Dan is fired from The Apprentice

Sometimes being a good leader means inspiring your subordinates. Sometimes it means taking responsibility for the failures of your team. Sometimes it means having the business knowledge and acumen to recognize when someone has made a mistake. Tonight (for the second time this season) a contestant is fired because they did not make the right decision when bringing people back into the Boardroom with them. Theresa was fired a few weeks ago when she failed to bring Charmaine back into the Boardroom. Tonight Dan was fired because he failed to bring Lenny into the Boardroom.

Now I like Lenny. I’ve talked about him before in this blog. I love his manner of speaking and his way of dealing with people and problems. But in tonight’s challenge – creating a 30 second commercial for Norwegian Cruise Lines – he made a fatal mistake. He had a poor idea for the commercial, an idea the rest of the team embraced. I have to admit that at first I loved the idea as well, but when you compare this commercial to the one created by Synergy, it’s like night and day. Synergy made cruising look like fun. I had no idea what the scary looking guy in Gold Rush’s commercial had to do with Norwegian Cruise Lines. Dan should have brought Lenny into the Boardroom because ultimately it was the concept of the commercial that was the problem, and that was Lenny’s idea.

I love the way this show is edited. As you’re watching the task progress you think you know what the outcome will be. When you saw the behind the scenes on the production with Synergy you saw chaos, disorganization, and a poor timeline. Gold Rush seemed to be working well together for the most part (Dan did have problems delegating responsibility), but overall they seemed to have it together. Until you saw the commercial presentations that is. That’s the beauty of taped television shows. The director and producers can trick the audience into thinking one thing, when the exact opposite is what actually happens.

Ultimately Donald Trump fires Dan, but gave everyone the impression that if in fact Dan had brought Lenny into the Boardroom then Lenny would have been fired. Dan’s weakness turned out to be the fact that he couldn’t recognize the true cause of their failure – the concept. Trump did tear Tarek and Mensa apart in the Boardroom and gave a parting shot and warning to be delivered to Lenny – in Trump’s words “tell Lenny he doesn’t have long to go.”

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