Apprentice Week 04: Why did people insist on getting themselves fired?

If you haven't watched this week's Apprentice, yet, you know the drill. Spoilers ahead.
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So Synergy finally succeeded in running Brent off the show. Actually Brent did it to himself. He spoke too much.

In the board room, everyone was supportive of the Tammy, the PM. Brent however, complained that she stunk so bad, he could still smell her. He went on the attack when the focus wasn't even on him. That of course turned him into a target. Perhaps that would have happened anyway since the team really did not like him, but it happened a lot earlier than if Brent had just kept his mouth shut.

It seems that Brent's ego got the better of him this week. Early on, he seemed to do okay. He tossed out ideas for the billboard, but once the Tammy laid down the law and said it was time to move on, he backed off. Tammy did assign him to do basically nothing this task. His responsibility was to organize the clothing for the presentation. That was it.

Now, of course, Brent wasn't happy, and he learned an important lesson from the first week. He spoke to Tammy in private, and he gave her more personal space. He also did not point. He raised his concerns, and she did not agree with them. He let it go. That's the right way to handle it. It was good to have the discussion in private, good to let Tammy know he thought she was mistaken, and good to accept it when the PM laid down the rule.

Now, Brent has the potential for a free pass. He just needs to execute his assigned task well. Then he should ask Tammy twice more for additional responsibilities. If she doesn't assign any, he should just slip into the background. If the team wins, great. He doesn't get fired. If the team loses, it's not his fault, and he is unlikely to get fired. He can say, "Mr. Trump, I completed my assigned tasks perfectly. No one disputes that. On three separate occasions, I asked Tammy for additional tasks. I even offered suggestions. I didn't try to slip into the background or avoid work The PM turned me down each time, and told me to do nothing. She's the boss. I complied with her final, flawed decisions."

Instead, however, Brent tried to force his way into the task. Andrea was in charge of the graphics and working with the graphics designer. Brent kept jumping in and telling the graphics designer to do stuff, even after the PM told him to back off. I suppose his ego wouldn't let him do that.

It's too bad, because Brent is weird, doesn't quite fit in with the "popular" kids, and is not afraid to look silly. That made him interesting to watch. I really wanted to see him succeed. The underdog is always entertaining. However, he couldn't keep his mouth shut.

That still stands as the most important lesson on The Apprentice. Shut up. Just shut up.

This boardroom was also interesting. Trump was actually complimentary of the losing team. He said they did a good jump and didn't lose by much. He appears to have not agreed with the Post executives who chose Gold Rush as the winner. The Post people though Gold Rush was the big winner by far.

I have to agree with the Post executives. Synergy's billboard was way too complex. There were at least 6 fonts on it. There were a ton of words and the concept was not something a user could grasp in several seconds. For a magazine ad, it might have been okay, but for a billboard, it simply wouldn't work.

When Trump asked one of the Synergy team members what there slogan was, she went on for a about 15-20 words. That's not a slogan. That's a paragraph.

Overall, Brent left Trump no choice to fire him. If he hadn't, I would have expected Trump to fire Tammy or Andrea. Andrea was in charge of the graphics, and should have done a better job. It was too complex; too busy. There were too many fonts. A basic graphics no-no. She works in the graphics industry. She should know better.

Finally, I'll go back to the beginning. When Lenny and Tarek came back to the suite after last week's boardroom, after Theresa was fired, they explained that Trump fired her, in part, for note bringing Charmaine into the boardroom. Charmaine retreated to the bedroom to cry over this. Because she felt guilty.

There seems to be a lot more crying on The Apprentice this season than in prior ones. I know people have different ways of dealing with stress, and this is undoubtedly a stressful environment. At the same time it seems like these things should be easier for the contestants to deal with. These aren't beg surprises. If they can't handle this stress, then I can't imagine them being too successful in the long run.

NBC has a great deal of information about the show on its website, but for deeper look, visit the Yahoo! Site they shill every week.

The detailed instructions for the task are also on that site.