Yes I watch reality TV, it always makes me chuckle with how unrealistic a lot of it is and the producers visions of reality. I commented before on The Apprentice, time to do so again…
Anyway, saw The Apprentice finale last night. I have to say I liked Randall from the first show but in the last couple of shows I started to see past the shininess and started thinking that maybe he wasn’t quite as squeaky nice and intelligent as he liked to portray. Seeing the next to last episode and the finale convinced me of it. Anyway, my opinion now? Randall, you are an overeducated putz. You speak well, but you aren’t quite as bright as you may like to think.
Quite honestly I don’t think Randall won The Apprentice. Donald blew the decision. At best Randall tied and if I have to be completely honest, he lost to Rebecca. I think Rebecca is far more flexible and intelligent, Randall is simply educated.
Anyway, no crying over spilled milk, the hair man declared Randall the winner of The Apprentice. Then after Randall walked around cheering Donald called him back and asked him what he thought of Rebecca and whether Donald should hire her as well. Randall, being the putz that he is simply saw it as something that would take away from him and said no, the show is called and I quote because this was assinine “The Apprentice, not the Apprentii”[1]. This shows his lack of intelligence or ability to actually really think. Trump didn’t say, hey, do you want Rebecca to share the Apprentice title with him, he said, should WE hire HER?
I think Randall failed the first test as an employee that Donald gave him. I would BE VERY leery if I worked under Randall due to his “ME ME ME” apparent attitude. I would be quite afraid that any chance I had of moving up would be hurt by him being my superior as I think he would take any threats to his position and knock the person down.
My advice to Randall is pull your head out of your ass. You aren’t the ONLY Apprentice, you are like what, the 3rd or 4rth Apprentice. There is another one coming early next year. In Randalls shoes I would chase Rebecca down and hire her just to show that he isn’t a complete ass. Of course the question is, how much power do these “Apprentice’s” really have? I certainly wouldn’t let the future of my Atlantic City gambling interests rest in the hands of an unproven game show winner. Especially if I had already failed and declared bankrupty in that area before.
Then again, I wouldn’t let Rebecca run the gambling interests by herself either. This show is truly more about entertainment than finding a real manager, but with luck and continuing to prove themselves, I could see them becoming true execs for Trump.
joe
[1] Apprentice isn’t a masculine latin noun…
Randall won the show clearly, I have no idea the basis of this writer’s opinion. Let’s face the facts, as project manager Randall won ALL three times, Rebecca lost one out of two. Even her last minute win was partly due to Randall’s acting skills in the TV commercial assignment she produced.
As a leader everyone consistently voted to exempt Randall whenever he won. Quiet, non-contentious, and yes, very educated. You say he’s “over-educated”, I say it’s not necessary to justify the value of education to anyone. As he himself said, he starts and runs successfull businesses, Rebecca writes about businesses.
Now, I really respect Rebecca’s skills and talents, I believe she deserved to win but for Randall as an opponent. But Donald Trump was unfair to ask Randall if he should hire Rebecca. Randall could have answered the question differently and avoid controversy. However, the show was about hiring ONE person at the end. It’s unfair to ask the winner to share the trophy and limelight that was hard fought for. If Rebecca had won, I wonder if Donald would have asked her the same question.
I was disgusted to watch on NBC Today Show the following morning as they disparaged Randall as selfish and show-cased Rebecca instead. A Yahoo executive came on air and offered her a job, in a clear attempt to upstage Randall. I can see already how they are setting up Randall to fail in his task. Life is unfair, really unfair even when one has done his best.
One would wonder if losing at the tasks is a better sign of the quality of the person than winning. The winner is often just as likely to win because of their quality of a leader as the quality of the rest of the people. I.E. You could have a very crappy leader and win or a very good leader and lose. These are teams, it takes the team to win or lose. We have seen that multiple times on the show.
The fact that Rebecca lost a couple of times and therefore was in front of Trump for a possible firing multiple times but stayed in the race is very complimentary of her and her ability. Of course it could mean she worked with some real boneheads too and that was the reason her team lost. She even backed a complete bonehead at one point and still survived the fallout. At no point do I recall Randall really stepping up and doing anything one could consider risky.
Randall is definitely a great speaker, that is where, IMO, he shines. The ability to speak well though doesn’t make you a great leader, it makes you a great speaker.
RE: the starting and running of businesses, we have seen multiple cases on that show alone of very successful business people without the college education. The field you chose dictates the how much education is truly required. Computer consulting as an example which is the company that was trumpted for Randall does not require any college degree. I know very successful consulants who own consulting companies who have high school educations, several of them who make in excess of 250k a year for their personal income. On the contrary I know several folks with BSes or MSes and are making maybe 45k a year.
In computer science, a degree may be considered necessary when you get into theoretical data and algorithm design and serious number crunching or actual computer chip/board design or NASA type stuff, real computer science. Telling people how to use computers or running them or how they can help them better is not Computer Science. As for business, while it would certainly be nice to have a n MBA, it has been proven again and again that it isn’t necessary just on that show alone.
I believe Randall saw the question Trump asked the same way you did, to share the title and I didn’t see that at all, I saw it as “Here is someone that is good, should we hire her.”. Notice the WE. Randall clearly won the game as everyone saw, he would be sharing nothing by saying, yes, I think it would be a great idea to hire someone else they found that was good as well.
