Lessons Learned - The Apprentice Week 9 - So Anand lied

Lessons Learned - The Apprentice Week 9 - So Anand lied


It should be apparent by now that lying in this day and age is not something that everyone can get away with anymore with a world that records everything on a scale that the ancients could never imagine.



Anand should have remembered that when he lied to Trump about the text. Not did he lie about texting, he lied about the content of the text, which apparently clearly violated the rules of the game.



I pointed out to a friend who watched the episode that the Celebrity Apprentices, did this with abandon. That is, they texted, tweeted, called, and emailed their contacts to get them to show up to the site of their tasks so that they could get some business and more money. I was told that because that format was for charity and not personal gain, it was allowed. This contestants for this format signed an agreement and Anand violated it by texting and asking for people that he may or may not know to come to the pedicab.



I personally don't see the harm-that is, it seems to me that the Apprentice contestants should be able to drum up business using social networking tools since in real life, many businesses do with varying degrees of success. however, it became apparent as the seasons of the Celebrity Apprentice wore that you can only hit up your connections so much before they become tapped out. For some this happened sooner than later.



However, if you agree to play by certain rules, you play by those rules.



Which is why you have to make sure that you read and understand everything that you sign-Business 101.



Moreover, the larger sin Anand committed in Trump's eyes was that he lied about it. Right there. In front of him. In front of the other contestants.



When I watched the episode, I could tell by way Trump asked the question and the fact that he kept repeated the questions that Anand did do commit this 'transgression' and he could prove it.



Trump summed up his feelings by saying that Anand's behaviour is what is wrong with the mindset of Wall Street today. I admittedly gave him my Rosie O'Donnell face-Wall Street did not recently become morally corrupt and I'm sure that while Trump may not have done anything illegal that can be proven, I bet when the illegal activities of Wall Street benefitted him indirectly, he didn't bat an eye.



There is no doubt that Trump would have fired Anand for the texting, no matter if he owned up to it or not. However Anand sealed his fate, I think with potential employers and business partners, by lying about what he did. He demonstrated poor judgment in both the texting and lying about the texting. Then when caught, he tried to downplay his crime, by saying that he really didn't really do it in a way that was really wrong. When the test was read and it used words like "pretend you don't know me," he then tried to further downplay it by stating that his team really didn't profit from it, which says, what exactly? That what you did, even though it was wrong was not important because your team didn't profit from it?



His team never knew he did this. So if it had panned out, this win for their team might have been vacated and Kelly, who was fired for being the losing project manager, might be back. It also calls into question every win the mens team had. Did Anand cheat in ways that brought them wins? If I were on the women's team (formerly all women, since they were now integrated), I'd question it. Unfortunately, Kelly's weaker decisions as a projectg manager are what cost her the task and I don't see Trump bringing her back. Although, she played by the rules and was honest in some cases, to her detriment in that final boardroom and I wager that future employers and business partners value that a bit more than someone who can ride a pedicab, but is underhanded in his business dealings.



I could comment on the rest of the episode, but it was straightforward-Cats, Inc fell apart due to in-fighting and "mean girls" behaviour and Poppy, who could have taken some lessons from Poppy Montgomery, formerly of Without a Trace, on diplomacy and team leadership, got the chop.



I will say that I was not pleased with Clint and his being gobsmacked about Brandy's lack of "feminine perspective." I'm all for leveraging assets and resources when you have them, however Clint's insistence/reliance on the fact that Brandy was female and therefore she would be able to deliver some deep insight into what would attract women to this product skirted the line of discrimination. Just like I would not expect because Clint is a Texan, that he would have any particular insight into cattle or the oil business or being redneck, he should not have judged Brandy's contribution on how girly-girl she is. Too many men do that in various ways. There was an episode of Grey's Anatomy, where Dr. Sloan wanted to get some kind of baked good for the going away party and decided to "delegate it" to the one of the women because he felt they would do a better job. Dr. Bailey, the first woman he approached, told him in no uncertain that he was crazy to expect her to take time out of her equally busy schedule to do something that he is supposed to do. Period.


I often am amused that some men, who would never allow themselves to be pigeonholed or pushed around in that way have no problem doing to women.



I hope that this is an aberration with Clint. Whether he works for Trump or not, he will have women on his team from different backgrounds and he must know that in most workplaces basing task assignment and judging job contribution on a person's gender is illegal.