Hey guys, back for episode 3 of The Apprentice season 1, episode called Respect. In this episode, Donald Trump is going to ask the two teams to go head -to -head in the challenge of who can negotiate the highest markdown on a set of items. So you'll have again the men versus the women and the goal is to... get the highest discount on a set of items. So as always, we're going to hear a couple of clips that we will comment. The first one is a lesson directly from Trump.
So let's go straight into it. The art of the deal. Negotiation is a very, very delicate art. Sometimes you have to be tough. Sometimes you have to be as sweet as pie. You never know. It depends on who you're dealing with. I've always said that negotiation is not really learned. It's almost innate. It's in the genes. A negotiator is born. All right. So very simply here, we understand that negotiating is a dynamic process, that the rules aren't very... It depends on who you're
speaking to. Sometimes killing with kindness is better. Sometimes being very sweet, very friendly is the right approach. Sometimes being very tough is more appropriate. And that's why Trump is saying that it's not taught. It's innate because you can't really teach. to someone how to have the right response or the right attitude towards negotiation as a rule. It's really an instinct. And when are you tougher? When are you kinder? Where do you draw the line is really on a per
situation basis. And that's why it doesn't... fit the mold of you know cookie cutter textbook college university description so essentially for him the art of the deal is innate it is innate and he's going to ask of his apprentices right the contestants to to really use that skill and show him who can negotiate the better deal next Next clip we're going to see is very interesting. It's Trump taking the time to go see kind of the underdog of the competition, the one who
is most badly talked about. And this is going to echo Trump's mantra that all publicity is good publicity. And in a way, we see that the guy who made the most noise, even though it was not in the most productive way, he did get Trump's attention. So listen to the next interaction and you're going to see that Trump goes out of his way to greet someone you would not otherwise think he would stop. I hear you're in charge. I am in charge, Mr. Trump. I am the coach of
this team. How are you doing today? Well, we're going to see because the men are taking a big beating. Are you going to turn it around? We've already turned it around. I never knew you were so short. Huh? You want to shake my hand? I want to shake your hand. You really do? Give me a hint. How's he doing, fellas? All right? He's taking his charge. You think they maybe made you the team leader to get rid of him? That is possible. Well, you know how that doesn't happen?
If you win. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good day. That was one of the biggest moments of my life, shaking that man's hand. He is my mentor. All right. So first of all, we see Trump is extremely respectful and courteous to go out of his way, shake hands of the, you know, he's intrigued by the underdog. He does see he has a fight in him. He does see he's creative.
He can, you know, speak for himself. stands out from the crowd and he often says it's either going to be like his great success or his great downfall but trump is intrigued he is interested in in other people especially those who are trying so so i guess uh what we can learn from him is that by putting yourself out there and doing the effort you do catch some positive attention
and here There's another lesson. And Trump basically is telling him, right, he understands that he, that Sam has been picked as team leader so that if his team fails, he is one of the three candidates potentially to be ousted. And at this point, after three losses, it's most likely, you know, it's going to fall on him. And Trump gives him
a very sage advice. And this advice is echoed in other business literature, say from Jeffrey Pfeffer in, seven laws of power essentially it's seventh law basically that that success justifies you know the in in a way that if the outcome is positive then it excuses the eccentricities of the person he tells him you know how that doesn't happen how he doesn't get kicked out of the show and still has a chance to be the apprentice is if his team wins and and in a way
uh you know success is the ultimate revenge right it's it's often said and and we can clearly see how how it makes sense that ultimately um ultimately the The outcome will, you know, the story is told by the winners, right? So if he manages to pull the first one for the team, then he can completely reverse how the script is. And same story for Trump. in the way that he reshaped the Republican Party. He was an outsider to the Republican Party and he came with his own vision,
truly his own vision. He understood what the Republican electorate, he really reached out to him and also to other, you know, center and other members of the American public and he made all his support coalesce around his vision and winning, the fact that he won, overwhelmingly in 2016 and in 2024 um it it's the outcome gives him proves that he was right in a way so it it proves all of his critics wrong and it uh it validates all the people who believed in him
and and it kind of the doubters the people who doubted him are you know to not go too much on that topic of course they're they're a bit you know they they have to to to go or revisit their assumptions to say the least and this is a very satisfactory feeling for trump we'll see in some of his books he's going to make references to to how revenge in certain ways, like via success, it is a very wholesome feeling. And so this is some of the mentorship he gives to Sam ahead
of the challenge. So we're going to pursue and go a little further. So I'll sum up the episode. The women, of course, I mean, they were more successful at negotiations because they went for items that had a bigger margin. So if the woman, for example, went to a golf store, I'm going to play a short clip of that, and they negotiated a good amount off of the club, whereas the men want to try to negotiate. gold and gold is really set at market prices and they were
much less successful in getting a discount. We'll just hear a clip of one of the women closing a discount on a golf club. So how about cost plus 10 %? You're making money. Yeah, plus 10 % to your ideal. For 300 bucks, you got yourself a deal. Okay, there we go. We got a deal. And here we just witnessed getting a $120 discount on golf clubs. One that should be $419, one for $300. And that's because the woman knew that
this was a high margin item. And they proposed a solution that was win -win in that the club owner was making a profit. And they were kind of... asking him to make this concession for the sake of the competition. And he kind of felt sympathy towards them, but he was still winning. He was not at a loss, whereas the men, when they were trying to negotiate percentage points off of gold, they were literally trying to get gold at lower than the market price. And it was a
very tough... They weren't able to pull it off. So ultimately, the women win again and Trump is going to congratulate them. And notice you're going to encounter something very interesting.
