The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

"The Apprentice" (spoilers)

It's that time again!

My god Amy was wearing a short skirt in the boardroom last week....

The Penthouse on the 90th floor was absolutely amazing.

Nick played the "do you have a relationship" question *exceptionally* well.

I agree with Amy that Nick should've kept his mouth shut. Event planners that book $40k spaces don't need suggestions on where to put the band.

The lease said the party had to be out at MIDNIGHT?!?!? WTF is up with that?

It was nice to hear Bill's smiling appreciation of Troy's personality, even in the criticism.

I'm completely shocked that Versacorp took it. An absolute hail mary in the end. I'm also interested that they targeted $40k - I'm guessing they met with the Trump planners and we just weren't shown.

Personally, I think in the end Hellboy is going to take it all... no, wait - that's a commercial. Sorry.

Oh Bill is DEFINITELY playing Nick against Amy. Oh good lord this is good - he is such a player it's incredible. Stuff like this only happens in movies.

...and Amy shows up for the flight wearing a microskirt. Uh-huh.

And then Nick's worst nightmare. Riding a corporate jet on a romantic getaway with a hot woman and his dad shows up. I've been there. It's hell. (uh, not the corporate jet part, just the dad showing up part)

Interesting how the show is spending FAR more time focusing on the interpersonal play and less on the competitions.

Absolutely wonderful to see Troy and Kwame playing the game with honor. On that alone they both rose 1000% in my estimation.

I didn't like Trump's rant about notes. There's nothing wrong with notes.

I also don't think Troy has been a loose cannon. He's unconventional, but never out of control. I agree that it was a tough choice, but I think in a CEO role you *want* the guy who's a little rambunctious and a hoot n' holler type.

Nothing in these past 12 weeks has played Kwame's education against Troy's high school diploma - Troy has been ten times the LEADER that Kwame has.

I really think this was a very poor call on Trump's part, unless it's based on stuff we simply haven't seen. (Editing is everything)

oooo - two people get canned next week. I ain't bettin' no mo'

Philo

Philo
Thursday, April 1, 2004

"""An absolute hail mary in the end."""

RIGGED!

Thursday, April 1, 2004

>I really think this was a very poor call on Trump's part,
> unless it's based on stuff we simply haven't seen.
> (Editing is everything)

Actually, the entire speech at the end was a voice over. If you could see it again you would see that you never see Trump's face, the quality of the audio changed, and Kwame's nodding didn't match up with what was being said.

We may never know what was actually said, but what we heard wasn't it.

www.MarkTAW.com
Thursday, April 1, 2004

Rigged? Yeah, I thought it was an awfully huge coincedence too. The clients understandably wanted to stay past midnight for a new year's eve party, but then at the very last minute (when they *knew* the seller was desperate) offered the highest ever bid on the space? I'd bet a year's supply of Starbucks coffee that the producers rebated some of that cash just so they could increase the drama and keep the Nick/Amy romance alive another week.

Sexist
Thursday, April 1, 2004

I heard somebody make a comment that "the lease won't be an issue." As if to indicate that somebody -- perhaps the event planners themselves -- talked to the building manager and got the midnight restriction of the lease waived for New Years.

And if it was the event planners themselves who talked to the building manager (or whoever it was that had the authority to approve waivers of the lease conditions), that would also explain the high price they paid. The manager resisted, then the people kept on upping the offer to a point where the manager wouldn't want to be blamed as the one who blocked a $40,000 night.

The manager then let them know that if they want the place they have to hurry up and sign the lease by X-o'clock, so they ran over and signed it minutes before the deadline.

This time it was just plain old luck for Amy and Nick. Troy's team had multiple people willing to pay $30K+, but Nick and Amy would have had a goose-egg if those people didn't reappear at the last minute.

T. Norman
Thursday, April 1, 2004

And what's up with Carolyn? The other guy keeps going on business trips, so we've seen at least three different guys fill in for him, but Carolyn is there week after week. Does she not have any real work to do except appear on the show? Or is that she's the only one of Trump's Vice Presidents who doesn't travel week-after-week, or what?

Sexist
Thursday, April 1, 2004

What did Trump's speech on passion have to do with this episode? Passion for pricing higher?

The previous competition was a volume business, reducing the effect of outside variables. This one was completely luck of the draw, the guys worked much harder for their money.

