Latest / Real Donald Trump Wisdom / The Apprentice US - Season 1, Episode 1 - Meet the Billionaire (2004)
Transcript
- 0:00Hey guys, very excited to be back. This time
- 0:03to talk about The Apprentice US, Donald Trump's
- 0:06reality TV show. So we're going to start off
- 0:09with Season 1, Episode 1, Meet the Billionaire.
- 0:12So in this show, basically, there are 16 contestants
- 0:17from all over the United States, from all walks
- 0:19of life. You have people with only high school
- 0:21diplomas, or excellent at sales, people with
- 0:25Harvard MBAs, or... with an MD and an NYU MBA.
- 0:30So you really have like a whole spectrum. One
- 0:33that has a PhD and who's a political consultant.
- 0:36You have all types of skill sets. So Trump chose
- 0:41from thousands of applicants these 16 contestants.
- 0:45And you have an interesting mix. So eight men,
- 0:48eight women. And he makes the choice early on
- 0:51to divide them as... by gender, basically, to
- 0:57have two teams set up, male and female. And it's
- 1:03going to be interesting to notice the dynamics.
- 1:07Trump is advised by George Ross, one of his legal
- 1:14counsel, and he's going to be the coach for the
- 1:19female team. And he has a female advisor who's
- 1:24going to be the coach for them. The first challenge
- 1:28he's going to give them, by the way, eventually
- 1:31what's going to happen is they're competing for
- 1:34the chance to be president of one of Trump's
- 1:38companies for one year and to have a very high
- 1:41salary. So they're all competing to become The
- 1:44Apprentice and to come under Trump's wing. And
- 1:49to that, Trump's going to give them a challenge
- 1:52every week. And every week there will be one
- 1:56team that has done more poorly on the challenge
- 2:00who is going to be responsible for that poor
- 2:06performance. And basically they're going to select
- 2:09the project manager and the two people who were
- 2:13least helpful. And they'll be the ones considered
- 2:17basically to be fired. After 15 episodes. We'll
- 2:22come to the last one who's going to be the winner.
- 2:24So this is how it's going to play out over the
- 2:30next few weeks. The challenge this week is basically
- 2:35to set up a lemonade stand and to sell lemonade.
- 2:39So Trump is already showing the contestants,
- 2:43no matter how qualified they are or how educated
- 2:47they might be, how resourceful you have to be
- 2:53to really get things done. He's putting them
- 2:56with a small budget in New York City. He's giving
- 3:01them one day to see how much lemonade they can
- 3:04sell, how much they can generate. So you have
- 3:07the man, the woman, trying to be as resourceful
- 3:09as possible. He's choosing a different location
- 3:12and trying to get maybe free tables or cups from
- 3:23nearby restaurants or vendors. And eventually
- 3:27Trump is going to very clearly, we're going to
- 3:32see that the men have an issue with the location.
- 3:34They're not, they haven't picked a good location.
- 3:39And Trump is going to share very practical advice
- 3:43that he thinks on location. So let me play that
- 3:48for you. Always felt location is important, but
- 3:58the people behind the deal are much more important
- 4:01than location. I'd much rather have a really
- 4:03smart, talented guy doing a deal in a not so
- 4:06good location than an idiot doing a deal in a
- 4:10great location because you'll make money every
- 4:12time. Always felt location is important. All
- 4:15right, so we see Trump here as basically saying
- 4:18that even though location is very important,
- 4:21we know that location, location, location is
- 4:24a tenant of real estate, that it's much more
- 4:27important to do business with a reasonable and
- 4:30trustworthy person than if you have the wrong
- 4:35partner, even with the best location, it can
- 4:37turn sour. Whereas if you're dealing with the
- 4:41right person, even a not so good location can
- 4:45turn out better so it is important the location
- 4:48but what's much more important is the person
- 4:51you're doing business with so this is one of
- 4:54the first uh takeaway all right so as i said
- 4:58the the men are going to do poorly in this challenge
- 5:01and they'll be the ones confronted in the boardroom
- 5:04you know basically to designate who were the
- 5:10poorest performers among their team and who might
- 5:12eventually get fired. And I want you to listen
- 5:15to this interaction that Trump had with one of
- 5:18the contestants, and then I'll comment on it.
- 5:34I understand that, but I'm not just going to
- 5:35talk the talk. Everybody here is a good leader.
- 5:37I'm not going to argue with that, and I'll stick
- 5:39up for everybody on that. But they were saying
- 5:41that Troy isn't a good leader. Well, I didn't
- 5:44finish. I'm saying that... Now, Jason, let me
- 5:46just say something. When you're trying to be
- 5:48chosen by someone, you don't interrupt them and
- 5:51say, let me finish. That's number one, you know,
- 5:53in terms of life. We're talking about life, right,
- 5:55fellas? Yes, sir. So when I ask you a question,
- 5:58and I'm not finished with the question, you don't
- 6:01say, let me finish. That's a bad move. You know,
- 6:04Jason, you can sit. All right. So basically,
- 6:08George Ross is asking one of the contestants
- 6:11why he's not talking that much, like why he's
- 6:13not giving any feedback. And the person quickly
- 6:17says, you know, gives a generic answer to which
- 6:21Trump interrupts him and asks another question.
- 6:23And basically he interrupts Trump back. And that's
- 6:27it. A bit disrespectful if you see video, you
- 6:30see the difference in age, you see the difference
- 6:31in status. Basically, Trump is just reminding
- 6:35him that if he seeks to get something from Trump,
- 6:39so the validation or his respect, he should definitely
- 6:43be more careful in his speech. So basically to
- 6:50be careful when you're, you should try. in a
- 6:53way to please the person whose favor you're seeking.
