Most of us are “on” a lot of the time…but few of us will ever be “on” as much as a Celebrity Apprentice contestant. This season’s contestant, Annie Duke, knows how to handle being “on” by keeping her game face.
Annie has been identified as the best female poker player in the world. As she says, she learned at the tables to keep her game face, no matter what.
Recently Annie appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres show. Ellen showed a brief clip from the show: Joan Rivers loses her cool, calling Annie Duke “white trash” and even comparing this fellow contestant to Hitler. You can watch a clip from the show and hear Annie discussing the challenge with Ellen when you go here.
I like Annie Duke’s statement, which I’m paraphrasing: When someone tries to take you down, you can keep your power by the way you choose to react.
Annie walks the talk. While Joan was screaming at her, Annie didn’t try to defend herself or attack Joan. She just said, “Poker players are the most awesome people in the world. They stepped up and donated $200,000 to charities on this show.”
Joan Rivers is 75 and the pressure of the show may have gotten to her. Contestants worked long hours under difficult conditions, performing tasks for which they were unqualified by background and training.
This episode may have shifted the odds of winning in Annie’s favor. I’ve noticed that people who quietly follow a strategy often get an extra boost that seems to come out of nowhere.
At first Annie didn’t stand out and I was hoping Joan would win the whole thing. Joan was a trooper in her own way. I loved the episode where she played a hotel concierge — all preserved on hulu.com. Now I don’t see how Trump can give the prize to someone who indulges in this sort of name-calling. Joan is history.
But now I’m rooting for Annie, who’s shown grace under pressure, not to mention a multitude of talents from fund-raising to cooking. Her biggest gift is strategy. For instance, on Celebrity Apprentice, the project manager faces the biggest risk of being fired if his or her team loses. But Annie understood that her strength was fund-raising. So she asked to be project manager on fund-raising tasks. Even if her team lost, she knew the biggest fund-raiser on the team wouldn’t be sent home.
Surprisingly useful insights and quality entertainment from a show that didn’t seem promising in the first couple of episodes.
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i used to do fund raising for african communities and it was a great job to help others ~