The Apprentice - Looks

I found it challenging to find the time to get my hair cut let alone have hair extensions, nails, lashes etc done. And those shoes. The programme says little about business, it's pure entertainment - just hope it doesn't deter people. I think I'm with your daughter on this one YankeeGran

I agree with your daughter, Yankeegran. It's hard to take them seriously when they present an image that is not business-like in that setting.

I am just horrified that the winner could be someone who is obviously a very intelligent and highly educated young woman but who could want to a) mess up her face and b) propose a business plan based on getting other people (mainly women) to mess up their faces as well. As for Suralan, what on earth was he thinking? I reckon he is just dazzled by academic achievement and lost all sense. I wonder whether we will actually see this chain of cosmetic treatment clinics take off? I'm sure it won't be under the name 'Niks' if it does.

Well, of course, it's right to remember that this is first and foremost a programme to entertain. I read somewhere that the winner deliberately played up her looks to get the attention of the producers so she could get on the show. And while I don't "get" the whole clinical enhancement of faces, there is no doubt it's a growing market. I suspect Dr Leah ( the new name of her business) will do well for Suralan.. . . .BUT is it right to dismiss someone just because they take their grooming to a degree most of us find extreme?

Looks like Suralan will be regretting his choice now the papers are setting out the costs of her NHS training (they have arrived at a figure of £240,000) and her leap into private facial treatments. I'm sure she has been working hard and contributing to the NHS during her studies and on placements, but the way she has marketed herself, looks and all, seems to be in danger of backfiring on her and her new business partner.

Sigh. Gets more and more reality game showy every year.
I only watched the interview episode.
This is a difficult one OP. The two finalists were both implausibly glamorous. it takes a lot of time and money to turn basic good looks into that kind of sexual display. I would not want them to be role models for my granddaughter. And a waste of brains and medical training that's for sure.
But on the other hand I hate those magazines that constantly pick at celebs for being too well turned out or too scruffy/fat/thin etc.

I wonder how the other young doctors who trained with her view her now.

I think it was Leah who was asked in the 'interview' episode to name something interesting about herself. The reply was 'my shoe collection'!

Anno - I wonder about the young person who didn't get a place at her medical school and has now seen it wasted! At 24 she will hardly have contributed anything yet to the NHS but she sure is going to contribute to that wonderful industry whose sole aim is to make women feel bad about themselves along with huge swathes of the rest of our society

YANKY , I do so agree with your post of 09.34.

She said something about continuing to work in the NHS, but how is she going to find the time? I notice that several private enterprises are finding a home at our medical centre, including one offering skin fillers and peels, as well as a podiatrist and a physio.

I think the one in our GP surgery (botox etc) is owned by the senior partner(s?).

The ultimate irony for me is the prospect of Suralan as the "face of cosmetic surgery" A warning perhaps??

She can practice on him with her facial fillers. I always think of Polyfilla when I hear about those!

It will be even more difficult to take The Apprentice seriously after this edition. Both women were awful! how they talked and acted. Most successful business people I know are not so glamerous, but plain and hard working. It is and remains just a show!

People on whom the Government, well us the tax payers, to qualify as doctors should have to work for a number of years for the NHS- at least 5 in my book, or repay part of half a million £ it costs to train them!!!

Fi Glover said how lovely it is to see Margaret Mountford on the interview episode because she doesn't wear clothes that are too small for her. Says it all about the female contestants really. I'm not sure I would want anything done to my face by someone who thought that dreadful chalk pink lipstick looked good on an orange face.

Well said Deedaa!

Maybe the BIG lesson from all of this - a lesson for LORD Sugar (not Suralan as we've been calling him) is to vet the business plans from the very beginning. I mean, if you were going to invest a quarter of a million, wouldn't you want to know if any of the proposals were minimally viable - regardless of looks?

Didn't the business plans get researched and discussed on the interviews programme, Yankee? One of the contestants got turfed out of interview because they knew he didn't own the business he wanted the investment for.

I agree with most of what's been said on this thread, but MargaretX, I'm presuming you mean that the successful business people you know are plain-speaking rather than 'plain' as in 'not good-looking'! I'm sure there are successful business people of every shape, hue and degrees of attractiveness.

I agree with most of the postings here. Why a girl of undoubted intelligence chooses to puff up part of her face with chemical fillers is beyond my limited comprehension. A lot of women do it and I am sure some men must too for it to be such a big industry. The argument of 'wanting to look good' fails on every level in my opinion as the plain truth is that it does not look good at all, on any level. It can at best look freaky and at worst hideous. I know women with mitchellin tyre lips and they look gross, at least to my eyes - obviously not to themselves so perhaps I'm just missing something here.
I wonder if low self esteem or no faith in themselves has anything to do with it.

I've don't watch The Apprentice, but I did see part of the series where Ruth Badger came second and, even as someone that doesn't understand business and sales etc I felt that looks had won over talent, and I've never attempted to watch the programme since.

Yes tegan I watched several series and she was one of the few talented people that ever "entered". Oh Saira/Shaira had a bit about her too. Other than that
I also remember the man who said "But everyone shaves their balls, don't they?"