these same rules also apply to dating as crazy
as it might sound.
Donald Trump is a famous Billionaire who has endured ups and
downs for a number of decades. It appears a large portion of his
wealth has been made in Real Estate. Recently he has had a
popular reality series NBC has been showing known as the
Apprentice. The Reality Show isn't all frivolous as a lot of the
other reality shows around.At the center of every episode are
real gems on how to climb a corporate ladder, how to lead, how
to stand out from the crowd and even how to fail and avoid
getting the boot.
The Apprentice centers on a competition for a job working for
the Billionaire Donald Trump. Every episode features some sort
of business task or some sort of competition. At the end of each
episode some of the competitors are fired which means they leave
the show and miss out on the opportunity to work for My Trump.
This takes place in the Boardroom where members are encouraged
to evaluate their teammates performance, abilities, work ethics.
The guy who makes the biggest errors tends to be the one
"fired". Beyond winning the competition, each individual team
member must act in a manner that earns him or her respect as a
project manager or team member.
Some of the gems of the show for thought.
1. Think Like A Winner Donald Trump's most profound comment (and
first commandment) is, "Winning is everything." He explained
that while there is no better feelin... the ability to think
like a winner is the key to being one. Those who take their eyes
off the prize wind up hearing two little words: you're fired.
This relates to dating as somebody who feels confident can be
confident.A person who feels he has already won a battle has a
huge edge over somebody who feels he has a lot of obstacles to
overcome. A person who feels he is a winner is a winner as your
beliefs are what shape you.The person you wish to win over will
be heavily more attracted to somebody who believes in themselves
than somebody who doesn't.
2. Polish Your Interview Skills The importance of exceptional
interview skills became crucial as the field narrowed to the
final four contestants in episode 14. Kelly, Jennifer M, Kevin
and Stacy underwent a grueling series of job interviews with
four of the top business leaders in the world. The two
candidates left standing after this process Kelly and Jennifer M
demonstrated superior ability to think on their feet. Some of
the spontaneous answers lobbed by Kevin and Sandy, made viewers
cringe. It quickly became clear who had the ?right stuff' to
survive the hot seat.
This second rule can be applied to having good communication
skills. Somebody who can think of their feet and express their
thoughts easily can communicate their feelings much more
easily.Somebody who is also good at interviews will know what to
say that can open somebody up to a whole new level. They will
allow a great sense of rapport to be built quickly and be very
deep.
3. Lead Strong or Play Along Getting their team of ?alphas' to
follow without question was a challenge for each project
manager. Some ruled with an iron fist, others used manipulation
and guilt. Some didn't handle it at all. In episode 11, Wes took
the lead in a task to create an ad campaign for Levi's Jeans.
Maria, one of his teammates, thought she had this task together
and angrily told Wes to back off, while she seized control.
Maria was so busy throwing her weight around, she missed the
primary focus of jeans advertising... the ?butt shots'. This
single oversight cost the team dearly. Later, in The Boardroom,
Wes was fired for failing to control Maria,,, and she was fired
for posing as a know-it-all. Two for the price of one turned out
to be all in a day's work for Mr. Donald Trump.
On this and dating. One of the things we teach our students in
workshops is to lead and never hesitate. When a student sees
strong indications of interest it is his responsibility to act
on them and follow up. If a student fails to lead than the
interest level will soon drop to a very low level quickly.
Learning to Play along can also be taken as a way to see the
signals and be aware of them.When somebody is showing interest
it's best to play along and let them be interested than giving
them something else.
4. Step Up; Take Responsibility Finger-pointing was rampant
among teams on the Apprentice. If you were really slick about
it, laying blame off on one of your teammates could help you
survive another day. If you weren't... oh well.
This is a common thing I see with some students when I hear
about what they have done before working with Fidentia in a
workshop. They fail to take responsibility for their own
actions.This is done in so many ways its crazy.First if they
have a bad date they blame the date a lot, where they went, what
they did, others around yet they never look at themselves and
wonder if they could have done anything different to improve the
situation.The only way to learn from mistakes is to first
realize you made a mistake in the first place.
Another example is guys who use different systems for dating.
There are many programs out there. I can make ALL of them
work.When a student can not make something work. They tend to
first want to blame the system instead of themselves. So they
are on a constant search of dating systemsnever realizing that
each system has had some students have success.They can not
learn if they do not take responsibility for their own actions.
5. Resist the Impulse to Be Impulsive The game provides that the
winning project manager receive an exemption from firing should
his or her team lose the following week an Apprentice "Get Out
of Jail Free" card. Bradford won week one... but lost in week
two. He had clearly been the hardest working and most productive
on his team and Mr. Trump seemed to especially favor him.
