The Apprentice: What I Learned from Episode One

Only minutes into the season's first episode last night, Donald J. Trump stunned the contestants by asking them to build a tent in the backyard of his LA mansion. He hardly knew the contestants - they had only given him their names and professional credentials. He hadn't even divided them into teams.

They were probably expecting a task like those that the teams tackled last year, like launching a new video game in a WalMart or planning a charity fundraiser. Instead, they faced a cardboard box packed with a canvas tent and tent poles. They looked as stunned and confused as steers at a cattle auction.

But as they opened the box and got started, the wisdom of Mr. Trump's task hit me. I saw that he had given the contestants a task that offered each of them just two choices. Each contestant could look like a follower by waiting for instructions. Or each contestant could step out aggressively, take charge and alienate everyone else, only minutes into the new season.

Two of the contestants took the second of those choices. Heidi did her best to take control in a positive way. She said that she had camping experience and started giving guidance about how to get the tent built. But then Frank, another contestant, realized that he was losing his chance to shine. Whistling and shouting instructions, he staged a sickening grab for power. He was so loud and obnoxious that he disturbed Mr. Trump in his distant vantage place high in the mansion.

As these events unfolded, I realized that the tent-building task was a subtle and brilliant assignment from Mr. Trump. In fact, it offered the contestants the same challenges that all of us face early in our careers.

As you start on your path to success, you can wait and watch and learn from others, which makes you look unambitious for a while. Or you can shoulder ahead of your peers, which makes you look too ambitious and aggressive.

Those are two options that all of us must consider early on in our careers. And temporarily, both of them make you look bad.

Thanks to their assertiveness, Heidi and Frank gained an immediate edge over the other contestants when Mr. Trump selected them as team leaders for this week's main task: To run a car wash for the day, with the higher-earning team becoming the winner.

Both teams bungled that assignment badly. In the limited time she had, Heidi couldn't generate any traction from her team. Frank was a lot worse, and his lower-earning team lost the challenge. He should have been fired for his obnoxious attitude, for disappearing when he should have been leading strategically and for poisoning his team's spirit with his vicious backbiting.

In the end, a contestant named Martin was fired because of some ill-chosen statements he made. The first thing he said to Donald J. Trump - to Donald J. Trump! - was that he would like to hug Mr. Trump, but that he needed to go to the bathroom first. (!?!?!). Then later in the show, Martin seemed even dumber when he told Ivanka that he felt tired. (Why not just walk up to her and say, --Please fire me NOW!)

But to tell you the truth, I am not sure I learned too much from the carwash task. I learned a lot more from the tent-building assignment.

It reminded me that leadership is not something you can achieve in your first ten minutes on a job. It takes months, even years. Sometimes you take the lead, sometimes you show that you are a good colleague. And at all times, you display a positive attitude.

Rome, the old saying goes, wasn't built in a day. Neither is success. I believe that we will see that principle at work in the weeks to come, as the real leaders rise to the top. I think that Carey, Heidi, Muna, Nicole and Tim all have what it takes to make that happen.

In the weeks to come, we'll all find out who stands and who falls in this ultimate job interview. I can't wait to watch and find out. And I bet you can't either.

Paul C. Quintal is Vice President of Trump University. Look for Paul's take on The Apprentice here on every Monday of this season.

Be sure to visit NBConline daily this season to stay on top of everything that's happening on The Apprentice.