Yahoo News 'The Apprentice’s Lord Sugar fired me first but I should have won'
'Why I was fired on The Apprentice - but.I don't agree'
The Apprentice star Oliver “Ollie” Medforth - who has a family drinks business and was looking for investment in Yorkshire Tonics - was the first to be fired in Thursday’s episode after he failed to speak up for himself and forgot to put flour in the brownies.
It is series 18 of The Apprentice and Lord Alan Sugar is on the hunt for his next business partner. In the first task he sent the candidates to the Scottish Highlands to organise a corporate away day - but the days were packed with chaos in the kitchen and on the tours.
Why I was fired
Obviously, I personally don’t think I should have been fired first. I should have won. I was either going to be first out or win it.
We were tasked with hosting a corporate event for clients in the Scottish Highlands - a gorgeous place - but I was put in the kitchen and I massively felt the heat on me. Kitchens are quite a high pressure environment.
All of the others on my team were making the toad in the hole and left me to do the full dessert, which is 50% of the kitchen scenario. But I did want to take full responsibility for it. So if they all need hand holding I wanted to show I could do it myself - even though I did forget the flour in the brownies.
Oops! But if you tried them, they actually tasted really good.
It was absolutely gutting to be brought back into the boardroom. It is something you will never experience unless you are in that process. Sitting with Karren Brady, Lord Alan Sugar and Tim Campbell, it was very mind-blowing but there are just so many emotions going through your head all the time. Karen, Lord Alan and Tim really are intimidating all the time - Karen certainly is anyway.
When you get into that boardroom, it is a completely different kettle of fish. Everybody is out for themselves. You go from being on a task together to shouting at each other. And you have to get on with it but it was a great experience. The game went up in the boardroom, the chat got bigger.
The PM is the one that makes all the decisions and also came in late to the kitchen which made the food go cold and made it such a drawn out process. It put bad vibes in our heads. There were a lot of people who were on the task that probably should have pulled their weight a little bit more. There’s other people that just made one or two big decisions who then felt they didn't need to do more.
But it is just the way that the cookie crumbles, isn't it? You guys can make your own decision on who should have been fired.
I've got a lot of respect for Lord Sugar and his decision is final at the end of the day. He had a lot of time for me. Lord Sugar is a really top bloke and it is no secret that he’s done exceptionally well. After he fired me, he did say that Ollie is a nice guy. I don't think he's ever said that to anybody on any of the series.
With the c***k up and being off first, it's actually given me another opportunity to launch my new business venture Ollternative Brownies, which are flourless brownies. All the flavour but no flour. Then I've got salted caramel and chocolate vodka coming out as well.
I should have stuck my hand up a little more - but that’s probably why I was fired first because I didn’t speak up. I should have gone on the other team and hosted the corporate clients because I am not a chef. I am now, but it’s not my forte.
Going forward I will speak up a little bit more when I think I know it’s right and have the confidence to do so. That’s what I learned from the process and I’m going to take it away with me.
Sat at home watching The Apprentice before applying, I thought: if anyone can be on The Apprentice, it’s gonna be me. That’s why I applied. After being on the first episode, I enjoyed the application process more than the show because I did quite well on that. It is different to what you think on-screen - but I can’t tell you too much!
You think you can win it and then you get on there. Wow, some of the other candidates were brilliant. Meeting so many impressive people was a highlight of The Apprentice and every candidate that is on this year deserves to be there. They are all people that want to achieve things in life and want to get stuck in there. I take my hat off to them.
The Apprentice was brilliant. What a great experience!
