The Trump Blog

“I am the benevolent dictator... does everyone understand that?” said the ever-entertaining and charismatic Gene Simmons. It sounded like a Gordon Gecko quote straight out of the film Wall Street. And I loved it.

Gene’s style of leadership is your old-school Gordon Gecko-esque, thick-skinned alpha male. And it’s all completely natural. He’s confident in everything he does, believes he is capable of achieving anything and has the consistent mental posture for success. These are all the winning qualities of a true leader. So why was he fired? Ego. Ego is the number reason why so many quality candidates on The Apprentice are fired too early.

My good friend Omarosa pointed out that, “Gene Simmons had no idea about the product. In fact he didn’t even know the name of the product.” Gene sending two people instead of six to the client meeting was understandable. When your company wins a new a client, it doesn’t send the entire company along for the meeting, however, it does send the person who is responsible for the delivering the service. In this case, Gene. Gene’s ego, however, prevented him from attending the meeting and having any idea of what the client wanted.

Gene’s an amazingly successful businessman, entertainer and marketer. And to his credit, he does embody all the attributes of a good leader:

• Integrity: People with integrity tell the truth and they keep their word. This is amongst Mr. Trump’s primary values.

• Intelligence: You need to have an intellectual curiosity and breadth of knowledge to work with or lead other smart people.

• Maturity: You need the ability to handle stress and setbacks, and enjoy success with equal parts of joy and humility.

• Energy: Embrace action, relish change and energize others. Energy is infectious.

• Courage: The courage to make tough yes-or-no decisions.

• Execution: The ability to get the job done.

However, on The Apprentice you have to remember that you’re surrounded by equally successful and intelligent business people. In business you should manage your subordinates with the same care that you manage your boss. I’m not sure Gene has ever had a boss but nonetheless, losing the ego and interacting in a more respectful way shows integrity and would have been looked upon more favorably by his teammates.

Making such an effort to adapt to his teammates would have meant that they would’ve all nominated Nely to be fired. But then would an egoless Gene have been as entertaining? Probably not.

Apprentice Blogs and Websites this week have been saying that Tim’s flirtation with Nicole was the real reason he got fired last Sunday night.

That is probably true. Tim was on the Arrow team. Nicole was on the opposing team, Kinetic. That caused his own team members to doubt his loyalty. It’s worth noting that before this week’s task had even been assigned, Tim’s team members had put an ‘X’ over his head and had already planned to fire him if they lost.

Office romance will put you in that kind of danger. It is a hazardous game. Yet you might recall that on The Apprentice last season, I also had a flirtation with another candidate - a terrific woman who was a member of my team (and then later an opposing team).

The question is, why did Tim’s flirtation contribute to his firing, while mine didn’t keep me from becoming the season winner? I could come up with some contrived, politically correct answers about how I handled my romance in some wiser way. But let me be very honest about why I believe I survived - even if I might offend some readers with my answers.

First, I was not losing at the time. That kept me out of the boardroom, where my teammates could have framed me and made me a scapegoat for a loss. I won so many times that no one ever questioned me about my flirtation. But they could have, easily, if they had been given the opportunity. So the lesson might be a rather unfortunate one, that strong performance in any job or career makes you less susceptible to some of the dangers of modern office life. (I am not saying that I like this situation; I am merely reporting on it.)

Second, the whole issue of office romance is influenced by emotions, culture and a dangerous mixture of other factors that are hard to control. When I was just starting out my career in the United Kingdom, I was a young guy who engaged in a lot of office flirtations, to use the kindest term for it. Not wise! But my C-level bosses were very encouraging of it. They’d often give me a pat on the back and say, “Good man!” That was the climate in Britain (and in many British businesses it still is). It’d be quite a different story in America today. I also believe that the risks of office romance are quite different for women than they are for men. I encourage readers of this bog to comment on that!

My conclusion is that you are more likely to survive an office dalliance if you are strong, productive and well liked. But even if you are, it is extremely dangerous turf. Tim was one of my favorites to win this season. He is smart, polished and passionate, yet he got fired anyway.

That’s another not-very-pretty reality. An office romance can give envious colleagues the leverage they need to get you fired. So when the spark of attraction hits you, be sure to think twice.