- 6:55He wants approval from Trump. You shouldn't dismiss
- 6:59or interrupt or interject like that. That was
- 7:02the first one. The second one is another excellent
- 7:05take, again, in the same interaction, pretty
- 7:07much. David, a leader is supposed to listen,
- 7:10take everything in, and then at that point decide
- 7:12what's going on, not all of a sudden get out
- 7:14of the gate and start delegating. Do you think
- 7:16they would have listened to you? Yeah, because
- 7:18I would have listened to them. See, I think that's
- 7:20business school stuff. You have to act. Not just
- 7:23listen. Troy. It's easy to answer these questions
- 7:26today because you're a Monday morning quarterback.
- 7:29You're right. All right, so Trump thinks that
- 7:34he's seeking consensus. all the time. You know,
- 7:37Trump is credited to being a very good listener
- 7:40in the White House and in other places. He really
- 7:42seeks counsel from many different sources. Here
- 7:46he's saying that it's basically business quotes,
- 7:49basically very theory -oriented to think that
- 7:52before acting, you have to just come to an absolute
- 7:55consensus. It's very hard to do, first of all.
- 7:57And second of all, you're losing precious time.
- 7:59So Trump is going to favor... the ball right
- 8:03to favor the action and favor quick decision
- 8:06making you'll see this as a recurring theme he
- 8:08wants to come to decision quickly and not he's
- 8:12really the the antithesis of the the person who
- 8:15loves to do committees after committees after
- 8:18committees he wants to go straight for the action
- 8:21that makes the most sense um so that was another
- 8:24interesting comment and now we'll get closer
- 8:27to who's going to get eliminated i won't really
- 8:30hopefully not spoil too much, but there's a project
- 8:35manager and two contestants. One knew that he
- 8:39was going to be put up for elimination and he
- 8:44was very proactive. Basically, he wrote a list
- 8:47of pros and cons of each of his competitors to
- 8:49show to Trump how he thinks pretty much. And
- 8:53the other person was not as prepared. First of
- 8:58all, he didn't... Didn't expect maybe to be nominated,
- 9:00but this is what he says when he's asked about
- 9:03his performance. David, if you were the team
- 9:08leader, do you think the result would have been
- 9:09different? Not in this case, because sales is
- 9:11not my forte. Right. So he admits that sales
- 9:16is not his forte, even though he knows that the
- 9:21top line is extremely important in real estate
- 9:23and for any of Trump's business friends, sales.
- 9:26It is really the lifeblood of any business. And
- 9:29admitting so openly to his lack of expertise
- 9:33in this field is really shooting himself in the
- 9:37foot. And this is the person who is going to
- 9:41be eliminated. And this person, for you to understand
- 9:44the caliber... uh my perception of the caliber
- 9:48of the apprentice is that the first person on
- 9:51the first episode of the first season of their
- 9:53apprentice to be eliminated is a person who's
- 9:55a medical doctor an md mba who's a venture capitalist
- 9:59investing in biotech so this gives you an idea
- 10:03of truly that book smart and street smarts are
- 10:09uncorrelated and that people who are extremely
- 10:14book smart should make an effort to go on the
- 10:17other side. And of course, people who are very
- 10:20street smart should do the effort to complement
- 10:23perhaps with books. But I think this clearly
- 10:26illustrates that relying on formal education
- 10:29is not enough to succeed, of course, in the real
- 10:34world. And also throughout the show, he was less...
- 10:44he didn't portray competence. He portrayed more
- 10:50agreeableness. He tried to be friends or overly
- 10:55friendly with customers more than being value
- 11:01-added. You'll see it in specific ways. won't
- 11:05spoil it and finally the reward for the ladies
- 11:09it was to getting to visit Trump's apartment
- 11:12and to get introduced to Melania Trump and after
- 11:16the tour so they're very impressed Trump has
- 11:17a massive penthouse with marble gold everywhere
- 11:21it is a very impressive tour and at the end he
- 11:25basically tells the women that this was just
- 11:28kind of to motivate them but that they have to
- 11:30put back their competitive hat suggesting that
- 11:35competition is on and to not be distracted by
- 11:39this, you know, by this opportunity. So here
- 11:44is how this sounds. So this is the beginning.
- 11:48Now you have to put on your competitive hat again,
- 11:50forget about this and go out and work and see
- 11:53how you can do because you want to win. All right.
- 11:56So not be distracted by, even I heard this in
- 12:01another speech today. don't believe your own
- 12:07press or your own encouragement. The fact that
- 12:09they won this first challenge means nothing for
- 12:13what's going to come next. They shouldn't rest
- 12:14on their laurels. Trump said that at some point
- 12:17he saw articles saying that he had everything
- 12:20touched, turned to gold, and he really believed
- 12:22it. And then he took uncalculated risks, and
- 12:25that led him to trouble in the early 90s. You
- 12:32want to celebrate when it's due, but to not let
- 12:37it get to your head and keep your eyes on the
- 12:40prize. So basically like he's telling them to
- 12:43put back the competitive hat to continue the
- 12:46competition. So I hope you appreciate this first
- 12:48look at the first episode of the first season
- 12:52of The Apprentice. I'll try to continue covering
- 12:55these as we go along also. with the books in
- 13:00parallel. Thanks a lot for tuning in.