The task this time around was for the two teams to create four page photo essay/layout ad for the company Dial Soap in a magazine called Redbook in order to advertise its new nourishing yogurt body wash. The winner would be chosen by executives and associates from both the Dial Soap and Redbook organization.

There was an interesting moment where before Trump finished his usual speech on what’s at stake Omarosa was telling her teammates that she wanted to be the project manager. As Trump continued to talk, he emphasized that there was a good chance that the project manager would be fired in this task. Maybe it was just the editing, but afterwards Omarosa quickly tried to then encourage someone else to take the lead. That was such a funny moment there I thought. In the end, Carol Alt was the project manager for Hydra and Tito Ortiz was the project manager for Empresario.

Hydra went for a more wholesome lifestyle approach with their presentation. They used Carol Alt as the model and through the presentation they highlighted the different aspects of a women’s life such as starting a family and being in a relationship with of course using the product as a way to keep her fresh and invigorated.

Empresario focused on the fact that the majority of the readers were women and were told that a person like Trace Adkins was perfect for the audience. At first they went for a riskier approach where there were topless males set with a country desert theme with Trace Adkins being the model as well. Eventually, they decided to play it safe instead and went with a theme where it seemed like they were trying to emphasize the contrast between a desert that is dry compared to people who use the product who are more illuminating/refreshing so to speak.

In the end, Team Hydra was chosen the winner as their presentation was able to tell a message and story to the viewer better it seemed to promote the product. As a result, Carol Alt received $20,000 for her charity once again. There wasn’t too much of a drama in the boardroom aside from bringing up an issue on why a person such as Omarosa wasn’t the project manager. Of course, the topic came up on how she kind of tried to push it to someone else afterwards.

In the end, Tito Ortiz was fired and Trump emphasized how he did mention at the start that the project manager most likely would be fired. There was a surprise at the end too as Trump mentioned to Tito that he admired his talent a lot and would personally donate $50,000 to his charity despite being fired.

This is one of the first episode in the season I thought where it seemed like one’s celebrity status did not really play a role too much. I guess the point to take out of this episode is the whole mentality of taking risks and sticking to a plan/vision as the possibility of failure shouldn’t be the prevailing factor to stop you from creating what you believe in.

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I have recently started to do some of my taxes and as I usual I prefer to do it through digital means to save time and paper. The funny thing was that when I went to the store to purchase the usual product it seems as though this year they increased the price by about 40% to 50%. Just to make sure this wasn’t just a crazy markup by the store, I did ask some of my contacts who did indeed confirm that the software creator has increased the price.

While I still ended up buying the product anyways since I pretty much planned everything around it, usually drastic increases such as that would make me inclined to try something else the next time around. I personally have no problem with companies increasing its prices to be able to stay profitable, but for myself anything over 20% kind of leaves a bad impression to me.

I guess that shows too that if you become too dependent on a certain product or service you are at the mercy of paying the company’s fees.

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I was reading the news on how in 2009 anyone 18 years or older can place up to $5000 annually into what is being dubbed as a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) here in Canada. From what I gathered, you can essentially earn and withdraw money from these accounts without any worry of being taxed.

It sounds like a great idea to me at this point. I have never been a fan of things like an RRSP personally and this TFSA seems like it would have a more universal appeal to encourage people to save their money. It’s almost like having a regular bank account with some good benefits.

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I just took this silly online test for fun which was suppose to find out how much money someone would have to pay you to say do something you would normally be against. I was looking at the scoreboard and it seems like people had price tags such as $250,000 or even one billion dollars. I guess in general the concept was the higher the amount the harder it is to get the person to do something.

So I did the test and I thought it was broken at first as the test said “No Price”. Then I read the result and then it all made sense as you can see here:

While this was all fun and games, I was thinking how this is an important scenario that people face everyday where we get enticed with money and materialistic gains to do things that would not exactly be considered admirable. Especially in a business environment, it can really create anarchy.

From my personal experience, everyone I have known who has ever allowed money to take over their judgment has ended up losing more in the long run whether it be from a financial point of view or a social one. Another way I think about it is that some people say success is always about the journey and so you could be cutting yourself short in the long run by doing irrational things solely because of money.

In the end, money is just an object that you control and not the other way around.

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Over the weekend I was talking to a person who was looking to buy a GPS device of some sort for his car. He mentioned that he didn’t really need it but felt that it would make his car complete and may be useful in the future.

I used to do things like that when I was teenager such as buying accessories for products just because it felt like I was not taking full advantage of the product if I didn’t. What discouraged me from doing that wasn’t by say disciplining myself not to do so, but rather it was just one of those silly things where it made more sense to be more knowledgeable about your purchases and wanting to try and get it right the first time. Basically, really think about the present and future of your purchase. At the same time, more often I found that if I truly did need to add something of this nature that it usually was cheaper and better to get something new entirely.

While this example is very specific, computers in particular are an example of items where I really want to research thoroughly before purchasing as continually buying add-ons to try and be complete to current offerings can be costly and not to mention conflicting at times. It usually feels worse when you buy something just for the sake of being complete/updated and then seeing the price drop like a rock when it truly becomes a standard.

I’m probably going to get an ear full from certain fashion designers over this post who always insist you need to buy all the trimmings and accessories to stay updated.

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