With the success of NBC's businesspeople around the world must be wondering how they ever survived without a weekly primer from Donald Trump on how to run their businesses and their lives. Luckily, not only has Trump produced yet another book for management types, but three of his cohorts have produced advice tomes as well.
The Trumpster's latest tome is, no surprise, grandiosely titled "Think Like A Billionaire." While Trump certainly has a wealth of experience (no pun intended) in being filthy rich, it's unclear how just thinking like a mogul can create wealth. It seems that Trump wants his readers to subscribe to the Professor Harold Hill School of Personal Finance.
Unlike in his previous books, where Trump discussed negotiating or management, in this book, Trump's knowledge is vague. He includes short chapters (usually two pages long) on buying a home, getting a mortgage, and even a laughable segment on what Trump calls the Mar-A-Lago diet, which seems to involve hiring a personal chef to fire up some Chilean sea bass.
Trump claims that he has received positive feedback on his hour-by-hour description of a typical week, but the section reads like he merely fleshed out his appointment book with a few bland recollections. Are readers hungry to know how many times Trump talked to Regis Philbin in a week? (Answer: 3)
The only new information that Trump presents is a discussion of his television career, but between the name-dropping and the summaries of "Apprentice" episodes, these passages are boring and stale. Trump includes short bios of each of the second season contestants, which are readily available on NBC's website, and then traces his route around the city each day, without dropping any interesting or secret tidbits.
Bill: Lessons from the School of Duh
That said, Trump at least knows to keep his segments brief and doesn't rehash his personal success story, which by now has entered legend. The same cannot be said for the winner of the first season of "The Apprentice," Bill Rancic. His book, "You're Hired," was surely an attempt to cash in on Rancic's instant fame after being hired by Trump.
It's part of Bill's charm that he doesn't have an MBA, and instead has made his fortune by starting various businesses, including a mail-order cigar enterprise. Rancic tries to let the readers in on the lessons he has learned from personal experience.
The problem is that his lessons are patently obvious to anyone who has more than a year's work experience, or who has read even one management book. Did you know that it's cheaper and often more effective to get free promotion through public relations than to pay for advertising? Any high school student who has taken a marketing course does, but Rancic seemed shocked by this epiphany.
Rancic's unique proposition (his "core competency," for you business types) is that he was on "The Apprentice," but he doesn't offer much in the way of backstage gossip or behind-the-scenes information. Instead, he presents what seems like a day-by-day reconstruction of his life and an in-depth description of every job he's ever had, including the thrilling tale of the time that his teacher reported him to his mother for coloring outside the lines.
The lesson learned is apparently that Bill Rancic is a maverick, but the story is drawn out for nearly three pages, when it should have merited a paragraph at most. Such stories would be of interest to only the most diehard "Apprentice" fans, and even they will skim through for insider information that never appears.
Amy: Too young, too inexperiencedRancic's counterpart is Amy Henry, the final female contestant left on the first season of "The Apprentice." Since the show ended, Henry has styled a career out of inspirational speaking engagements, and her book, "What It Takes," draws from the same material. Henry uses her own business experiences to present, as her book's subtitle states, "A Modern Woman's Guide to Success in Business." From that description, readers might expect Henry to present a fresh take on the challenges that women face in the corporate world, and the problem is that Henry is too young and inexperienced to speak to the issues that many women face.
Like Rancic, Henry shies away from talking much about "The Apprentice," and again, it's hard to imagine that anyone would buy her book had she not appeared on the show. To avoid the subject seems disingenuous at best, since it's her claim to fame.
Women in the workforce often struggle with balancing family and work demands, but Henry is unmarried and has no children, so she can't really speak to this issue, either. Those who watched her season know that Henry has had to handle issues of sexuality at work, but in the book she seems more interested in bragging about her own attractiveness (she lets readers know that she is 5'8", weighs 120 pounds, and has been bleaching her hair blonde since the sixth grade) than having an honest or enlightening discussion of gender roles.
Carolyn: No nonsense
One "Apprentice" star who does have experience balancing work and family is Trump's right-hand woman, Carolyn Kepcher, who recently published "Carolyn 101." Kepcher has won over viewers with her combination of intelligence and candor, and both qualities come through in her book as well. Her advice is concise and relevant, no matter if the reader is just starting out (she advises all employees to take ownership of their areas of responsibility), or working in upper management (she advises companies to give their employees room to grow in order to retain them).
Kepcher is just as she appears on television each week: no-nonsense and pragmatic. She does not suffer fools gladly. In that case, readers might wonder why she continues working for Donald Trump, but her admiration for the man is obvious in her writing. In describing their first meeting, Kepcher explains how Trump's "physical presence" and "naturally expansive personality" filled the room, and her glowing recommendation only goes on from there. Ultimately, Trump ends up looking better due to her effusive praise.
Kepcher includes a section about how she has managed to succeed in her job while raising two children, but this is the one area where her experience doesn't seem applicable to the average woman. Kepcher writes about the importance of having a partner who supports a woman's choices in balancing work and family, but doesn't really delve into her own husband George's role in raising their children, instead only advising her readers to be sure to marry someone who has similar life goals.
Unlike many American families, Kepcher can afford to hire excellent in-home child care, and has a flexible enough workplace that she can take time off to spend with her children, or bring them to work with her. It's fantastic that Kepcher has such supportive circumstances, but many American women will not be able to relate to or apply her advice, which is a shame, because Kepcher really had an opportunity to talk about how a high-profile businesswoman handles motherhood.
Most businesspeople don't have hours to spend poring over the latest business advice books, trying to tease out the relevant knowledge. Rancic and Henry haven't learned that lesson yet, as they bury their scant nuggets of information in paragraph after paragraph of biographical sludge. Trump and Kepcher are more seasoned, and it shows. (It's possible that, having higher profiles, they just commanded more talented ghost writers.) Despite a few clunky sections, the leaders on "The Apprentice" also lead the way on the bookstore shelves.
Kim Reed is a writer in Upstate New York