Posted on 02/04/2006 8:54:44 PM PST by wagglebee
One of the perks of being the talk show host of ClashRadio.com is getting to speak with some of the best and brightest people on the planet. Our guest list is a veritable Who’s Who of incredible people who would like to see this nation continue to be the God-blessed, King-of-the-Hill country that we have become.
This past week I interviewed Kelly Perdew, winner of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice 2 and author of the new book, Take Command. By the way, normally when people suggest we get some reality stooge to be on our show, I look at them with the same disdain Rosie O’ Donnell gives to Ted Nugent when he offers her low fat yogurt. I don’t give two flips about reality shows, nor the people who win them. Most of these "winners" get what they get through eating pig intestines or drinking skunk urine while doing jumping jacks on an iceberg whilst wearing a thong. No real need to query them on what caused them to excel. Simple formula: be so desperate that you’ll do anything to be on TV and win 50k. This simple math makes for a short show. Next!
Perdew’s accomplishment, on the other hand, was a tad bit more interesting—especially given the over the top, narcissistic slop we’re usually fed via the modern media. When Trump gave Kelly the “you’re hired” props on Apprentice’s season two, Perdew credited his accomplishment not to being a sadistic, conniving and greedy jerk who would sell his granny if the price were right, but rather to the excellence and the skills he gleaned from the U.S. military. Imagine that . . . achieving victory honorably by applying disciplines and virtues learned while serving in our armed forces.
Perdew graduated from West Point as a Military Intelligence Officer. He later earned his Airborne Wings and Ranger Tab. He didn’t let the lessons learned in that phase of his life die when he moved into the civilian sector, but rather retooled his vocabulary, refocused his vision and took the principles and disciplines learned for the battlefield into the boardroom and made a pretty sweet transition from one realm to the next.
Listening to Perdew speak of the internal grist to which he attributes his success was like listening to something some despised-by-modern-culture grand pappy would say 80 years ago when giving his grandchildren the “keys to the kingdom.” According to Kelly, the duty, impeccability, passion, perseverance, planning, team work, loyalty, flexibility, selfless sacrifice and integrity with which he was saddled at West Point and beyond is what caused him to escape The Donald’s damnation.
Look, you don’t hear the above de rigueur get tabled that much anymore in pomo culture as that which makes a person or a nation great. Sure, there is a gratuitous bone thrown at the noble, but it’s usually done on the History Channel at 3am when the ones who need to see it the most are sound asleep in a deep REM delirium starring themselves as the center of the universe. So thank you, Mr. Trump, for having a show that truly trumps the trash we we’re used to seeing: we saw a principled and talented human being recognized and awarded for character instead of mere charisma, substance over style, doing a better job versus getting a boob job and showing gravitas as opposed to baseless hype.
As an entrepreneur, I know where I’m going to be looking for employees and partners for all my Clash ventures . . . namely, to the ex- military and those raised in that kind of disciplined environment. These worthies whom I have had the pleasure to work with and befriend, like Perdew, are not the Jarhead idiots Hollywood and Michael Moore have portrayed them to be, but rather the best, the brightest and the most beneficial people that I’ve have had the pleasure to know.
And lastly, a challenge to our former soldiers: grab a copy of Kelly’s book, retool your vocabulary and take that rare stuff you got in the armed services into the corporate world, politics, our educational systems, the church and the arts; and I guarantee that you will blow away the slacking, gum chewing, blame shifting, no character, pop-culture-addled dilatory dingle-berries who disparage you.
I love how Doug Giles can be so in-your-face. Crude sometimes, but he doesn't hold back...
Its the truth, speaking from experience here. The last 2 jobs I interviewed fro I got hired on the spot. As much as I gave to this Country, the experience I recieved while in the Army has paid off ten fold.
And I am convinced that it will benefit the country immeasurably. Not just because of the excellent training but also becaus of the character building. I cannot imagine that anyone who has actually seen the poverty in Iraq will ever call c-span and complain about not having enough disposable income on $50,000/yr .
I saw sucessful career air force make second carers in sales. However, I will say, they did not take well to female supervision.
If it wasn't for a garden growing up, our family would have been very hungry. I always hated working in the huge garden when I was a kid, but since then have realized the importance of it. Character building was a part of that as well.
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