I was reading an article about the Apprentice and some of the rules that Donald Trump and his apprentice assistants had come up with about business. While reading a lot of them I saw a huge relation to how these same rules also apply to dating as crazy as it might sound.

Donald Trump is a famous Billionaire who has endured ups and downs for a number of decades. It appears a large portion of his wealth has been made in Real Estate. Recently he has had a popular reality series NBC has been showing known as the Apprentice. The Reality Show isn’t all frivolous as a lot of the other reality shows around. At the center of every episode are real gems on how to climb a corporate ladder, how to lead, how to stand out from the crowd and even how to fail and avoid getting the boot.

The Apprentice centers on a competition for a job working for the Billionaire Donald Trump. Every episode features some sort of business task or some sort of competition. At the end of each episode some of the competitors are fired which means they leave the show and miss out on the opportunity to work for My Trump. This takes place in the Boardroom where members are encouraged to evaluate their teammates performance, abilities, work ethics. The guy who makes the biggest errors tends to be the one “fired”. Beyond winning the competition, each individual team member must act in a manner that earns him or her respect as a project manager or team member.

Some of the gems of the show for thought.

1. Think Like A Winner

Donald Trump’s most profound comment (and first commandment) is, "Winning is everything." He explained that while there is no better feeling… the ability to think like a winner is the key to being one. Those who take their eyes off the prize wind up hearing two little words: you’re fired.

This relates to dating as somebody who feels confident can be confident. A person who feels he has already won a battle has a huge edge over somebody who feels he has a lot of obstacles to overcome. A person who feels he is a winner is a winner as your beliefs are what shape you. The person you wish to win over will be heavily more attracted to somebody who believes in themselves than somebody who doesn’t.

2. Polish Your Interview Skills

The importance of exceptional interview skills became crucial as the field narrowed to the final four contestants in episode 14. Kelly, Jennifer M, Kevin and Stacy underwent a grueling series of job interviews with four of the top business leaders in the world. The two candidates left standing after this process — Kelly and Jennifer M — demonstrated superior ability to think on their feet. Some of the spontaneous answers lobbed by Kevin and Sandy, made viewers cringe. It quickly became clear who had the ‘right stuff’ to survive the hot seat.

This second rule can be applied to having good communication skills. Somebody who can think of their feet and express their thoughts easily can communicate their feelings much more easily. Somebody who is also good at interviews will know what to say that can open somebody up to a whole new level. They will allow a great sense of rapport to be built quickly and be very deep.

3. Lead Strong or Play Along

Getting their team of ‘alphas’ to follow without question was a challenge for each project manager. Some ruled with an iron fist, others used manipulation and guilt. Some didn’t handle it at all. In episode 11, Wes took the lead in a task to create an ad campaign for Levi’s Jeans. Maria, one of his teammates, thought she had this task together and angrily told Wes to back off, while she seized control. Maria was so busy throwing her weight around, she missed the primary focus of jeans advertising… the ‘butt shots’. This single oversight cost the team dearly. Later, in The Boardroom, Wes was fired for failing to control Maria,,, and she was fired for posing as a know-it-all. Two for the price of one turned out to be all in a day’s work for Mr. Donald Trump.

On this and dating. One of the things we teach our students in workshops is to lead and never hesitate. When a student sees strong indications of interest it is his responsibility to act on them and follow up. If a student fails to lead than the interest level will soon drop to a very low level quickly. Learning to Play along can also be taken as a way to see the signals and be aware of them. When somebody is showing interest it’s best to play along and let them be interested than giving them something else.

4. Step Up; Take Responsibility

Finger-pointing was rampant among teams on the Apprentice. If you were really slick about it, laying blame off on one of your teammates could help you survive another day. If you weren’t… oh well.

This is a common thing I see with some students when I hear about what they have done before working with Fidentia in a workshop. They fail to take responsibility for their own actions. This is done in so many ways its crazy. First if they have a bad date they blame the date a lot, where they went, what they did, others around –yet they never look at themselves and wonder if they could have done anything different to improve the situation. The only way to learn from mistakes is to first realize you made a mistake in the first place.

Another example is guys who use different systems for dating. There are many programs out there. I can make ALL of them work. When a student can not make something work. They tend to first want to blame the system instead of themselves. So they are on a constant search of dating systems never realizing that each system has had some students have success. They can not learn if they do not take responsibility for their own actions.

5. Resist the Impulse to Be Impulsive

The game provides that the winning project manager receive an exemption from firing should his or her team lose the following week — an Apprentice "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

Bradford won week one… but lost in week two. He had clearly been the hardest working and most productive on his team and Mr. Trump seemed to especially favor him. Moreover, he had the exemption and could not be fired. All he had to do was sit back and make insightful comments about his teammates.

But Bradford let his cockiness get in the way of

About the Author: Robert Torrey is one of the coaches for Fidentia. A company that teaches dating confidence. Go to their website to subscribe to the free newsletter and learn more. Http://www.fidentia.org