I have just been watching the final of The Apprentice, the television series which attempts to give viewers an idea of what being an entrepreneur in business is really like.

If you don’t work in the business world, you would likely be horrified by what you see.

But if you do work in the business world, while you might be shocked at the thought of working with some of the candidates in the series, you would also have to admit that there are many occasions when the series does show the kind of issues that frequently arise in the workplace.

But, most importantly, what I think the series does, is hold up a mirror to our society.

We see all of human fraility and human foibles.  We see horrific examples of arrogance, competitiveness, meanness and unkindness.

At the same time, we also see how people flourish and blossom and show great courage under the most challenging of circumstances.

We see people’s faults and we also watch them shine.

The Apprentice tells us more than we really want to know about the society we live in.

The parts of it that we don’t like are likely to be the parts of ourselves and our world that we also don’t like.

It’s an interesting thought, a deeper insight into our psyches (if we want to acknowledge it) which we receive at the same time as the candidates.