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Beware Bosses With Dreams

October 20, 2004

Sometimes when I'm in desperate need of a laugh, I watch "The Apprentice." I don't know which is funnier: that Donald Trump conceives of himself as a business maestro or that seemingly intelligent young adults want to be like him.

Watching Trump's antics last night (he makes Homer Simpson look deep), I found myself thinking of Kylie. Her boss, Bill, heads a glitzy new business unit. Charismatic and with a gift for self-promotion, he is passionately - no, obsessively - committed to seeing the new business succeed.

When first given the chance to work with this rising star, Kylie was delighted. Two years on, she is struggling. She strives hard to win Bill's praise, but seldom succeeds. He sees her as lacking in fervour; he urges her to be hungrier, bolder. His motivational speeches rouse and excite her temporarily but have no enduring impact.

What's wrong with me?, she wonders. Why do I feel as if I'm running on two cylinders?

The answer is simple, though Kylie is reluctant to face up to it. The plain fact is that she doesn't share Bill's passion. She has other drives, other values, other goals. If she is to ever unleash her talents, she has to find her equivalent of Bill's blind passion. Right now, she's not even looking.

And that's the point about dreams: they're fine - providing they're your own. But if you let the boss's dream serve as a proxy for your own, you're in trouble.

This is a lesson that those young folk who kneel at Donald Trump's alter may need to learn as well. They're all in such a hurry - but a hurry to get to where? Do they know? (Sorry - I wanna be filthy rich doesn't cut it.)

Someone said once to Yogi Berra, "Hey Yogi, I think we're lost." His reply: "Yeah, but we're making great time." Hmmm, sounds like the apprentices.

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