By Neil Patrick
Sometimes I like to watch a few episodes of The Apprentice. On the one hand it ruthlessly exposes the contestants' weaknesses and on the other, how people can be coerced into doing and saying the most unbelievable things just to win. Of course, that’s all part of what makes it such compelling viewing.
We all know it’s constructed and edited to ensure the over-eager and often delusional contestants usually come out looking rather foolish – if they are lucky – and downright idiotic if they are not.
It’s great entertainment that has probably done more than any other programme in history to make business an attractive career choice for the young. But of course it isn't really just about business. It's also about how the young and aspirational can be manipulated to behave in entertaining ways under the pretext of a competition to prove who's the best business person. In that sense, it's pure genius.
They are dazzled so easily with the the promise of a becoming a business superstar if they can make it through and get hired. They will resort to the most astonishing behaviors in their desperation to win at any cost. They display so much bravado and naivete so frequently that I think it's quite possibly the best anti-ageism commercial out there.
But possibly the hidden value of The Apprentice is in what it reveals about people and life. These insights are perhaps much more instructive than some of the 'tasks' themselves.
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| All that glitters...Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0 |
So I was interested to discover what had happened in the real life of the winner of the 2010 series, Stella English.
Stella was born and grew up in Thamesmead, a deprived area of South East London. She left school with no qualifications, but at the time of entering The Apprentice had become Head of Business Management on the trading floor of a Japanese investment bank.
Due to her consistent performance throughout the series and solid determination, she made it to the final of the show. She showed excellent leadership and organizational skills, and Lord Alan Sugar took the decision to hire her.
At the time, she commented she was looking forward to the future and was extremely happy. After winning, English worked at Sugar's computer company Viglen. But she quit the job within a year, in May 2011, saying that she was just a "glorified PA". She moved to go and work for another Sugar business, YouView.
Just five months later, in October 2011, she resigned from YouView claiming she had had almost no contact with Sugar in her role. In March 2013 English sued Sugar for constructive dismissal.
On 12 April 2013 it was announced that she had lost her case, with the tribunal judge John Warren saying that, "Ms English, instead of appreciating a job with enormous scope for advancement, had been more interested in a glamorous role, and travelling in private jets".
Having successfully defended himself against the constructive dismissal case, Sugar then sued English to recover some of the £35,000 of costs he’d incurred in mounting his defence.
At the court case, English revealed that her attempted business ventures - including a fashion label and events company - had fallen flat, resulting in her now having to survive on state benefits. Sugar did not win this subsequent case, and English said that she was keen to put the saga behind her.
"I haven’t slept for about six weeks… and trying to cope with the fact that I’m now an unemployed single mother. It’s a nightmare, it’s a living nightmare.”
“All I care about at the moment is my kids," she said. "I’ve got two small children there now. Dad is not at home, Mummy is crying they don’t know why. I think it’s just gone too far to get back together with my husband. I suppose at the time I needed the support but I’ve found myself completely alone”.
"The only way is up, that’s the good news, I don’t think it can get much worse. Well please God I hope it doesn’t.”
This is the often brutal reality of real business life versus the manipulated and stage-managed version of it we see presented on The Apprentice.
I’m not going to attempt to work out whether Sugar or English was at fault. I don’t know and I don’t have access to any of the facts. But there are several things that I think are instructive in this whole episode:
Don’t become dazzled by glorious prizes
Time and time again, people are seduced into thinking that a chance to win some glittering prize has to be worth going for. Not always. The odds are usually stacked against you and the costs of losing or even winning can be huge. How many good jobs have contestants on The Apprentice resigned from just to have a shot at winning the show? How much money have they spent on their wardrobes just so they look really polished in front of the cameras – four figures for sure, possibly five. Good investment? For most absolutely not. Risk and reward assessment seems to be a skill commonly absent from candidates for The Apprentice.
Getting the job isn’t the end, it’s the beginning
I don’t know this, but I suspect that after winning the show, English found herself unable to progress things and make them happen at Viglen. It’s a tech company and she didn’t have a background in tech. She would feel out of her depth and was quite possibly even resented by her colleagues. All speculation granted, but the point is this. If you’re set up as a star and you cannot live up to your reputation, some people are going try and shoot you down.
Never resort to the law to resolve differences if your opponent is richer than you.
I think that trying to sue Sugar was not the smartest thing English could have done. I know that the law should protect us all equally. But it doesn’t. The richer you are and the better lawyers you can afford, the better your results will be within the legal system. It shouldn’t be like this, but it is and we have to act accordingly.
Your fame is always vulnerable if you are not in full control.
Fame is powerful and always ready to bite you, especially if you do something dumb that brings you crashing down. But even if you don’t make a monumental error, it can still bite you as Stella English discovered.
I wonder if Stella ever wishes she had her old job back?
I think I can guess the answer.
What do you think?
Very interesting post, Neil. Thanks for sharing. My take is that Stella should look at a longer-time frame. She may use this experience to her advantage somewhere down the road. She may have lost the battle but she can still win the war. As long as she gets back on the proverbial horse and continues on her journey, she hasn't really lost much except time and some money. Sometimes these failures are worth going through if only to gain the experience and wisdom. Now Stella knows better than to sue a Goliath. I don't even understand what she was hoping to gain, although I do kind of understand where she's coming from. I partly agree with the judge who ruled against her, though. But anyway - there's 2 sides to this. Definitely an interesting story.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reactions. Yes I thought it was an instructive story too. I agree and hope that Stella has learned much from this which will be of value to her in future. Certainly I feel that my own failures have taught me much more than my successes.
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