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The Celebrity Apprentice (Great Lessons)

As a conclusion of this season, and as a continued effort from me to educate all my readers, I included all the lessons learned from the 2008 Celebrity Apprentice, enjoy:

1. The season premiere taught great lessons about thinking outside the box.
2. Identify your real goal and go straight for it. If you’ll win or lose based on the money you earn, go straight for the dollars - not for the hot dogs.
3. Select a leader with prior experience. True, Omarosa led her team to a defeat. But she was still the best choice anyway. When you’re in unfamiliar circumstances, aligning yourself with an experienced leader is your best choice.
4. Think ahead and act early. Even the best idea can’t save you if it comes too late.
5. Rely on your resources now. Why wait until tomorrow, when you might not still be around?
6. Picking the best leader doesn’t always guarantee a win. You’re more likely to cross the finish line first if everyone contributes.
7. Go to the decision-maker. Why try to second-guess what an important boss, customer or client wants? Just ask, find out - and then deliver.
8. Sabotaging your own team is a bad career strategy. It might let you survive until tomorrow. But in the long run, it will only cripple your chances of success.
9. Don’t let your leader smother you. Step out, stand up and fight for the responsibilities that let you shine.
10. Give decision-makers exactly what they ask for - even if you think you know better. Doing anything else only invites failure.
11. Simpler is smarter. Over-thinking and over-complicating will never get you to the top.
12. Listening is more powerful than talking. When you open your ears and your mind, you empower yourself to give people what they want. That’s a powerful way to build your success.
13. Always back up your data. If Hydra had simply kept handwritten notes about their plans, that would have saved the day. (I learned this lesson the hard way).
14. A bloated ego will sink your career. Of course you are smart. But use your intelligence to advance your team and your organization.
15. Set your own pace when negotiating. This is a concept that Donald Trump often stresses in his books - and we saw work on tonight’s episode. When you control the pace of negotiations, you control the outcome.
16. Just let it go. Holding grudges hurts your career, not anyone else’s. So take a deep breath and move on.
17. It’s not personal, it’s business. If you have to fire someone, why try to decimate their self-esteem? You can show this kind of greatness.
18. Never get too big to get your hands dirty. “Piers brought in the high rollers,” Vinnie summed up, “then he put on the sandwich board.” That was high praise indeed - and well deserved. It explains why Hydra is scoring win after win: unlike the women, the men never hesitate to jump onto the front lines of any battle.
19. It takes time and consideration to make sound business decisions. People like Piers and Vinny who shoot from the hip only put themselves and their teams in danger.

20. Creativity is not enough. In business, dollars always count.

21. You can’t undo a lie. When you lie, you never know what a “tangled web” you have started to weave. Honesty really is the best policy – and the most effective – as you build a solid career.

22. Let’s get real here. Attacking a colleague’s heritage, religion or race has no place in business. If you break this rule just once, you’ll end your career.

23. Have you ever wanted to fire a colleague? Of course! But in business, it doesn’t work that way. Grabbing boss’s authority will land you in trouble.

24. You’ve got to play with the cards you’re dealt. We all have to work with less-than-ideal colleagues. That’s part of any job. But if you can produce great results anyway, you will be a standout.

25. Listening isn’t enough. You have to deliver too. A few weeks ago, Gene Simmons got fired for giving judges what he wanted, not what they asked for. Why did Omarosa forget that lesson?

26. There is no “correct” leadership style. If you have to resort to a show of hands or another unorthodox strategy to put the lid on an overbearing team member like Piers, do it. Results count, not any nonexistent “rules.”

27. Don’t judge people on appearances. Trace looks tough, he used to work on an oil rig, but he speaks with the voice of a poet, as his song lyrics show. So as a leader, be sure to dig for people’s hidden skills.

28. Step up and show a strong work ethic every day. Over time, it will protect you from harm and advance your position. Don’t be like Nely, who held back and created her own failure.

29. Don’t be a legend in your own mind. Ego might keep you in the game for a while - but eventually you have to produce results in the world of business.

