Sage Lewis

Here are the Halloween pictures…


Indiana October 2005

“How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?… How long will my enemy triumph over me?”

This is a nice, encouraging article about how to carry on when things are rough.
Beacon Journal | 10/29/2005 | Pray rather than gripe in job chaos

There are many business models but there are no business laws. Physics can be deduced to 3 main laws. Business has endless models with endless variables.

Marketing is a great example of this. No matter how proficient and tested a marketing strategy or company may be, there is never a guarantee of success. The client, the product, the service, the end-user, the economic climate… they all make for a wild, chaotic theater in which to play.

This is the great challenge of business.

No one ever tells you these things as you start out all wide-eyed and naive of the joys of running a business. The reasons for going into business are completely different than the reasons for staying in business.

When I first started SageRock, I was spreading the good news of business ownership. I tried to get everyone involved in their own business. Now when someone asks me if they should start their own business, I tell them it all depends on how they feel about going to war. If you are excited and engaged in fighting battle after battle, year after year… then business is for you. If that doesn’t sound like fun, then I would probably think of another career move.

I don’t think I could live without the war.

The Apprentice 4 Episode 5

Before I jump into the current episode, I thought I might point you to some of the latest Apprentice news.

First, check out this article:
Trump blames Martha Stewart for his ratings slide – Yahoo! News

The show currently averages 10 million viewers a week, down 4 million from last season.

Many TV critics have said Stewart’s prime-time success has been hurt by her post-prison image make-over as a warmer, softer lifestyle guru, in contrast with Trump’s tough-boss persona and his curt signature phrase “You’re fired.”

I agree that I was hoping Martha would be a total tough ass. I wanted to see some cunning cut throat managing. Or even better, some non-understanding, irrational decision making. But now it’s some milk toast show. That all said, I don’t think Trump can blame Stewart for his ratings slip. I think we all get it. It’s just not particularly exciting.

And here’s a Toral Interview:
Insider – [TV Guide Online] Toral Interview

On to tonight’s episode.

In recap, Rebecca gives up her friend. And Toral got fired last week. Toral is immature. She will be humbled some day, if she stays in business. I think Rebecca is sharp and smart. But her commitment to Toral is concerning.

The men point out that the reason they are winning is because they have good team dynamics. That is completely correct.

Marshawn says she is tired of being around bickering women. Also a good point. They need to come together.

We are in the 5th week of the 13 weeks. Bill Rancic, the first Apprentice, is standing in for George.

The women get one of the men and they picked Randal. They feel he will help them and hurt the men for losing him.

Clay is exempt this week.

The men agree that taking Randal causes a huge challenge.

The contest today is to create a float for the movie Sony Pictures – Zathura. One of the judges will be the movie’s director, Jon Favreau.

The lesson today is “Money Matters”. He says that business is all about money. I so strongly disagree. It is what business is all about for Trump because that’s what Trump loves. If you don’t love money, then business is all about something else. There are many reasons and motivations in running a business: organizational growth, personal challenge, community contribution, helping team members. It is about what inspires you to get up in the morning and keep going and keep growing.

We go to Excel. Brian is the project manager. One of the men mess up the name of the movie. Favreau is upset.

Jennifer Murphy is the project manager for Capital Edge. She feels that she will be able to handle the personalities on her team. That will be interesting to see.

Favreau says that he actually couldn’t pronounce the name initially either. So it will be crucial for people to see the name and learn how to say it. This is brilliant from a marketing standpoint. We are just hearing the name Zathura over and over again. All Apprentice viewers will know exactly how to pronounce the name of the movie.

Randal points out that there is a major team problem with Capital Edge.

Kristi and Jen M. and having it out. Neither one is willing to give an inch and it just deteriorates the entire team. The team that plays like a team will win, ultimately.

Back to Excel. Josh is having a hard time with Markus. Markus pulls Brian aside. Markus is upset because Brian said he was good at ordering food. Brian stands up for himself well. Josh comes in and wants Markus to help clean.

