The process wasn’t for me, says latest contestant to be fired from Apprentice
The fired entrepreneur said Lord Sugar made the right decision, but missed out on an opportunity to invest in his business.
The Apprentice’s most recently fired hopeful has said he agreed with Lord Alan Sugar’s decision to kick him off the show.
Ross Fretten, 29, became the latest entrepreneur to be eliminated from the boardroom after Team Vitality lost yet another challenge on Wednesday night’s episode of the BBC One contest.
They were tasked with finding a range of objects, including an Amstrad computer and a Tottenham Hotspur scarf for the lowest possible price, to mark Lord Sugar’s 70th birthday.
Fretten told the Press Association: “I think Lord Sugar probably perceived an incompatibility between himself and I, and for that reason probably decided not to waste both our times, and I can’t really disagree with that.
“It doesn’t mean that I can’t perform or that I can’t offer a business, but that the process wasn’t for me.
“I am a very strategic, very cerebral person; I like to use data to make good decisions and I like to make big strategic plays. I don’t tend to be driving around and haggling in warehouses for cheap goods and stuff.”
However, while he said the programme’s hands-on tasks were “unfamiliar territory” for him, he added: “I don’t think someone not spending their day-to-day doing that stuff is a reason not to invest in the business.
Fretten faced panellists Lord Sugar, Karren Brady and Claude Littner alongside Harrison Jones and project manager for the day Sajan Shah.
While he said it should have been a “no-brainer” to give Shah the boot, he shared his hopes for Jones to win the show, describing him as “a consistently positive force, a consistently hard worker, and very authentic – which isn’t necessarily true of other people in the process”.
But he had colder words for members of Team Graphene, who have frustrated both viewers and judges with their continuing squabbles.
“From watching the episodes back, it is coming off as very unprofessional,” he said.
“I am quite surprised with some of the characters on the girls’ team, but they are the ones that have been winning week by week, so they must be doing something right. Can’t put my finger on what it is, though.”
Fretten also said that he had tweaked his own business strategy since being on the show and has now decided to bring crowdfunding to source investment for his personalised dog-training app.
“It’s a programme that I developed with my dog,” he said.
“I got a dog a couple of years ago because I had issues with anxiety and depression and getting him helped massively.”