This guy fell in love with the space even though he had to be out at midnight on new years! Nick & Amy obviously should've changed the lease. Who do they have to call to change Midnight to 2AM? Whatever the extra costs involved, it surely wouldn't amount to $10k. Is there a complainy downstairs neighbor?

The guy who walked away from the deal was right - it was too smarmy, and that's Troy's style. He's a small time operator and used to dealing with people who give in to high pressure tactics. $40k per night people aren't going to give in this way, well the ones who fall in love with a space will.

Troy is the salesman, Bill is the numbers guy, why was Bill the salesman and Troy the closer? You need to hit them over the head, drag them in to the closing room & then have someone reassure you you made the right decision, not the other way around. But I still agree with Bill, this is a car sales tactic. Next thing you know it's not $40k, but 12 easy installments of...

Telling them where to put the band... I read a while ago some book on NLP (the bad smarmy NLP), or maybe a website, where they said when you're selling a house, you ask them what they liked about their prevoius house and remember which senses they use and in what order "the smell -> the sights -> the sounds" and then sell the new house to them in that order. Nick, as I've said all along is a classic salesman, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was using this technique, or at least trying to paint a picture in their minds.

"T-Roy's" decision to take Kwame instead of Bill was a bit of a surprise, though I wouldn't want to go up against Bill either. Especially after what Amy told them about "Well why don't I just end the game and hire Bill now."

Bill's comments in the boardroom were good, and I was a little surprised at his comfort level. Trump really took a different tact with the questions this week. He already knows everyone's strengths and weaknesses, so he's going after ancillary support now - what are your credentials, what have you done in the past?

Trump also basically said Kwame isn't going to get the job either.

So next week. Nick & Amy v. Troy & Bill, and two people get fired. It's tempting to say that the losing team will get fired, but that really doesn't give Trump enough control over what happens. What if his favorite gets fired? So what will it be? No teams, all individuals? One person from each team gets fired?

I'm still trying to figure out the behind the scenes stuff. Who were these event planners? You can't sell a space like this in a day without doing some previous legwork. These people aren't taking 15 weeks out of their life (and has it ever been winter?). So does this really take place over the course of 3 weeks? No way Kwame can get 15 weeks off of Goldman Sachs.

www.MarkTAW.com
Thursday, April 1, 2004

Trump is always there week after week, so why can't she be there also? Maybe she just happens to do most or all of her work in New York.

T. Norman
Thursday, April 1, 2004

Carolyn:

"She's also very firm, very tough, very smart, very shrewd and has good judgment," Trump says of Kepcher, who is also an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, as well as general manager and chief operating officer for two Trump National golf clubs, in Briarcliff, N.Y., and Bedminster, N.J.

(source: http://theapprentice.typepad.com/the_apprentice/carolyn_kepcher/ )

George:

"He's tough, firm, but fair, a very brilliant lawyer, and I trust his judgement," Trump says of Ross, who is executive vice president and senior counsel for the Trump Organization.

(source: http://theapprentice.typepad.com/the_apprentice/george_ross/ )

Carolyn runs some of his local businesses, including the one she used to tell the women they use sex too much. George is a lawyer and it makes sense that he travels a lot.

www.MarkTAW.com
Thursday, April 1, 2004

15 weeks *unpaid* leave from Goldman Sachs, yes. Hard, but not close to impossible.

Once having received the offer to go on the show, Kwame probably would have been willing to quit if they didn't grant the leave of absence, and Goldman Sachs probably realized it too. And chances are he wouldn't have been the first to be given upaid leave.

It's the people who run their own businesses that I wonder about -- how could they be away from it for so long?

T. Norman
Thursday, April 1, 2004

Good point, T - if the CEO says he's going to be doing this, it would be a bad move to say "Oh, I can't do it, I'm busy"

Philo

Philo
Thursday, April 1, 2004

I was waiting for the receptionist to give Troy her number, did you see the look on her face?

Keith Wright
Thursday, April 1, 2004

There's a profile of Carolyn in today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/01/nyregion/01profile.html

"Trump's Chilly Sidekick Thaws a Bit Off Camera"

By the way, she's only 35 years old!

Ryan Seacrest
Thursday, April 1, 2004

Well that article answered my question:

> "The Apprentice" was shot over six weeks.

www.MarkTAW.com
Thursday, April 1, 2004

Carolyn is there every week because she's popular. This _is_ her day job (to promote Trump).