Capital Edge. Randal, Rebecca, Marshawn and Jen M. go to a carpet store that Marshawn feels is a bad use of time. Half the team is gone from the float and there is 45 minutes left. Felisha feels there is bad planning.

The Excel float, Favreau and Carolyn feel is true to the spirit of the movie. It looks like they like it.

Capital Edge. Jen M mispronounces Zethura over and over again. Carolyn and Bill are laughing at her. Alla says that Jen M.’s presentation is disjointed and a wreck. Jen M. says she feels great about the presentation. She continues to mispronounce the name of the movie. She is completely blind to what is going on around her. People are laughing at her and she doesn’t know it. She’s blind. Maybe she’s blinded by her beauty. For some reason she is completely self absorbed. She ruined the presentation. From the editing perspective that I saw, she is the one that failed. Her vision was wrong, she didn’t appreciate the movie, her presentation was rambling and poor. And what’s completely the worst is that she has no idea about any of this. It’s only 9:30. It looks like we’re going to spend a long time in the board room. It seems pretty clear cut to me.

This is why The Apprentice is losing ratings. The formula is getting predictable. It’s completely evident who should get fired.

Trump heads over to Sony. Favreau is talking about one of the floats and how much he likes it. It’s clear he’s talking about the Excel float.

The Sony exec says that one of the goals of the float was to have the name very apparent. The men do this very well. The capital edge scale is all over the map. The name is not overly easy to see. And the presentation was botched.

Brian is exempt unanimously. The Excel float will be in the Hollywood Holiday Parade. Trump says that he’s “a little impressed” with Brian. That’s as good a compliment as it gets.

Randal points out that something is wrong and broken on his new team. He points out, from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Seek first to understand and then be understood. These women are not listening to anyone else.

At the men’s reward they are tired. They’ve been up for 36 hours. And they are laying a track with Wyclef Jean. It actually doesn’t totally suck, for a bunch of white guys trying to be cool.

This board room is going to be interesting. I know that Trump likes Jen M. He finds her very beautiful. But no one deserves more to go home than her.

Jennifer M. is crying telling one of the men that Kristi is the one at fault. That she won’t listen and Kristi was trying to unnerve her. This guy is a a drooling dog. And that is Jen M.’s life. No one tells her anything straight.

In the boardroom Jen says that Kristi is causing a riff in the team. Carolyn says that the team totally missed the project. It is said that Kristi is bossy. Randal says, from a team dynamic, Kristi is too negative for the team. Jen brings back Kristi and doesn’t bring anyone else back in. This is a recurring happening and it’s just bad odds. However, in this case, no one else looks to be at fault. Jen or Kristi will go. Kristi is negative, but she didn’t lose this task. Jen lost this task. I have this feeling that she is going to be given a pass. And that sucks. Pretty people need less passes in the world. Symetric features should be less focused on at this point in our evolution. It’s pure biology and it sucks.

Carolyn thinks that Kristi is headstrong and Jen lost this task. Bill agrees. So do I.

Kristi says she would not hire Jen. Jen says that Kristi is bossy and outspoken. Jen says that Kristi was good at getting things done. Trump says that her team doesn’t like her. Jen says that you have to respect your team. Trump says that this is not a popularity contest but people don’t like her. Trump says that Jen is a good leader, but her concepts are bad. He’s not sure she will be good under pressure.

Trump is being controlled by his emotions and desires here. That is very telling and dangerous.

Jen says sorry to Kristi and Kristi tells her to shut up.

Trump says he is going to have to make some drastic changes to the team. He also said that it would never function with Kristi.

The truth is that both were poor.

Kristi says that Jen is fake and she doesn’t care for her.

