Stand Up For Yourself – Don’t Sabotage Yourself
During the very first boardroom meeting of the first season, Donald Trump asked David if the outcome would have been better if he had been leading. David, who had said before the meeting that he was good at verbal self-defense committed the error that led to him being the first fired. He replied that the outcome would probably not have been different if he had been leading because sales were not his forte. He volunteered a deficiency and never had an opportunity to make it up. This is a very good lesson. Do not put yourself down, share deficiencies, or sabotage yourself. There are enough people and things out there trying to do you in that you do not need to help them. Everyone else who was asked if the outcome would have been different with them leading replied affirmatively that it would have.
During the first season, we saw examples in the fifth and sixth episodes of this same thing. Kristi, Omarosa and Heidi were the final three in the boardroom of week five. Before they came in, Trump still thought Kristi was good, although his advisors pointed out that maybe she was not such a good leader. Both Heidi and Omarosa viciously stood up for themselves, while Kristi said very little. Trump thought Heidi was overly aggressive, but okay. He said he knew many overly aggressive people that do very well. It was Kristi that disappointed Trump most. He claimed that Heidi and Omarosa were fighting for their life, but he didn’t see the fight in Kristi. She lost the fight. “You never even said anything in your own defense,” he told her. “Kristi, you didn’t fight for yourself and you’re fired.”
The Boardroom discussions during week six became quite harsh, with Omarosa criticizing and cutting Heidi and Jessie down with vicious attacks. Omarosa’s rudeness prompted Trump to chastise her saying she was rude and that her rudeness repulsed him. The only reason Omarosa was not fired, after her rude behavior, is that Trump disliked how Jessie took Omarosa’s rudeness and attacks more than he disliked the behavior of Omarosa. Jessie was not there when Trump fired Kristi for not fighting for herself. If she had, maybe she would have fought back a little when she came under the vicious attack of Omarosa. Instead, she stated that she still liked Omarosa, which befuddled Trump. He did not know how she could say that after the way Omarosa treated her. Omarosa was criticized, but it was Jessie’s lack of negotiating skills and her not standing up for herself to Omarosa that led to her being fired. Trumps final comments illustrate this lesson well, “Jessie, you were the worst negotiator, but worse than that, I hated the way you took so much crap from Omarosa. To me that was a form of weakness. I didn’t like what she was doing and it was repulsive to me, but worse was the way you took it. I have no choice and I have to say that you’re fired.”
Episode twelve of season two had a feisty boardroom. The two teams had competed against each other designing a brand new bottle and marketing campaign for a new drink called Pepsi Edge. Andy was the Project Manager of the losing team, Mosaic, and he faced off with Jennifer M. and Sandy in the boardroom.
The battle
that ensued did not go well for the national debate champion.
The women verbally beat Andy bad. Trump
told him, “Andy, you know what, for the
When the three returned, the arguing, debating and fighting continued. Trump had to pound on the table to get the three to stop. “Andy, you’re just being pounded on, you’re being outdebated. I just don’t want somebody running one of my companies that’s going to be beaten up so badly. You’re fired.”
When the three
candidates left the room, Trump told his advisors, “I thought
“Right, she went at it.” George replied.
To which Trump responded, “I’ve always said women are tougher than men. This proves it.”
It was during the second episode of season three that a candidate’s lack of standing up for himself almost floored The Donald. As Trump sat down in the Boardroom, he asked Brian, the Project Manager, what went wrong. Trump asked if it was Brian’s fault, and Brian replied that it was. Trump then asked if he should just fire him now without going through anything else, and Brian again answered affirmatively, stating, “Yes, you should.”
It was surprising that Trump did not just say, “Okay, you’re fired,” and end it right then. When he replied that it might be the shortest boardroom ever, one could see that he was contemplating doing just that. However, he did let others speak and found out more about the different candidates and what went wrong with the task. The real estate blunders are discussed elsewhere, and so is the lack of respect that Brian’s team felt for him. The important thing for this chapter is that Trump felt Brian gave up right from the beginning with his opening comments. When Brian started to get some gumption again, and replied to Trump that he never gave up, Trump replied that as soon as he sat down, Brian had said he should be the one fired. He gave up. Brian did not even have the chance to bring two teammates back into the boardroom to face Trump for the second round, Trump fired him and that was that. Afterwards, George, Carolyn and Trump commented that if the Project Manager felt he should be fired and was not willing to fight for himself, he was the one to go.
Bren was not in the boardroom that week, but he heard about it when Net Worth returned to the Suite. He did not remember the lesson during episode thirteen when he faced Alex in the boardroom. The two had lost the Staples challenge when they designed the cart with the baskets under a glass lid. Bren had admitted that he was not a risk taker, and Alex was capitalizing on this information as he fought to remain in the running. As Alex poured it on as to why he was the better candidate, Trump turned to Bren and said, “He’s killing you and you’re not killing him. You’re not going after him. Branson went after me, I killed him. Cuban went after me, I killed him.”
Bren admitted later that he did not fight as hard as he could have, and that he did not really have the hunger for the job that Alex did. Bren was fired that week for admitting he was not much of a risk taker and not fighting for himself.
All of these examples from the show illustrate that you must stand up for yourself and avoid sabotaging yourself. Often, inexperienced speakers are guilty of this. They will stand up before an audience and before saying anything else, apologize for something. They will tell the audience that they did not have time to prepare properly, or that they are not really an expert on the topic. This and a myriad of excuses come pouring out, sabotaging the presentation before it even begins. Why set yourself up for failure? You must not provide others with reason to look for your faults. No matter what you are doing, whether it is making a presentation, interviewing for a job, or persuading someone to assist you on a project, you must never sabotage yourself.
This advice goes right along with confidence and self-image. When you are confident, you will fight for yourself and what you believe. Lack of confidence and lack of self-image tend to make a person take abuse without fighting back. Winners fight back assertively. You cannot wait for someone else to stand up for you, especially if you will not stand up for yourself first. This does not mean be a bully or a jerk, it means to stand up for yourself. Do not let others beat you down. Sometimes you have to fight back, and fight back hard.
Trump Time Out – Stand
Up For Yourself
“You’ve always got to stand up for yourself. You just have to fight for yourself, because basically nobody else is going to fight for you.” - Donald Trump from The Apprentice, season one, episode five.