So, here it is ... the second episode. Let me just say right up front that I don't know how Brent could have beat other folks to be on the show. Or more precisely, the 15-week long interview. There had to be thousands of others more qualified than Brent. Fire the hiring manager! Oh? That would be Donald Trump? Eh. Fire him anyway. At the very least, give him a written warning and dock his pay. Brent acts like a nutcase. I can't see how he passed as a normal person during the pre-show interview process.
In the recap of last week, I noticed that Lee said that Tarek possessed a "lack of mismanagement." Okay. How did that get by me? Tarek must be better than I thought he was.
This week's task was another so-so one. The teams worked with Gillette promoting the Fusion 5 blade razor. They had to come up with a keyword and get folks to text message it. Thrilling, huh? What may be thrilling for Trumpsters is that instead of Carolyn and George, it would be Ivanka Trump (Donald's daughter) and Bill Rancik (winner of the first season) involved in the show this week. Now, I've seen Bill every now and then, but I haven't seen Ivanka much. She's very pretty, but she seemed almost too poised, too polished, too Barbie-looking for reality. Give me Carolyn back.
Pepi volunteered to be the project manager for Synergy while Lee stepped up to the managerial plate for Gold Rush. And, then it all fell apart, more for one team than the other. But I think neither team really had a handle on this task. The teams were too busy imploding to really get their game on and develop solid plans.
Lee was not a good project manager. He was wishy-washy and then became almost defiantly wishy-washy. Meanwhile, Lenny freaked out a bit too much at Lee, but at least he had a good idea - go to the TKTS line in Times Square to get people to text message the keyword they chose. Yes! A perfect location! Times Square, if you've never been there, has crowded streets even in the middle of the night, hence "the city that never sleeps." But these folks are moving along. About the only place they just stand in large quantities is at the TKTS line where Broadway play tickets and other event tickets are sold. Thankfully, Lee checked his ego just in time and realized Lenny was spot on with the location.
Oh, but over at Synergy, things were an absolute mess! Pepi had a difficult team, and he handled things almost as poorly as he could. He showed no managerial skills at all. Brent, well ... look at my opening paragraph. He needs to be gone and should never have been selected. Stacy overreacted to Brent and she really did interrupt him a lot. He had a point there. A bunch o' whackos, I say! Michael decided they would wear bathrobes. And, yes, I'm rolling my eyes just reflecting back on it all. They overslept, thus giving Gold Rush a huge lead. Brent danced in a sandwich sign while wearing a robe and declaring himself a star. "Give him a red nose and some big-ass shoes!" From what they aired tonight, the only member of Synergy who seems to have her act together is Roxanne. At least she woke up, panicked at the hour and got everyone going. They had no solid plan. Stacy, who claims to know the city, stuck them in Times Square where all is bustling, not at a location like TKTS. Sheesh, Central Park would have been better!
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Article comments
1 - Joanie
Congrats! Your article was placed on Advance.net
2 - Mark Saleski
if i hear "step up" one more time, i'm gonna have a hissy fit.
3 - Rodney Welch
I think "total disaster" is becoming the next Apprentice cliche. And yes, Brent is doomed, probably sooner than later, but he totally had my sympathy last night. Yes, he's a nutcase; I half expected him to be hauled off to the mental hospital when he was doing jumping jacks in his bathrobe in Times Square.
However, he did not threaten Stacy. All he did was confront her, and he had every right to do so. Her assertion to the contrary was a classic Apprentice backfire -- one of those cases, which we've seen often by now, where complaining about another team member only reveals your own weakness.
Also, I loved the look on Pepi's face when Brent tore into him -- if Pepi thought he could just walk right over the sweating desperate fat kid, he was wrong. I was glad to see Stacy and Pepi canned, to know that Trump thought they were worse than Brent. That had to hurt and, for me, it hurt so good.
My dream boardroom: Brent faces off against Mensa-Boy, and STILL wins! Could lige get any better for this Apprentice fan? I don't THINK so...
4 - Brent
I'm a little prejudiced because Brent not only shares my name but my nationality (we're both Canadian) but I don't think he's nuts. A potential disaster for his team yes, but not nuts. He seems to throw ideas around like other people throw balls but everyone seems to have the opinion that none of his ideas are even worth listening to which is why he had the confrontation with Stacy in the first place. It would be interesting to know whether the volume of text messages went up or down after he did his "clown" routine. If it went up, it would seem to indicate at least one of his ideas worked.
Pepi was a disaster as team leader. Trump said that Gold Rush had 100 text messages logged before Synergy even hit the street (strike one), so assuming that Synergy could have motivated as many people to text in in the same period, they'd still have lost. As it was, before Brent's "antics" they seemed to have all the business sense of those guys in Vegas who hand out flyers for strip clubs, because that's exactly what they were doing. In bathrobes. (Strike two) Their contact with their potential "client base" was a few seconds as the people were walking by and there didn't seem to be any effort to connect with people to get them to use their phones. High traffic means a lot of people moving by but not stopping. What Synergy had was a location where they had time to connect with people because they were waiting for something they wanted. Pepi and the rest of his Gold Rush team (excepting Brent since no one had any desire to actually pay attention to any idea he had) didn't get that a captive audience is easier to work than a moving throng. Location is everything but you have to know what you can and can't do with it. (Strike three, you're out.)