30. You can’t gain a big advantage over your competitors by doing exactly what they do. Either team could have solicited corporate sponsors for its cab. Either could have created a contest to record a song or have a workout with a celebrity - but they stuck to safe ground instead. Remember that to get a lead in your career, you need the guts to try new things.

31. Leaders let people know how their performance will be judged. Clearly stated expectations build your leadership effectiveness and get results.

32. Playing dirty might give you a temporary edge over your adversaries. But once your game is exposed, your career will suffer.

33. People who behave honorably do get ahead. They even win the favor of bosses as tough as Donald Trump!

34. If you want to inspire the people on your team, give them assignments that let them achieve not just the group’s goals, but their personal goals too. It’s a terrific way to motivate them.

35. Learn everything about the product you are selling. The knowledge you gain will give you a competitive edge.

36. Don’t drop the details when you are selling. Enthusiasm is great, but people will never buy any product until you convince them that it meets their needs.

37. Keep your professional image spic and span. Any lapse in professionalism can make you vulnerable in times of trouble when people are trying to deflect blame from themselves.

38. Learn from experience. To become successful in the future, you need to absorb and apply the lessons of the past.

39. Stick to your goals. Even the most appealing concepts - like Empresario’s picture of Trace serenading a model in a bathtub - won’t carry the day if they don’t support your business objectives.

40. Be subtle when you have to play politics. The real masters of office politics are never as blatant about it as Omarosa is. Whatever is left of her professional image is now in tatters.

41. Treat people kindly. Consideration counts in business - and in every encounter in your life. People with Tito’s kind of character can only succeed in life.

42. Never forget the law of supply and demand. You will always have a greater profit potential with a bigger inventory, period. Marketing counts – but you still need to have something to sell.

43. Sooner or later, lying always gets exposed. When Mr. Trump is in control, it gets exposed even faster. If you don’t play fair, you will eventually get trapped by your own lies.

44. Use your resources strategically if you are the leader. Know what your team members bring to the table and deploy their strengths strategically.

45. Don’t mess with what works. As Ivanka pointed out, there was no need to reinvent the wheel. And it worked. People flocked to see Lennox and they bought the sandwich in droves.

46. Be willing to listen. Very few good leaders lead by dictatorship. When your team members have something to say, hear them out. In this case, Piers has had lots of good ideas in the past and his ideas - to use Lennox and a twist on the best-selling sandwich - probably won the task for Hydra.

47. Know your track record. Everyone makes mistakes. But don’t let one poor performance take you down. In a professional manner, remind people about your past success and hopefully, as in Trace’s case, your past performance will outweigh one bad outing.

48. Be likable. In the cutthroat world of business, this seems like some unusual advice. But in this situation, it was apparent that Trace’s likability had a lot to do with the fact that he earned a spot in the final four while Stephen was fired.

49. Always have an “elevator speech” ready. It’s a short, well-rehearsed explanation of your accomplishments and plans. Write one and practice it - it can be critical to your success.

50. Never say die! Your ability to dig deeper and solve problems ultimately determines your success.

51. Lofty goals and business success really can go hand-in-hand. When you see an opportunity to do well by doing good, explore it.

52. Be assertive and say no. When people are being unreasonable, say so fast - and then explain why. You have to set guidelines quickly about what you can and cannot do.

53. Remember why you are building your success. It’s not for greed or dollars. It’s an expression of care for the people you love.

54. Ask people for help. And do it with your head held high. They will feel good to help you - and you’ll build your success at the same time.

55. Fight for causes that are bigger than you are. If you serve others as unswervingly as Piers did this season, you will enjoy personal success too.

When Mr. Trump created Celebrity Apprentice, he decided that the all the prize money would go to charities. Tito’s charity supported children, Stephen’s supported breast cancer - and the list goes on and on. It was an entertaining season - but the fact that it helped so many people made it stand head and shoulders higher than most any other program on the airwaves.

There you have it. 55 lessons from this season, all credits go to the Trump University, I hope this post was useful to all of you and all comments are welcome.