Lou Franco
Thursday, April 1, 2004

> "The Apprentice" was shot over six weeks.

That's strange because I distinctly recall Bill saying during this episode, "Its been a long 12 weeks."

I wonder what else he had to go through to get there?

Canuck
Friday, April 2, 2004

Woohoo, The Apprentice is coming to Australia in a week or so.

Mind you, I already know what happens as I have been reading these threads....

Aussie Chick
Friday, April 2, 2004

I missed the first twenty minutes of this week's show, but I don't think it would have made a difference in what I am going to post here.

It appears that Troy's lack of a college degree is what done him in. I agree with a previous poster that Troy does act like a small time operator at times, but this show all about performing small time tasks and he seemed to me to be better than Kuwame at performing those type of tasks. I like Kuwame, but he appears to be a recent grad with no battle scars. Also, I don't believe he has ever stood out from the crowd during any of the previous episodes.

Maybe Trump really does believe Troy is a loose cannon? What I do know is that Trump had to say something politically correct in the boardroom (I too noticed the voice over) so that all those hardworking folks out in television land who might have been rooting for Troy will not get upset with his decision to fire him and will keep watching this show.

Speaking of "dealing with big numbers", it looks like Mr. Trump is going to need a "hail mary" play to rescue his bacon. I heard that he owes something like 2 billion in loans and if he doesn't come up with the money soon he is going to lose his Atlantic City casinos.

Bleh, are you reading this post? If so, I believe I found a weak way to link this week's episode with software development talk. [Sort of relates to my theory on why Troy got fired this week] Have you ever asked yourself why corporate America is filled with so many crappy programmers? Well, one reason why is that being good at what you do isn't always enough to guarantee success within corporate America, in many instances you need to have the proper "paper credentials" before any decent sized corporation will even consider you for a job. Also, some corporations will only hire programmers who appear to be capable of assuming a management position someday.

One Programmer's Opinion
Friday, April 2, 2004

I'm not sure I could ever hire a programmer who was only interested in code. Definitely not in either a boutique or for a more senior position.

Philo

Philo
Friday, April 2, 2004

Yet many people hire senior programmers who cannot code. I know this because I've been interviewing dozens of programmers for the past 3 months trying to find the "right one". And no, I'm not asking them stupid math puzzle questions like most of the one you find in the InterviewQuestions section of this site.

Humbug
Friday, April 2, 2004

Isn't this the reason why programming isn't a true profession? Most of the people that I know are only interested in learning as much as they can about new technologies and the craft of programming and I constantly hear these guys bitching about not being able to keep up! Is it really reasonable for companies to also expect programmers to be able to play the roles of technical writer, help desk person, DBA, networking guru, project manager, business analyst, [insert whatever I missed here]?

Stop the insanity!
Friday, April 2, 2004

Well, the "last minute" apartment rental was staged, so my guess is this "last minute" rental was also staged.

http://www.realitytvworld.com/index/articles/story.php?s=2323

Friday, April 2, 2004

Accordin to NBC's website:

"He explained the reality that the person who ultimately becomes his apprentice may deal with multibillion-dollar businesses and Troy just isn't ready for that."

There have been a few examples of class distinction (I refuse to call it descrimination) on this show. Whatever you tell yourself in your mind, you will take someone who is well dressed, culturally similar to you, and upper class seriously.

My initial impression of Troy was that he looked like a Brooklyn thug. He wears his working class background on his sleeve, and frankly his midwestern accent won't win him any prizes in New York and Boston. He uses it to disarm you, but there's only so far that will go.

Kwame doesn't know how to act with authority, but his Harvard / Goldman Sachs background means he can at least play golf with Fortune 500 executives. My impression of Kwame is that he looks like a stock-art middle executive. You know the one, the one whose really happy about something and doing the (american) football end-zone dance on Wall Street.

One needs only look at Nick's father to know where he came from. I don't think you can change Nick any more than you can change Troy. They will always be "the working class kid who did good and then shot for the stars."

It would be interesting to see in 10 years time what happens to these people. Being on a show like this is really the experience of a lifetime. Omarosa is riding it's coattails more than anyone else so far. My guess is the current business owners will be able to step up their businesses, or continue a steady course, and the employees will start to burn out as everyday life can't compare to being TV stars.