Keep in mind, there are no rules to that show. It is Trump’s show to do with as he pleases. We saw that as well several times when more than one person would be fired. Actually the show is better when it is unexpected like that. It certainly kept me interested.
“If Rebecca had won, I wonder if Donald would have asked her the same question.”
I wonder what the basis of this question is? I would fully expect him to have done so. Actually I expected him to hire both at the end. When he asked Randall and Rebecca what businesses they wanted to “run”, the fact that they both chose different ones made him comment, well that makes this easier meaning he at that point had decided to hire both. It seems that lately I have read that he is in fact going to hire both. So he basically just blew Randall’s first decision as a part of the Trump org out of the water.
Agree, I thought it was very mean and small of Randall to, without any hesitation, say he didn’t think Rebecca should be hired. What happened to all the “you’re the person I wanted to go to the final two with, I respect you so much” stuff? And when he chose Atlantic City, it was blatantly an attempt to curry favour with Trump – the Don had just said the project was close to his heart. I was really pleased when Rebecca chose the other one, she could have easily done the suck-up too.
I actually think that Randall cannot take criticism – when Rebecca did the obvious thing and pointed out his weaknesses in the board room, as he was doing to her, it was like he changed his opinion of her entirely. She at least stuck to the fact that she respected him, he couldn’t even give her the same courtesy. Not an admirable trait.
Donald went with what seemed to be the popular choice this time, but I think he would have got a lot more loyalty and longevity from Rebecca. I hope she doesn’t take a job with him if he offers it, I hope she goes somewhere else instead and is a spectacular success there!
Randall is the clear choice. Trump asked Alla for her true opinion, and stated that he knows that she will give a solid answer. He qualified her by saying that she was tough, but very good. He exhibited respect for her opinion…before she gave it. She said that she gave Rebecca NO CREDIT!!!!!!! Alla said that the runner up showed her nothing!!!! She even went so far to say what everybody in their hearts knows….She is not close to being in Randall’s league.
All Randall had to say was “I believe I should be the Apprentice, because according to the rules I survived the 13 weeks and completed my final task successfully. Rebecca didn’t even finish the race!!!! She banked nothing!!! Four weeks ago, Trump fired 4 people saying it was the worst defeat ever. Rebecca — in the final task did not solicit a red cent. The strategy of placing envelopes in the bags was fruitless. If it were not so, they would have mentioned it in the final show. Enough time went by that the Yahoo exec had to save face and DONATE $100,00 ($50,000) to each. They never mention if a single dollar was received from the envelopes.
The travesty of this whole debacle is the fact that Rebecca got beat so decisively, that the Yahoo exec’s donation can be viewed as a charitable contribution to the girl!!!!!!! This is bad and a terrible reflection on Donald Trump. It lends credence to the notion that his hobnobbing with the likes of wealthy young entrepreneurs is totally insincere. The suggestion of a second offer is a blatant slap in Randall’s face. This man out shined that girl in every faze of the competition. She is a LOSER, evidenced by her record. Trump showed his true colors. The audacity of him to ask Randall to contaminate the spoils of his victory by GIVING that girl yet another charitable contribution of an unearned victory.
Randall
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rhodes Scholar
Running 5 multi-million dollar companies
The unanimous admiration and respect of EVERYONE of the other contestants
Rebecca
A reporter. (Ask any athlete, and trump professes to be a sports aficionado, their opinion of a reporter and they will tell you they have no respect. A reporter is someone who was not good enough to be the athlete)
We heard very little of her educational success
Trump built up the physical set back of her broken ankle over the LOSS OF HUMAN LIFE of his grandmother. Trump drove that point home. The loss of a person’s life has less of a value than a broken ankle!!! A temporary physical injury that will heal verses the constant mental anguish of the loss of a close family member.
Good for Randall to take a stand. He should tell Trump HE’S fired. Take that job and shove it up his platinum a~*. Why subject himself to boss who has no respect for the effort that he put forth? He was doing well on his own before the show — dignity in tact and family life in order. He is and will be an asset to anything in his sphere.
You certainly are a firecracker. 🙂
As for Allah, I saw nothing different from her than we tend to see from the women on that show. They all tend to dislike each other and if they don’t win, they don’t want any woman to win.
The education points are just plain silly. One of my best friends from high school has a Master’s in Business Finance is making $10 an hour and I with no college degree was making am making many many times that. The richest man in the world is a college dropout. Education does not equal success or ability. All it means is you had the time and the money to get through it.
Other than that there are quite a few assumptions that I can’t respond to without assuming myself.
As you indicated Randall was an intelligent person, he certainly wasn’t stupid enough to do what you recommended at the end which is good for him.
I too liked Randall as well as Rebecca, until the end. Then I saw Randall as arrogant, self-serving, and ungracious. I felt Rebecca should have won. People working for her would be loyal to her. I don’t believe Randall will get that from people working for him. If I had a choice betwen the two, I would choose to work for Rebecca. Donald Trump should have trumped Randall and hired her for the other project anyway. In fact, she should have been The Apprentice. She has moxy and drive plus she was gracious when Randall was an arrogant winner. More importantly, I believe she would not have objected to Randall being offered the other job had she been hired. Randall showed his true self in the end.
When watching the finale, what I “heard” was that Randall merely said “not TONIGHT” to the question “Should we hire Rebecca?”