Apprentice TV Show Winner look ups to success

Although Donald Trump is operating at the highest levels of business, Bill Rancic says working with “The Donald” is not much different than when he was running his own firm in Chicago.Rancic, the winner of the first “Apprentice” competition and a native of Orland Park who was hired by Trump to oversee the construction of the Trump Tower Chicago at the old Chicago Sun-Times site, offered anecdotes and some business thoughts at a luncheon for business leaders organized by eNetworkers International. “It’s safe to say that he’s operating at some of the highest levels of business that are out there, but business isn’t that much different than when I was at Cigars Around the World.“I notice that the fundamentals of business never change no matter where you’re at,” he said. “The numbers are much larger, but that’s about it.”If you can master the fundamentals of business and use that as your foundation, he said, then you can build on that foundation and do anything you want.“It’s about relationships,” Rancic said. “Watching Donald Trump work—he is one of the most loyal people out there, and people are loyal to him in return. “It’s funny that we’re at an networkers luncheon, because it’s about networking, and Donald Trump has the most amazing network you could ever imagine.”He also lauded Trump’s ability to bounce back from adversity as a positive business trait.“People forget that 10-11 years ago he was a billion dollars in debt. People had written him off, didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Now he’s back at the top.”Rancic said that Trump never gave up, but just kept on fighting and that was a critical element to the success he enjoys today.He called his own plan for winning the “Apprentice” competition his “marathon” approach, in which he set mini-goals for himself along the way on what, in effect, was a 10-week job interview.“My first goal was, ‘Please, God, don’t let me be the first to get fired.’ “Then I knew I had to make it to then upper half, then the final four, then the final two. I just kept chipping away. I was able to reach little successes along the way which made that goal of winning far more easy. Had I gone into this thing, and said, ‘I’ve got ten weeks of job interviews,’ it would have been hard to manage the process.”Rancic said his formula for being chosen as the apprentice involved a specific approach. First, he said that he learned to keep quiet, work hard and deliver results week after week after week. “Some people didn’t even know my name until the fifth week,” he said, emphasizing the relatively low profile that he maintained. “The second trait that set me apart was agility,” he said. “The textbook doesn’t work in the real world. You have to change as the terrain changes. On the show I had to bring a different management style to the table with each task.”Rancic said so many people are afraid to fail that that they are afraid to try. “Now, my goal is to get that building up, 10 stories, 20 stories, and so on. I’ve got a great teacher.”