Remind you, this is 2004. So this is really one of the first times you see an equal... board women and men we talk a lot about equality in the work workplace and have you know having you know elevating the role of woman executive and you're going to see this is trump is surrounded on his right he has a male advisor on his left he has a female advisor and he has the two teams fight off each other. And the team of women is exceptionally competent. Trump is admirative
of that. And I'll let you listen and add some comments. I'm starting to think that I may never hire a man again. I'm very disappointed in you. All right, look, the men lost, the women won. That's that. To celebrate, here's what you're going to do tonight. You're going to have dinner at the world famous 21 Club. Now, my father was a builder in Brooklyn and Queens. His biggest treat ever was the ability to go to the 21 Club on occasion with his friends and have dinner
there. And he had one table that he loved. That's my father, Fred Trump. And you're going to have dinner tonight at the Fred Trump table at the 21 Club. So you're going to enjoy it. All right. So Trump treats. the winning team to a table where his dad want to celebrate business deals. So he, it shows, you know, a generous personality that despite his status, he is open to share some of the most intimate and, you know, prized, sentimental, you know, places, things that we
saw in the first episode. He, he did give a tour of his. private apartment. Now he's treating the women to a dinner among themselves at his dad's favorite restaurant at his habitual spot. And we'll see how the women react to that. They're very grateful, of course. And of course, they are going to repeat the fact that he said, you know, what he said about the fact that he feels that women in this case were more competent.
And this just dispels some of the myth about Trump and, you know, some of the false characterizations. We see that he is indeed very much pro -competence. And when he recognizes, when he sees it, he recognizes
it. egos for the more competent uh person regardless of gender in this case absolutely uh it was a woman so here we're gonna hear their initial uh reactions this is where donald trump ate when he was little how many deals have been made how about mr trump's comment about never hiring another All right. They noticed that. And that was 2004. So it's just, if you watch the show, you're going to see, you know, how he was good at spotting talent and at recognizing talent, where it comes
from. Now, we're going to segue into probably the final clip for today. And this is kind of the assessment done with the man. after the women are gone for for fun the men have to face an elimination and in the elimination round uh basically it's kind of the time to examine what went wrong what went wrong and uh i'll let the clip play it's gonna be self -explanatory for for most of it and we may comment you know as a man i'm so I'm disappointed with you guys. I don't know
what's happening. George, what happened this time? I mean, this is just nuts. Sam, you were the team leader. Yes, I was. Well, I think we had a successful plan, and everybody understood the plan. And at the end of the day, although everyone did try, the plan was not implemented. Is it Sam's fault, do you think, fellas? Kwame. Yeah, I think it is Sam's fault. If you look at how the overall procedure broke down, we knew that the golf club had a large spread and we
can negotiate. We also knew that the leg wax had a large spread. And that's where we got beat on those two items. $119 on the golf club and $50 or so on the leg wax. So what did Sam do to mess you up? So we were on our way to get the leg wax. We immediately got a call around 1130 or so saying, you must go to buy the gold now before noon. Gold is not going to change based on whether you buy it before noon or not. And also there's not a lot of margin in it. And
we said that. We still got, look, you know, we did our research. You've got to leave Chinatown now and go get the gold. The problem with the golf clubs is we were furnished two numbers. The second number we called, the store didn't even carry golf clubs. Right. So we're sitting here looking at each other. What kind of backup? But you went to a golf store. Wait a minute. And we were kind of, that's when we were kind
of perplexed. Like, this is the number, this is the address you gave us to go buy the golf club. I called the store and they said, we're sorry, we don't even carry golf clubs, sir. Nick, you think Sam's a leader? I think he displayed leadership qualities during the task. Whether or not I would have made the same decisions, I'm not quite sure. Do you guys think Sam's a leader? No. And here's why Sam's not a leader. When we have to all, the rest of the team, tell
Sam, calm down. Stay calm, Sam. Stay calm. That's not showing Shana's a good leader. What about you, Kwame? I think he's already shown some success, but in your role, no, I don't think he'd be capable. I think it actually comes down to respect. If I had had respect, true respect. Did they not respect you, Sam? Not everyone. Who did not respect you? Kwame and Bowie. Do you respect Kwame? I respect everyone at this table. I have not earned the full respect of everyone at the table. I
wouldn't say that's it. That's probably the most true statement that you've made. And I can't lead until I have that respect. They can't make it. You have to get the respect. I do. You have to earn it. And if you don't earn it, you have to demand it. Right. And you know what? Yesterday I could have demanded it better. And that's what I'm learning. But I am a leader. But they don't respect you, Sam. So look, Sam. All right. So respect is the name of the episode. And we see