Amy comes from a more upscale background, but will need to step it up a notch & take her cues from Carolyn to run one of Trump's businesses. She still dresses and to some extent acts like Day to Night Barbie - ready for the dance floor or the boardroom.

Bill is also from a working class background, one look at how out of place the Burberry scarf was with the rest of his outfit should show that. But I think his tone & mannerisms are consistently professional, and the scarf didn't seem as out of place as it would have on, say, me.

To put it another way, which of the 5 from last night do you think the $40k per night New Years Party guy would hire to host his party? Remember, he wants to make a good impression & there will be celebrities, CEO's, and "old money" millionaires in attendance. That scenario serves as a microcosm for what Trump must be thinking about these people's interpersonal skills.

www.MarkTAW.com
Friday, April 2, 2004

The show made it sound like Bill, Kwame and Troy left around Noon, "Done" with the project for the day.

I wonder what would happen if Troy had asked his supervior (Carolyn or the other guy) "Hey, we have 5 working hours left in the day. Is there any other way we can make some money? Additional bookings, but only 25% of what we take in counts toward this challenge?"

Something like that would have been interesting. HE only needed to raise 5K. The Dollars per hour of the Troy team were much higher than the Amy/Nick Team, after all ...

Matt H.
Friday, April 2, 2004

Troy should have played the "Gates card" and explained to The Donald it takes much more than a Harvard MBA to run a sucessful business...especially since Gates is worth many times more than Trump...

apw
Friday, April 2, 2004

According to the New York Times, the show was shot over 6 weeks.

Matt Watson
Friday, April 2, 2004

"The show made it sound like Bill, Kwame and Troy left around Noon, "Done" with the project for the day."

Two comments on this.

First, they could only sign one contract. Once it was signed, they were done. Rules of the game.

Second, my recollection was that when they were leaving, the camera said there was 45 minutes left in the competition. Amy & Nick were sitting in the lobby looking dejected about having gone all day without a contract, and the guys were making a comment about it to each other as they were leaving.

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Friday, April 2, 2004

Re: Bill playing Amy and Nick

I agree. He's doing a great job of that.

Related note. Anyone catch Bill reading the horoscopes after the haricut? Five dollars says he made up the one he read to Kwame, ("a good friend will let you down" or some such), just to try and sow some more seeds of doubt.

Jason (www.mesacanyon.com)
Friday, April 2, 2004

Perhaps the biggest thing that Trump was weighing was that having items on your resume such as Goldman Sachs and Harvard means that someone else agrees that Kwame is smart and capable - he has other world class entities vouching for his intelligence. Troy only has what he could present within the confines of the show. That's an unfortunate limitation, but one that, I think, is understandable.

"Why did you pick Kwame?" Well, Harvard and Goldman think he's good, could the both be THAT wrong?

Lou
Friday, April 2, 2004

Jason: $10 says Bill made up both horoscopes. His was something like "the work you've done over the past weeks will pay off" or some such.

Emperor Norton
Friday, April 2, 2004

"The Gates Card"? You mean that you can be successful coming from an upperclass family and being a friggin' genius evend if you drop out of Harvard because you think the time is ripe to start a software company to ride the personal computer wave (which you have preciently predicted). Oh and it helps Donald, if your mother is on a charity board with some IBM bigwigs around the time they are secretly moving into the PC game?

You can't honestly be seeing BG as an example of working class uneducated lad trying to make it in the big city, can you? And, BTW, while Trumps claim that all the players have 180 IQ is clearly an outrageous lie, for Gates it seems plausible (though I don't know the actual number).

As for the show, each week it reveals itself as more and more of a fraud. The viewer isn't told the rules of the task and they would have us believe that each team found someone and signed them for 30-40K-bucks in one day! How stupid are we? Why does Philo get so excited about this show? It is the same as every other reality how- take good looking people and put them in a controled situation and pretend it's real.

When the Donald talks about Amy's possible love connection you can practically see the gears turning in his head "how does the affect my chances of nailing this broad?".

With the reward sequence, the winners continue to show how appallingly they fit into the Trump mind-set. That was a great old club with some really nice furniture and art (which Trump hasn't yet dipped in gold) and all they can say about how impressed they are is "$10,000 tables!" "$100,000 tapestries!". Ick.

name withheld out of cowardice
Friday, April 2, 2004

"Why does Philo get so excited about this show? "

Well, if he's like me, he's hoping to see some titties. That's really the only value I've found in the show so far. But, Fear Factor is much better in that regard.

