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| Karren Brady, Lord Alan Sugar and Nick Hewer (Image: thejournal.ie) |
I missed the opening episode of the new series of BBC's The Apprentice, but I didn't miss it - if you catch my drift. After being an avid watcher of the show (including the Young Apprentice series) for the last three years, I saw its positives and considered myself a fan of Lord Alan Sugar, and his advisers Karren Brady and Nick Hewer. I still admire the show and its prize. However, I feel the programme is outdated.
The Apprentice wasn't outdated three years ago, when the show was practically Lord Sugar's employment process with a prize of being an employee at one of his companies. He realised that this reward ran its length after 2010's winner Stella English walked away from three of his companies including Viglen, less than a year after emerging victorious from The Apprentice. She considered herself an over-paid lackey. She was given a £100,000-a-year salary but felt she was treated like any office clerk. She thought that after winning a talent contest, she would land herself a dream job - something she "deserved" after going through 12 gruelling weeks in a show watched by millions every week. She fell back to planet Earth which provoked her to take Lord Sugar to court after she claimed she left due to "constructive dismissal". She lost the case.
Falling to planet Earth is difficult to cope with, especially when you've previously possessed an ego bigger than the world itself. Contestants such as Stella English come on shows like The Apprentice, claim their bragging rights and feel it is the done thing to come and gloat about it to Lord Sugar. Little do they realise, he doesn't give a damn about their background. He may be fascinated in their capabilities and ambitions but not about their past success, because it is simply in the past. Hence the reason why he introduced a new prize where the winner would receive a wallop of his money to build a business from scratch. It is a business plan that Sugar himself has to support and believe in. He realises we are in bad economic times and therefore, he wants to find someone pretty unique to help boost the country's woes.
How unique are these contestants? On a scale of one-to-ten, I don't think they are so unique. They are brainy, that's why they're chosen to prepare themselves through 12 weeks of pressurised tasks. But whatever happens, they will be overpaid lackeys once they do succeed post-Apprentice. So why do they need to go through the 12 weeks?
I feel that if the prize is to receive hundreds-of-thousands from a Lord to support a business, then the twelve weeks should be focused on building such businesses. If these contestants really believe they can run a business but need Lord Sugar's backing, they should start building it, with Karren Brady and Nick Hewer sneering and banging their heads against a brick wall in the background. Brady is a highly successful businesswoman who, along with David Sullivan and David Gold raised Birmingham City FC from being an unappreciated club, to a team that people started to respect - and the profits started to reel in. She did this without Lord Sugar's approval.
Why am I moaning about these ultra-ego contestants? Last June, after the previous series ended, I decided to apply to be a contestant of this show myself. I thought, why not? Even though I am not business minded nor have any experience, I thought it would have been a laugh to be part of this experience. I knew I wasn't going to feature on the television and I wasn't going to lose anything by applying. To my surprise, I progressed past the first stage and was invited to an audition in Birmingham the following month.
I arrived in Birmingham with my suit to the Rasmussen Hotel, standing alongside other Apprentice hopefuls. There were hundreds, and it was only the opening morning of auditions. As I said before, I knew I wasn't going to go through to the show so I took the opportunity to bask in the ambience. When my name was called to enter the audition room, there were 11 others in the same room who took things very seriously.
What we had to do, in front of three "judges" is to speak for 30 seconds, convincing them that we are the next Apprentices. One-by-one, many of those auditioned talked about how they gained "£500,000 in the first ten months of opening a business", "I am amazing", and so on and so forth. I was surprised by this. By this time, I was a recent media graduate, unemployed and have never made a profir in my life. These people around my age are gleaming about their riches while I had absolutely nothing to offer. I could have lied, possibly like the others had, but I didn't. Whilst unexpectedly suffering from stage fright, the best thing I came up with was that I would get along with Lord Sugar as we both have an interest in football and politics, as if I was desperate to have a friend rather than £250,000 of his money. I brought laughter but that's about it.
However, after discovering I didn't go through, I tried to speak to some of those who didn't progress to the next stage of the Apprentice process. I attempted to speak to a young woman who only made pittance compared to those who earned almost millions in a short space of time, and did progress to the next stage. I tried to commiserate her but she simply stood still, not responsive. It was as if her life depended on getting on that television show. She didn't progress to the next stage because she didn't make enough money which had me wondering - if Lord Sugar doesn't really care about people's past success, why does his contestants have such success? Why can't the people who made so much money in a small amount of time, not waste Lord Sugar's time and open up the business of their dreams?
I can see why Lord Sugar is still running such show. In dire economic times such as now, we need someone to inspire us to make a living, and Sugar gives people a chance to realise their potential. However, I feel the show has run its course. If I made it to the show, I know that I would have hated to bake cakes and sell them to the public. I do have an idea of a business I'd like to run, and I'm sure the current Apprentices do too - however, they should prove their passion about their business plans rather than saying "I am passionate towards my business plan." The only thing this show proves is that words speak louder than actions. This is simply politics. It is common sense that actions speak louder than words and Lord Sugar knows this.
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