The candidates in this years  The Apprentice are nothing if not typical. Such are their talents  – at least as they would have you see them – that  you wonder why they are not already multi-millionaires, industry leaders or pioneers in some field or other.  But they’re not, and instead  they are humiliating themselves on a  reality TV show in the hope of feeding off the scraps of a man who will drop them like a stone almost before the studio lights have cooled down.

We seem to live in an era where ‘bigging yourself up’ is the norm, even when it is patently obvious to anyone with eyes or ears that you can’t live up to the hype. This year we have Daniel, a market trader who is apparently ‘complete in business’ and a ‘world class salesman’, and a camp Canadian called Stephen with no obvious experience of anything who is ‘absolutely excellent, outstanding and the best’ at everything he does. They’re just two examples from a group who are either universally unaware of their limitations, or believe that if you shout loud enough, nobody will notice them.

Whilst there’s a saying about hiding your light under a bushel, there’s another one about empty vessels making the most noise. There are few bushels in evidence on The Apprentice but there are plenty of vessels devoid of content. Understatement and modesty seems to gone out of fashion. I was thinking about this while reading about a gentleman by the name of  Eric Roberts.

In World War II a British secret agent  known as ‘Jack King’, posed as a Gestapo officer and infiltrated the ranks of British Nazi’s. Newly released files reveal that Jack King was in fact Eric Roberts, a lowly bank clerk from Surrey. Such was Mr Roberts propensity to keep his own light well and truly concealed that when his employers received a letter from the MOD requesting that he be released  for confidential national security work, they replied asking “What are the particular qualifications of Mr Roberts which we have not been able to perceive?”

I doubt Eric Roberts would have lasted long on The Apprentice, but I doubt even more that he would have applied in the first place.. When you’re looking for the best at anything, you need to look beyond those who make the most noise. In fact you might even have to look at those who make no noise at all. In other words you need to look beyond the overt and the obvious. That’s where the real gems are to be found.

I’d rather have one Eric Roberts on my side than a thousand Daniel’s  or Stephen’s, and I’m sure you would too.