Friday, April 2, 2004

You have to admit that those Venetian tapestries would look better dipped in gold.

Lou Franco
Friday, April 2, 2004

yeah...if the chick gets fired next week, why bother watching the rest of it....at that point who cares who gets the job?

apw
Friday, April 2, 2004

"""Nick, as I've said all along is a classic salesman, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was using this technique, or at least trying to paint a picture in their minds."""

If by "classic salesman", you mean, "an ass who talks nonstop about crap and doesn't let anybody get a word (or thought) in edgewise", then I'd agree.

But even for the NLP technique you mentioned, there's a step where he'd have to ask a question and *listen* and *pay attention* to the answer. So far, to my recollection, they've never showed him do that even once in a sales situation!

Now, if you want to talk about some *real* manipulation, look at Bill. He subtly uses Nick and Amy's desired self-images against them. He tells Nick he might be seen as "sweet -- not that there's anything *wrong* with that, mind you..." and boom, he's hooked. He then flips it around talking to Amy, playing on her pride as an intelligent, independent woman, and boom, she's hooked too. I think if the flight hadn't ended up chaperoned, there would have been a major fallout between Nick and Amy, courtesy of Bill's setup, disrupting their ability to work together on the next task.

And of course, as others point out, he may have been messing with Kwame's head, having already known that Kwame was into horoscopes. It's pretty apparent that Bill plays close attention to people as part of the normal course of things. And *that* is what you need to do in order to influence people... not run off at the mouth nonstop, like Nick.

By the way... anybody think that after Kwame gets fired, he and Troy might go into business together? Interesting thought.

Phillip J. Eby
Friday, April 2, 2004

"If by "classic salesman", you mean, "an ass who talks nonstop about crap and doesn't let anybody get a word (or thought) in edgewise", then I'd agree."

Yes, I meant the Zig Ziglar / Tony Robbins / Brian Tracy type who ceases to think about their customers as human beings and instead as a series of automatic triggers whose buttons they need to learn to push.

www.MarkTAW.com
Friday, April 2, 2004

Speaking of Bill.

"Troy told me about a sales technique I'd never heard of before. / What are we car salesmen?"

Um... You never heard of it before? Then how did you know it was used in car sales?

One does wonder what Bill might have said to Troy to influence his decision to take Kwame instead of Bill. I think Amy is attempting her own version of this as well, as Katrina pointed out in her cab ride... Telling everyone that Bill is her toughest competition, and later telling the camera she wants to ....

Wait a minute. Damnit, I'm gossiping aren't I? I've changed my mind, this show no longer has any redeeming social value.

www.MarkTAW.com
Friday, April 2, 2004

"And of course, as others point out, he may have been messing with Kwame's head, having already known that Kwame was into horoscopes ..."

INDEED.

Have you ever seen a horoscope that says something like "...Something bad is going to happen to you today" - LET ALONE "...you will be betrayed by a close friend today"

?

Never. Horoscopes are vague and loosey-goosey enough that they can be interpreted to mean anything. The greeks have been doing that since the oracle at Delphi around 3000 BC. :-)

If I were Kwame, I would have said something like "I'd like to see that" (The timing when Kwame was in the chair and not in a position to read was pretty good, though.)

But Kwame didn't even think of that. Troy would have, I believe. In my mind, that's the kind of weakness Kwame has --- he doesn't like _under_ things. This reminds me of the fulton fish market problem on the very first episode.

Kwame could make an excellent Company President if he had a good Troy as VP of operations, and vice versa. (I'm getting tired of CXO titles.)

Notice my post on "The Apprentice Considered Harmful"

Matt H.
Friday, April 2, 2004

Should be "He doesn't LOOK _under_ things" above, not "Like _under_ things"

that would be a different post entirely.

Matt H.
Friday, April 2, 2004

"By the way... anybody think that after Kwame gets fired, he and Troy might go into business together?"

We will definitely be seeing more of Trowame.

NoName
Friday, April 2, 2004

Well, what a sham. This was the week where the wheels fell off and 'reality' TV was revealed as BS.

The last minute rental was clearly bogus, just like the last minute appartment rental.

The only thing Trump cared about in the boardroom was who had the best education. And don't pretend that the person who wins will be incharge of some multi-billion dollar company. They'll be in charge of Trump Tissue Paper or Trump Toothpicks or Trumperation H or something.