To win in sales, you need to be passionate about what you’re selling. You’ve got to believe that your organization is the best, that your product is the best and - most importantly - that you are the best. 

Passion is the fulcrum point of selling.  It’s pivotal.  It’s absolutely fundamental to selling success. 

That reality was made very apparent on last night’s Apprentice in the images we saw of Heidi and Nicole not fighting for the sales that Arrow was apparently “stealing” from them. Their complete failure to rise to that challenge showed us that if you’re not passionate about what you do, what you sell and what you’re talking about, you’ll lose to someone who is. 

In sales, you need to be on fire. And Arrow was clearly on fire. Pound for pound, they were a much better team of salespeople.

When salespeople are passionate, it becomes infectious. Passionate teams make for much richer and far more productive environments. They will always reach targets quicker and have fun on the way. 

Passion makes achieving success so much easier.

Talented individuals are the driving force behind a good company. They’re the difference between high performance and mediocrity. 

As a manager, you need to surround yourself with the best people. But you have to do something else too . . .

You have to let them shine

I liked the fact that James was confident enough in himself to do just that with his team this week. It was clear that Tim and Nicole knew just how to handle production and post-production. So James let them run with it - and he then wasn’t afraid to pay them kudos where it was due. 

Managers, especially new ones, are all too often afraid to let their subordinates shine. They fear that giving credit to the people they manage will take away from their own performance. 

Don’t. You’ll get more out of your employees if you encourage them to shine and then pass the praise around when things go right.

But there’s another thing too, which turns being a supervisor a leadership opportunity. You have to take responsibility when things go wrong.

Do YOU Have Questions for Sean?

For an opportunity to participate in a free Trump University teleseminar with Sean Yazbeck, click here!

After you’ve launched your business, the day will come when it is time to start knocking on doors and selling.

When that day comes, your first inclination will probably be to dash out to buy every book you can find about selling. If you can absorb all the powerful advice they contain from their powerful-looking authors, you will be moving your product quickly, right? Well maybe yes. But probably not. 

You see, attempting to identify the traits of the perfect salesperson is a waste of time. All you need is to understand your own strengths and perfect them. I’ve been the top salesperson at every company where I’ve ever worked. I’ve won awards, grossed the highest profits and opened a lot of doors. And I did this by being true to myself  - by understanding my instinctive talents and strengths and by becoming friends with everyone around me.

Sales is about having a good time and making as many friends as possible. So enjoy what you do. Because when you do, it shows and customers will buy, for a very simple reason:

People Want to Do Business with Their Friends

This is really simple. To make more sales, make more friends. That’s it. Just be likeable. If you do, your customers will buy from you over the next guy. I guarantee that even if you’re more expensive than the next gal or guy, they’ll be happy to pay for your product or service.

If you’re not likeable, then you really shouldn’t be in sales. You need to be in accounting or some other job where it doesn’t really matter if you’re liked. 

Once you’ve established friendship, you’ll establish trust. You’ll be seen as an advisor. As a consultant. And you need to become a consultant to your client. Not a salesperson. Not a rep. Not an account manager. A consultant. And the first step in becoming that trusted advisor, that consultant, is to first to become a friend.

The bottom line is that people do business with people they like and people they trust. The product or service is often secondary.

So talk friendly, not professionally. Listen to people and help them solve problems. If you are a real friend, you might never have to think about the word “selling” again.

For more great advice on starting a business the smart way, be sure to get involved in Trump University’s Entrepreneurship Mastery Program. We have a desk waiting for you.

• Interrupt your attacker. Every time someone starts talking about you negatively, don’t let him or her talk. Interrupt, and keep on doing it! It is incredibly rude, but there are times when you have to do it. If you are in the boardroom fighting for your life with Donald Trump looking on, you can’t sit there quietly and wait to have your say. You might get killed before that ever happens. Anything can happen in there. If Mr. Trump starts attacking you, you are going to try to talk over him? No. You have to fight toe-to-toe when the opportunity presents itself. You have to go into some settings with the attitude of a pit bull.
• Keep quiet and stay out of trouble. If no one is saying anything that involves you, shut up! Stay out of trouble and don’t say a thing. Last night at one point, Aimee actually volunteered the fact that when she went into the mall where her team would be signing up sweepstakes participants, she had not noticed that there were a lot of Hispanic consumers there. She volunteered that information! Why volunteer information that can only reflect badly on you? Avoid trouble instead, by simply keeping your mouth shut. 
• Adjust your battle plan to the setting. There are business settings where the law of negotiating is give-or-take. You make your point strongly, then listen to the other side, and so on. But a firing in The Trump Organization is not that kind of place! Donald Trump is one of the most aggressive businessmen on the planet. He is fair, he listens, but his boardroom is not a place to give up any competitive advantage that you might have.

