Apprentice

I try to keep my TV addiction to 1 series per season.  "24" was my drug for a couple seasons...but the post traumatic stress disorder that followed for about 2 hours after each episode was enough to make me stop.  Also, the MUST watch nature of these shows really bothers me.  I have the DVR now but that device empowers me to backlog numerous episodes and I end of feeling like I do with my stack of magazines that I haven't read.  You CANNOT miss an episode...and with 2 kids and normal busy life, I've accepted that life will go on without them.

This season, I've rekindled my interest in The Apprentice.  Maybe it's because I enjoy the 60 minutes of watching others make stupid mistakes (at least from the armchair quarterback position I'd have won this gig every time).  Perhaps it's watching Trump and his ego make snap decisions about people's futures and be comfortable with it.  It could be the voyeurism of watching these teams back each other into corners and then resort to base instinct, anger, and "the loudest voice" wins tactics to get their pass to next week's show.  In the end though, I must admit that when it comes down to male vs. female teams (this year it did)...I'm really excited to see, "The women will finally overcome tendency to in-fight and turn on one another like a bad Survivor episode."  This year, they didn't, and that madness got the last 2 female candidates canned on the same show.  The men are by no means exempt from this behavior...but the way this year's ladies presented themselves...I was very surprised to witness their implosion.

Another thing that always gets me is that in the beginning, I always think that every one of these candidates have no business being there.  Then, as the layers are peeled away week after week, I see strengths emerge (often only to be completely obliterated the following week when a candidate goes psycho).  In the end, a smooth, team oriented, emotionally stable, hard working, organized candidate who walks the "leadership" tightrope well, rises to the top.  More and more, the "idea man" is getting the hatchet job for a poor concept versus the slack job teammates who didn't execute no matter the vision. 

That's a bit backward for me.  Poor concepts (or concepts less good than the other team's) happen but often group think and other team dynamics push an idea through.  But it amazes me how many teammates will abandon the idea and believe that they'll do fine in the boardroom by tossing the idea person under the bus.  I think that someday, a candidate will emerge that handles these situations far better than we've seen before, no eye rolls, no "harrumphs" when the leader is speaking, no secret but overheard meetings in the "suite". 

So far, I think we've actually seen this in a few of the winners.  The formula seems easy...until natural human survival instinct takes over and gets the best of us.