I just got a new mechanical mouse from Amazon, the IBM VersatileScroll Mouse. So far I really like it. It only cost $8. You can check it out here:
IBM Versatile Scroll Mouse (Stealth)

The only problem with it is that the drivers no longer work that come with it. I found the updated drivers:
Mouse Suite Version 1.72M
And I’ve also uploaded them here for you to download. IBM VersatileScroll Mouse Drivers
When you start the setup, it asks you which mouse you have. I selected “Cyber Scroll Mouse” and it seemed to work. I’m on Windows XP. But it looks like it has other Windows platforms as well.

I hope this helps you out.

Here’s a very innovative speech given at Web 2.0. It questions and suggests alternatives to how we all work.

I highly recommend giving it a read:

Less as a competitive advantage: My 10 minutes at Web 2.0 – Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)

One of the down sides of not having a dedicated blog to the Apprentice is that having these posts intermingled within all the other posts makes it hard to find all of the other Apprentice posts. But I’ve been thinking a lot about it and decided to try using an include file to easily link to all of the posts. It worked out really well. Here are all of the Apprentice 4 links to date:

Alright, on to tonight’s episode.

Inc.com does a good job at analyzing these episodes. Here’s Fresh Inc. Episode 3. He doesn’t feel Jen W should have gotten fired. He makes some good points. I also believe that Jen W was the worst player in this case.

They’re spending extra time on reviewing the board room from last week. It did have a lot of interest.

Rebecca really gives Toral a lot of credit. I don’t know why Rebecca gives her such weight. Toral is now in a very weak position because she has been given a free ride from the loyalty of Rebecca. People hate free loaders. And right now that’s what Toral is.

This week they are meeting at the Trump Ice Cream Parlor. Trump is with executives from Dairy Queen.

They are in week four of the 13 week show.

The executives from Dairy Queen are: Michael Keller, chief brand Officer at DQ and Eric Nisson(sp?) VP of Product and Brand Marketing. Trump tells us that Blizzards are their biggest sellers and bring in $750 million annually.

The teams are making costumes to represent Blizzards.

Felisha takes on the project manager position for the women. Toral weakly offers to take the position. Rebecca really feels the pressure of the decision she made in the past board room. If Toral messes up now, it’s going to make things look really bad for Rebecca.

Toral is weak and Rebecca was blinded of that for some reason. I think she sees it now and it’s too late.

Clay is going to be the project manager for the men. He is a major dictator. He really seems to be over compensating.

Toral is trying to be a factor of value here. She looks bad.

Toral and Rebecca have been isolated from the four other women.

Mark is going to dress up for the men in a female costume.

The women are creating a character named Zip. They ask Toral to be the character and she turns it down. The four women are moving further away from Toral. And Rebecca is stranded with Toral. Rebecca is going to have to fight a major battle because of her unconditional attachment to Toral. It seems maybe Toral took a play from the current White House Administration. She tied herself to the end to a plan and now is going to pay the price for doing that.

Tonight’s Lesson: “Maximize Potential” A good leader has to be able to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of who they are working with. “Get the best people and watch them.”

George comments that the men are working really well together. It appears that they are getting along really well. They are having fun and that is showing in their results.

The women are really trying to push Toral into being the mascot. She says it will embarrass her family. The strategy of the four women is excellent. They are cornering Toral and going to set her up beautifully if they fail. And Rebecca is just praying they will let her go because she is tied to a sinking ship.

Toral refuses and Rebecca is still trying to stand up for Toral. It’s so insane.

Clay is a tyrant. He is unraveling all of his team’s work.

I’m amazed that these people get so far as to be on the TV show. Is this really the best of the best for tomorrow’s managers? In one sense, I kind of think they may be. They are the people who have interest to be involved at this level of corporate America. It takes a certain kind of person… a bit of a psychopath. To find someone who has the fight, determination and will to get to that level and to also be savvy with relationships is a rare bird.

Back at Excel (men). Mark tries on the Genie outfit. He wanted to be the Genie.

Capital Edge gives the mascot to Kristi. Toral thinks that Kristi looks like a fool. They have Jen M giving the presentation. Having a beauty queen do the presentation is powerful. The executives mention that teenagers are a core audience. They wonder if Zip will speak to them. Zip also has no DQ logos, which the executives question.