5 - CAROLINA AKA DIAMOND
Aight , the new apprentice, could be americas next idiot !Maybe who knows ! One thing is sure is that people now days really pay attention to other peoples look ! However MONEY always looks good ! If Brent can get the JOB done and make profits for the trump organization thats all it matters he can be 300 pounds and It wouldnt make a difference. However he should be carefull because thats his health that hes playing with.To look good and look healthy is a personal stuff not a national concern.
KEEP IT UP BRENT !
6 - Dynamo of Eternia
I honestly don't see Brent lasting very long, but I think half of the problem (if not more so) is that the rest of the team seems to just jump to conclusions about him.
He was kind of a disaster in the first episode, throwing out weird suggestions like "Let's call ourselves team Killer Instinct" and things like that.
However, this week, I don't think he really did anything wrong (granted, this may be in part due to the fact that he wasn't really given the chance to do anything wrong, but still).
They started out with sort of a brainstorming session of sorts, with Pepi asking people to throw out their ideas. Brent said he had 2 ideas. His first idea (if I recall correctly) was to possibly use the image of a man with shaving cream on his face, in the process of shaving. Now, this maybe wasn't the most original idea in the world, and maybe wouldn't have been the best route to go, but it hardly seems like a terrible idea as far as I am concerned. They are trying to get people interested in this product, so wouldn't showing someone using said product possibly be an idea at least worth considering?
And before he had the chance to say what his second idea is, Stacy cut him off. He then confronted her about it. He did not threaten her. Maybe he was a little out of line, but I can completely see where the guy was coming from. All he wanted was for his ideas to be heard. But instead, Stacy blew the whole thing out of proportion, told everyone about the supposed "threat," and then the team proceeded to spend precious time that should have been focused on the project to instead talk about the "problem" with Brent ad nausium.
The thing is, if Stacy and everyone else had just allowed him to present his second idea, they could have easily moved on. If they didn't like either of his ideas, then they could have just gone with someone else's, and then there wouldn't have been this incredibly stupid time-wasting issue that in reality was mostly in Stacy's head.
And like I said, the one idea that Brent did get to present didn't sound that bad. Maybe not great, but certainly not horrible. I think these people are just automatically assuming that anything that comes out of his mouth is just going to be junk, and they don't bother actually listening to the guy. That exact same idea could have been presented by any other member of the team, and odds are it would have been treated much more respectfully by the rest of team and taken into at least some kind of consideration, even if it wasn't the route that they would end up going in.
The guy is kind of a loose cannon, I will say that. And I don't see him lasting very long. However, they had only worked with him for one task prior to this one, so they barely knew the guy at all, and really just automatically jumped to a lot of conclusions about him. They basically say he is drowning before he even has a chance to jump into the pool.
Then, in the end, yeah, he was dancing in the street like a fool. However, that seemed to actually start working in terms of getting people's attention on what they were trying to do. They still ended up with 400-something text messages. Prior to Brent doing that, they were barely getting any attention at all. If he hadn't of stepped up and done what he did, odds are they would have lost the task by a much larger margin than they actually did. He really came through for the team in the end on at least some level, and most of them failed to recognize that.
Brent wasn't the distraction... their preconceived notions and tendencies to jump to conclusions about him were the real distraction (a bulk of the fault of that falling on Stacy's lap). As was pointed out in the board room, the robes were not a good idea, and they all stayed in one place together, which was also not the best idea. The other team spread out and got more messaged.
If you take into consideration that probably at least most of those 400 text messages would still have been received if Brent was left by himself (or maybe with 1 other person working with him) on that corner where he was dancing all crazy, then if the rest of the team had split up and had a stronger plan on how to get the message out to the public, then they probably could have easily gotten more than enough additional text messages to beat the other team.
Brent probably won't last long, but if they really want to be rid of him, then the best bet is to just let him "step up to the plate" and put him in a position of responsibility. If he screws up, then he will likely be the one to go in the scenario. If everyone just keeps complaining about him for every little thing, but without really letting him sink or swim on his own, then he will probably keep dodging the bullet, at least for a while, with the people who keep trying to hold him back and marginalizing him being the ones who end up getting fired.
And who knows, maybe if put in a position of responsibility, he will actually surprise everyone and do a good job. I wouldn't bet my last dollar on it, but stranger things have happened.
7 - Jackie
Mark - If you have a hissy fit in the comments section... well, there's a mop and pail in the janitor's closet. ;-)
I know what you mean. If I told my employees to step up so much, they'd probably step off -- and quit!
8 - Jackie
Wow! Fantastic comments ... lots of food for thought! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the show.
As for Brent being a "true" nutcase, I doubt it. I don't think he works well in groups and that his little on camera confessional time has indicated he carries some emotional baggage, but I do think he's smart. I personally think his biggest problem is that he feels others don't respect or listen to him, thus he overdoes things and gets to demanding attention. That said, I can't see him running a Trump company.
And, Rodney -- You (and Trump) are right. He didn't threaten Stacy and I saw she just kept interrupting him when they were all together. She handled that situation much more poorly than Brent. Instead of freaking out and yelling that he threatened her, she could have calmly worked things out with him. I think she was a worthy fire.
Dynamo -- Hey, I think you have it nailed. They should make him project manager and let him sink or swim. I can't help but wonder how he'd do.
Brent -- You're definitely a better Brent! ;-) I didn't think either team did well, but Synergy was so much worse. I think the only PERSON who impressed me was Lenny and I didn't really like his tactics, but he had to push -- otherwise Lee wouldn't have listened to him.
Caroline -- Alas, looks do count a lot in the corporate world. They shouldn't, but they do.
:-(