As for who's going to win... well, it's just random. Clearly performance doesn't matter and if performance doesn't matter then why watch the show?

Billy continues to unimpress. He runs around like a little schoolgirl gossiping about Nick and Amy. I'm sure everyone wants a CEO who fawns around telling people his competition is gay.

If Trump is such a great businessman why doesn't he rent out that penthouse instead of nickle and diming it a few nights per year? Someone out there would pay at least $20 million for that space.

The Ronald
Friday, April 2, 2004

20mill is 500 $40k rentals. If you get really good at it, you can make 20 mill every 2 years with the space and if you own it you get a huge depreciation tax benefit. I'm pretty sure The Donald knows what he's doing.

He's a space owner/renter -- that's what he does.

Lou Franco
Friday, April 2, 2004

Before someone doubts Trump's business skills... do they have any idea how much advertisment he is doing for his brand/places/products... casio, water, 90th floor rentals ... and the name "trump" ... and ... and ... he is getting paid for doing that!

Raju Patel
Friday, April 2, 2004

"Before someone doubts Trump's business skills..."

http://news.google.ca/news?q=trump%20bankruptcy&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&edition=ca&tab=gn

I believe I read somewhere (and everything on the interweeb is true isn't it?) that if Trump had invested his inheritence/family money in t-bills, he'd have significantly more wealth than he does right now. i.e. His manipulations have had a net negative effect.

Trump is not an extraordinary talent, but rather he lucked into an extraordinary situation (just as Bill Gates did, by the way).

Dennis Forbes
Saturday, April 3, 2004

I've enjoyed reading your comments about The Apprentice. It's hard to find people at work who want to discuss it and I'm curious what others think of it.

I especially agreed with The Ronald's comments about the show being a sham and finally showing its true colors. It's been a fun ride but now I've lost (almost) all interest in it. I think Trump had his guy/girl picked out weeks ago and the shows now are just a way for him to weed out the others while keeping it interesting. Silly me, I actually thought that the best candidate would be chosen rather than the one with the most impressive pedigree. I guess image is everything. Troy was my favorite because he seems to be the most comfortable with himself and others and has strong leadership qualities.

I also agree with The Ronald that the winner is not really going to be running a multi-billion dollar company. Maybe on paper, but that's all. Trump or someone on his staff will be pulling the strings. It's kind of sad to see them fighting and backstabbing each other for the privilege of being a virtual CEO of one of Trump's companies and having to manage and lead people who won't respect them. Of course, the cash probably will ease the pain but money isn't everything (except in the Wonderful World of Trump).

Connie H.
Saturday, April 3, 2004

"I think Trump had his guy/girl picked out weeks ago and the shows now are just a way for him to weed out the others while keeping it interesting. Silly me, I actually thought that the best candidate would be chosen rather than the one with the most impressive pedigree."

These two sentances are a bit of a leap in logic. I accept that Trump may have had is person picked weeks ago, but I do not think it's based purely on pedigree.

According to NBC's website "The winner of the competition, the true “apprentice” will be granted the dream job of a lifetime with The Trump Organization and a salary of $250,000."

I don't see anything about running a multi-billion-dollar business. In fact, all I see is a glorified cash prize.

www.MarkTAW.com
Saturday, April 3, 2004

I can't wait to find out what the job is. I mean, the best job possible would be the job alluded to by the title - being Trump's gofer, er, executive assistant for a year.

Instead, I'm betting on Executive VP of Elimination Management for that penthouse...

Philo

Philo
Saturday, April 3, 2004

"I don't see anything about running a multi-billion-dollar business."

Sometimes it pays to listen to the show. Trump's henchman said this week that Troy wasn't suitable for dealing with multi-billion dollar business. It was one of the "reasons" given for axing Troy, along with the fact that he was a "live wire". (better to be dead wood, like Bill, I guess)

The Ronald
Saturday, April 3, 2004

"Trump's henchman said this week that Troy wasn't suitable for dealing with multi-billion dollar business."

My recollection was that he said that they DEALT with multi-billion dollar businesses. Big deal. If I call up Microsoft I'm dealing with a multi-billion dollar business. Indeed, when I negotiate loan deals I'm dealing with a multi-billion dollar business. Whoop-tee-doo.

Dennis Forbes
Saturday, April 3, 2004