Excel comes in. Jenny the Blizzard Genie is presented. The executives are smiling.

My bet is on the men. Zip is bland.

The executives feel that Zip caters too much to kids and doesn’t focus on DQ.

Jenny the Genie wins.

Toral is in major trouble. She didn’t enthusiastically offer to be project manager. And she refused to be the mascot.

Clay gets exempted from next week… although, it was reluctantly.

Toral positions herself as bright and effective. Rebecca believes it. But it’s all an illusion. She is all marketing with no substance. This speaks poorly on Rebecca’s judgment. It’s too bad because I think Rebecca is smart. But she’s a bad judge of character. That’s a complete deal breaker as a leader. No one will respect you if you respect people that deserve no respect.

Toral and Rebecca should both go… they both eventually will.

Toral now says she has personal and spiritual beliefs that didn’t allow her to be the mascot. Toral is making this a religious thing. It’s mildly clever. But no one is going to believe it.

Excel is at the Mets. James gets to hit a little. He played baseball in college.

Jen M. doesn’t believe Toral lost this for them. Jen M. is asking who came up with the branding idea.

Toral is happy that her team lost. “Let these individuals self implode.” She calls them stupid. She is broken on so many levels. She doesn’t respect people. She over estimates her worth. While she might not be responsible for the poor brand. It’s simply because she recused herself from all authority. You can’t be allowed to move through The Apprentice simply by dodging tasks. I can’t say how much of a wreck this person is. What kind of company will hire a person like that after seeing her in such detail on TV?

The women go into the boardroom.

Alicia is asked by Trump why the women are losing. The women are asked why they didn’t have any DQ logos on the mascot. They don’t have any answer.

Toral is asked why they lost. Toral jumps in and immediately slams her team. Her team says she was non-existent. Toral says Felisha should be fired. Toral says she couldn’t wear the suit because it would damage her career. She is doing more damage to her career by talking than wearing a mascot suit ever would. Trump points out that he wore a chicken suit on Saturday Night Live. Ultimately Toral is again putting herself in a bad corner. She’s saying that wearing a chicken suit makes you look dumb. Therefore Trump looked dumb. She is killing herself.

Toral now says this was a religious thing. She never said anything of the sort.

Rebecca is asked if she is still a fan of Toral. Rebecca points out that the night before the task Toral said she would take a leadership role. Rebecca feels she should have done so.

Toral makes statements and changes statements. Even Rebecca is moving away from Toral.

Rebecca is now asked who she would fire. Rebecca says she is bothered that Toral didn’t make a stronger push to be the team leader. Rebecca points out that she intentionally became team leader when she broke her ankle so as not to look like dead weight on the team. Very smart. Also smart is that Rebecca is allowing herself to be a little flexible at this point.

Toral accepts that she should have been the project manager.

It is pointed out that a person who doesn’t contribute cannot be part of the victory or the loss. An excellent point.

Toral tries to win points with Trump by referencing his book where he says that you must consider the source. Toral then says, “Who’s the source here really.” She wrinkles her nose while saying it. She is trying to make a connection with Trump in a way as to say, “these other people really are very weak.” He’s going to hate that. He’s starting to get upset. He points out the George and Carolyn are not happy with her performance either. Again Toral is trying to make other people look stupid and in doing so is indirectly saying Trump is stupid. That’s what happens when you slam the competition.

Trump points out that if Toral were project manager she wouldn’t have to put up with being run by incompetent people.

Trump asks Rebecca once again who she would fire. She admits the team doesn’t work with Toral on it. She says she would fire Toral however it is very hard for her.

Trump is disappointed in this team. Trump says Toral is fired because she is totally ineffective. There is no second round in the boardroom tonight.

Trump is very confident in this move. As well he should be. While she is clearly smart, she has no ability with people.

Toral says she takes her personal dignity very seriously. She says that she wouldn’t even talk to some of these people. She is cold, unkind and has no people skills.