I often think to myself how can you not understand the task that has been set for you by Sir Alan Sugar. Why does nobody at the start of each task actually seem to sit down and analyse exactly what the task is about. Each week they all seem to run about like headless chickens and not concentrate on the major aspect of the task.



Has the emphasis of being an entrepreneur shifted throughout the series to just being a sales person? It seems to me that there is more importance attached to selling than spirit in the show. However as any businessman knows without selling there is no profit!

I just feel that it's the sales persons job to sell and the entrepreneur's job to have the vision for the whole concept and then direct the salespeople to sell the product and the concept. Of course any good entrepreneur has to be able to sell, but do they have to be the best salesperson?

There also always seems to be a natural split in the contestants that becomes apparent which is the academic versus the experienced. Like in one of the American series where Donald trump split the contestants using that criterion to make the divide between the two teams. They each seem to have a view on what is the best and that view is based upon their own experience or their qualifications. I would have thought it obvious that it is the person combined with the qualification or experience that would make the best candidate. It also seems that they either are educated or have experience whereas surely the ideal candidate would be somebody with a good education and real life experience.

The contestants for the show all seem to think that you have to be arrogant to be successful in business and I think that they are getting arrogance and confidence confused. Who wants to do business with somebody who is arrogant? Whereas somebody who is confident and can build confidence in others so that they are confident that they will be able to deliver on their promises is exactly the type of person that we would all like to do business with.

I know that this is a TV show and ultimately somebody who is already successful and highly educated would not necessarily want to work for Sir Alan as the £100k job would not be that much of a pull. However as Sir Alan readily acknowledges it is not about the money it's about working with him and the knowledge and experience that the right person can get from working with him. That has to be the ultimate prize.

If you want to be successful then you need to be constantly learning and adapting to changing circumstances. Whether you are learning from your own experience or from the experience of others or by traditional education (which is really the experience of others) you are still learning and that's the important part.

Obviously learning by itself is not enough you also need to be driven, dedicated, intelligent, ambitious, resourceful and have the right personality coupled with maybe a little bit of luck as well. However learning has to be an important part of that pot of skills.

So keep watching the apprentice - I know I will and I will keep laughing at all the schoolboy errors that they make - I suppose that's the problem with TV personality wannabes. I wonder how different the competitors would be if there were no TV show?