this is kind of the theme in this feedback. Sam is complaining that he doesn't have the respect of his teammates. Trump is telling him it's true that he doesn't seem to be respected. Carolyn
is advising that he should. demand respect but of course we hear in the feedback from the colleagues that there are many points of improvement for sam the first one kwame is saying how they were giving him feedback on they were close to negotiating a discount i think in chinatown or downtown but he was rushing them to go more to midtown for The goal negotiations, right? And he made it a point for it to be right before noon. He didn't
listen. So this is the first point. He did not listen to what was the reality on the ground. So if you're leading a team, before you set the direct, of course, you have a direction. You know where to go based on your own management. But listen to your teammates, listen to people underground. They have more insight into the reality than you or your own managers do. So the fact that he didn't listen, right, that was
minus one on the mutual respect. for sending them to the wrong golf address, to a golf store that doesn't carry golf clubs. The item list was clear. They had to negotiate a golf club. If he sends them to a golf store that doesn't carry golf clubs, it's a lack of preparation. And here, people trust your leadership. People trust your command. They believe you've done the research. You are sending them physically
to an address. They believe at minimum you have made the call or you know what's waiting for them there instead of just sending them to the first address that popped up. And once they realized that that was the case, right, that there was no proper preparation, no proper care, you know, again, a minus one on the mutual respect there. So first we mentioned. The lack of listening now is the lack of preparation or lack of care.
And finally, Bowie mentions that Sam is not a leader when his emotional intelligence has to be put in check, right? He needs his subordinates or his teammates to calm him, right? So the role of a leader... On the opposite, it's to lead on the emotional intelligence front as well. It's to be there for his coach's sports team. You want the coach to have more emotional intelligence than the players to help them navigate their emotions and the ups and downs, not the other
way around. And here, it's the other way around. So another minus one on the respect front. To summarize on the respect. Just if we focus in on why the man lost again and the specific team dynamics here that actually got Sam fired, despite the potential that Trump saw in him, it's that he did not truly listen to his teammates. He
didn't make them feel heard. actually listened so he didn't really know what they meant and why they meant it he was not prepared right he he has a flaw of overconfidence and kind of like just wailing things into existence it's a it's a good quality but it can also also backfire so we can draw a quick example here from steve jobs who's of course known on the management front to be He wills the deadline he has in mind, and somehow his subordinates make it happen in
time. It's impossible, and things worked at Apple that way. But when he was faced with his pancreatic cancer diagnosis, he kind of thought that he could just wish it away instead of following his doctor's advice to have surgery. And I believe that was one of his regrets. that he did not listen to... He was not open to input. That's what it meant. He has his vision, but if he's not willing to adjust it based on real -life reality's input, then there may be a mistake.
Second one, of course, was that... a lack of preparation. Lack of preparation is a bit disrespectful. It's kind of like arriving late at a meeting without proper communications ahead of time. It shows the other side that there's a lack of care. And here, the fact that he sent them to an address not fully having vetted it, either it shows incompetence or it shows a lack of... A lack of respect, a lack of care for people
who trust you is a lack of respect. So preparation equals caring equals respect in this regard. And finally, as a leader, Sam is expected, or you in your position of leadership are expected to... to keep your head cool a bit longer than the others and to stay level -headed and to kind of see the bigger picture and help calm others if there's a momentary turbulence, not the other way around. And a sign of a good leader or a good manager is one that can stay cool and help
his teammates. If you're the one who needs the help, you're more draining resources rather than adding resources. And so that's good takeaways on the leadership front that we can take from this episode. And on the negotiation fronts, as we said at the beginning, every situation, every person is a bit different, right? So you have to adapt the style. And that's what Trump
believes the negotiation skills are. are are innate they're not taught it really goes down to the instincts are you tougher are you kinder what works better depending on the circumstances it could be surprising what does work at the end but basically there's a whole range depending on who you're dealing with and what what's at stake and we saw a great move from the women's team is that you negotiate on items that have
a high margin. So it's easier for the other side to meet you, let's say, halfway and still feel like it's a win -win. If you go try to negotiate something that has no margin, you want to eat at the profits or make them lose even on their quality basis, it's not a winning... It's not a winning strategy, as we saw here. Anyways, I hope you like this episode and stay tuned for more. Thank you for listening.