YOU’RE FIRED! – Important Lessons I Learned From The Apprentice

As we all know Donald Trump is one of the most respected names in the world of Business and Finance.   Within this brand is a little show that we all know that goes by the name of “The Apprentice” and at the end of the show there is a scene that takes place in the boardroom.  In the boardroom a variety of things goes on the results from the challenges are revealed, the strengths and weaknesses of the teams are discussed, and of course the real reason that we all watch…Donald Trump chooses the weakest link where he gets to say his his famous phrase “You’re Fired!”  Within each show there are a business lessons that can be taken and applied.  Here are the lessons that I was able to learn and I hope that you can take something from it as well.

1.  People want to feel like they are a part of something big!!!

The challenge last night involved the two celebrity teams selling hamburgers in a restaurant to raise money for their favorite charity.  The women’s team decided to set their prices @$25 for their hamburgers with their specialty for $100, where the men’s celebrity team started their prices @ $100 for their hamburgers with a specialty burger for $1500.  Of course both celebrity teams called all of their friends to come and eat so that they would spend their money and so that they maybe they would contribute a significant amount.  The team with the most money at the end of the challenge wins of course.  The celebrity teams had plenty of people come out to eat which proves one thing in this recession people just want to feel like they are a part of a HUGE events.  The lines outside of these restaurants wrapped around corners all because of the “FUSS” behind helping out charities (the ability to meet celebrities didn’t hurt either).

2.  How much your business opportunity costs doesn’t matter!

Outlined in the paragraph before one team had burgers for $25 and the other had burgers that started off at $100. Now I know what you’re probably thinking…$100 is alot of money for a hamburger but when you think about it not really. You see one thing that I realized is that people equate money with value the more that it costs the better it will be. Think about it you have heard the old saying “You get what you pay for!”  This is the way that we are all programmed to think.  In this recession $100 is a little far fetched to charge people for a sandwich but let me tell you a secret …the team that charged $100 won.  You will attract the people (targeted leads) that will find more value and quality in something that costs more.  Just because a business opportunity only costs $25, it doesn’t mean that you will attract high quality people and it doesn’t mean that you will attract more people because it’s affordable.  In my opinion the less it costs, the less likely you will be able to build a strong team (I didn’t make the rule).

3.  Don’t be afraid to make a decision

When Donald Trump brought the teams into the boardroom the women were asked to stay because they lost and of course they had to make the tough decision of which teammate to let go.  One thing that I realized when Donald Trump asked who they thought should go home no one wanted to “throw the other under the bus”.  Everyone kept avoiding the question by saying “we all did a good job”, “we all worked hard”.  In business you need to be a good decision maker it could be the life and death of your organization.  I don’t know about anyone else but just because a person wants to work with me it doesn’t mean that I want to work with them.  I go through an interview/selection process and if the person passes we work if not we don’t.  I know our uplines tell us to talk to everyone but I don’t it’s just one of those hard decisions that I have to make in the world of entrepreneurism.

These are just a few of the things that I learned from the television show and I know that by applying the concepts and the rules/laws of business my organization will grow and I am sure that yours will too.

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