Moreover, he had the exemption and could not be fired. All he
had to do was sit back and make insightful comments about his
teammates. But Bradford let his cockiness get in the way of
sound business judgment. He bragged to Mr. Trump that he was so
confident of his performance he was willing to give up his
exemption. Trump accepted Bradford's offer... and then fired
him, for making an unwise and impulsive decision. It was a
harsh, but instructive consequence for acting in a rash manner.
One of the things I can think of with this is somebody who is
too impulsive is not paying attention to others.A relationship
is a two way street involving both parties.When somebody is
being impulsive and the other person isn't respective than this
creates a dead end.
6. Instill Confidence in Your Team Both of the final two
contestants, Kelly and Jennifer M, demonstrated how to respect
and inspire their co-workers. Choosing people you trust and with
whom you have mutual respect goes a long way toward success. In
the final episode, eight of the previously fired teammates were
brought back to become the support team for the final task.
Jennifer and Kelly were allowed to take turns choosing their
team members. Kelly took a stronger role with his team,
expecting more of each of them, while Jennifer delegated the
heavy lifting to herself. In the end, both sets of teams did a
great job for their PMs, but Kelly's team proved more loyal and
spoke more highly of his leadership abilities. Their confidence
in him had an impact on the final outcome.
This can be taken in installing confidence in who you are
attracted to.When you are interested in them and extremely
confident. Others will feel your true feelings. When they can
feel your feelings they will mirror them.Who wants to be around
somebody who takes away their confidence?
7. Watch What You Say Both talking too much and saying the wrong
thing can hurt you in business. Jennifer C was an example of
both errors and their consequences. Every time she appeared in
The Boardroom, Jennifer was admonished by both Mr. Trump and his
property manager, Carolyn, for talking when she should have been
listening to others. Later, after making a demeaning comment
about two women customers in an episode, she was booted from the
show. To add injury to her insult, when the show finally aired,
she was also fired from her real world job for that comment.
This applies to dating with the idea of listening is just as
important as talking.Telling somebody they are pretty when they
are trying to make a point and have something important to say
is not what they want to hear. The same would go for things such
a negative hits or being cocky and funny which are terms used in
the seduction community. A negative hit is a slight insult which
is supposed to be insulting but not seem like you meant it. I do
not usually endorse this. It is to try to convey you are not
really interested in your target person to let their guard down.
Somebody who is being very cocky and funny can do so at the
wrong time too. When a person is showing signs of interest they
are asking for rapport. Giving them answers that are cocky and
funny will actually break rapport and chase a lot of people
away.
8. Know When to Listen During another visit to The Boardroom,
Trump chastised (National Debate Champion) Andy for not standing
up and arguing in his own behalf. Andy shot back to Mr. Trump
that part of being a debate champ is in knowing when to talk and
when to listen. A short and sweet argument that paid off.
I think this and how it applies to dating and seduction is very
obvious. Listening is a key part of communication. 9. Keep it
Strictly Business Viewers were told over and over that The
Apprentice contestants were culled from over a million
applicants and were said to be the best of the very best. This
being so, one wouldn't expect the male participants to lose
their composure when attractive women crossed their paths,
mid-task. And yet, there was Raj. In addition to an unending
stream of inappropriate comments, Raj stopped just short of a
butt wiggle and a "woooo, whooo " whenever a beautiful woman was
within ten feet. And while this behavior did not directly lead
to his being fired, it did (often) cause him to lose focus and
take his eye off the prize. In fact, Raj was ultimately fired
for letting an important detail slide making sure the toilet was
installed in a home he was charged with remodeling.
This is a little bit more difficult to summarize for dating.
Somebody who lacks focus tends to lack drive. When you really
have a goal in mind going after 20 different things usually gets
somebody nowhere.
10. Avoid Showing Your A** This one should be a no-brainer, but
since it actually happened, maybe not. Fairly late in the game,
in episode 13, Ivana was desperate for a win. Clutching at
straws, she offered to pull down her skirt and flash her
underwear to a strange businessman on the street if he would pay
her twenty dollars for a candy bar worth one dollar. He did...
and then she did... So, it was no surprise that Ivana wound up
in The Boardroom, having to explain this gaff to Mr. Trump. She
claimed her action as a ?gimmick.' But this taught us another
valuable lesson know when you have done something inappropriate
and face it head on. When she refused to acknowledge that she
crossed a line, the shock, dismay and controversy surrounding
her behavior was palpable.
Well this is true but there is a time to show you're a** and a
time not to show your assets. When you first meet somebody
common sense says don't take off your pants as the first things
you do when introducing yourself.
To summarize all of this a lot of the rules that help somebody
get ahead in business can also help them get ahead dating other
To learn more about "The Apprentice" go to http://www.NBC.com