With this blog post, Trump University welcomes Sean Yazbeck, winner of The Apprentice Season Five, as a new member of the Trump University faculty. Let’s hear Sean’s views on last night’s episode.

The leaders of both teams faced a deceptively simple task last night. What could be more straightforward than putting honey in bottles and selling it? Yet both Aaron and Aimee, leaders of the Arrow and Kinetic teams, proved too weak to lead their teams to achieve optimal results.

Here are the lessons that you and I can take away and apply in our own careers.

Great leaders exert firm control ... but flexibly

Aaron was just not strong or flexible enough to control the members of his team, each of whom needed something entirely different from him. Surya was overcomplicating things terribly. That’s Surya! That is just what he does, but Aaron was unable to rein him in and make him keep it simple. James, with his alpha-male sales personality, needed something quite different ... a set of simple instructions from Aaron that told him what he needed to do first, second and third. The rest of the team, with their gregarious, outgoing personalities, also needed to be given roles that maximized their abilities. All of that, Aaron was unable to do. Of course, Aaron had a real challenge, because all the Apprentice candidates are extremely strong ... in effect, the future business leaders of America. But he didn’t rise to the challenge and he did a very weak job.

 Don’t overcomplicate things

When Surya was laying out his marketing strategies, he made the task far too complicated. He was nervous. He wanted to show off his vocabulary and his knowledge. But as I mentioned earlier, the task was really only about putting honey in bottles and selling it! Again, it was Aaron who failed to focus Surya’s talents on the task at hand. But in your life and your career, strive to keep things simple. Focus your knowledge and skills closely on the task at hand. That’s a success secret that is sometimes forgotten by very smart people especially.

Stop to cultivate interpersonal relationships

As I mentioned above, Aaron was weak and unfocused in his leadership. But did you notice that his team supported him anyway, simply because he is a nice guy? They really hesitated to set him up as the scapegoat for their loss, because they liked him. 

That s a very important lesson on The Apprentice, and in life too. The most important determinant of success is often not whether you win or lose, but whether people will stand by you because they like you.

When you look at Lee last season, you see that he actually lost more tasks than anyone else, but that he made it through to the final selection anyway. One reason was that he was a very capable and strong candidate. But another was that he got on so well with other people. Fair or unfair in business, if your company is laying people off, they will usually fire the people first who have not invested the effort to get along with other people. So remember, you can never lose sight of the personal side of building your success.

Say something!

I sat with Aaron in the boardroom firing in the previous episode and I don’t’ think he said one word. That was a mistake. He had been given the opportunity to shine in front of Mr. Trump and to say in so many words, “Hey, Mr. Trump, hire me. I’m worth it because I can vocalize my thoughts and my strategy and you need me.”

I see this problem in business quite a lot. I go into a meeting and there is one person there who doesn’t say a thing. I always start to wonder, “Is this person an intern here? Why doesn’t he or she say something?”

Don’t be that person. There will be times in business meetings when things are going way over your head and you have no idea what is going on. But say something anyway! Get something in there, even if you just agree with someone. If you remain silent for a long period of time, you end up looking like an idiot.  

And one more thought . . .

Aimee may be in a lot of trouble next week. She waffled terribly as a leader last night and had the good luck to win anyway. But now her team is fed up and is gunning for her. She has done little to build supportive interpersonal ties to the other members of her team.

Like Aaron, she could fall quickly from the winner’s seat in the boardroom and get fired in only seven days. It could happen. And next Sunday, we will know!

To learn more about putting a fine edge on your entrepreneurial skills, enroll in The Entrepreneurship Mastery Program from Trump University. Classes are now forming.