America's armed forces are always looking for creative ways to recruit and retain troops.  It is reported that over the last several months the Army has eased enlistment restrictions in an effort to meet its recruiting goals.  The changes have included increasing the enlistment age for active-duty Army recruits from 35 to 40, softening a key drug test for recent use of marijuana, putting in place a high school equivalency program for dropouts, removing the ban on childhood asthmatics and, most recently, allowing recruits who are too heavy to meet weight or body fat limits to take a fitness test.

While all of the relaxed rules may help, military recruiters could find the best new weapon of mass recruitment to be the recently released book by Apprentice 2 winner Kelly Perdew.  In his new book, Take Command, Perdew outlines ten leadership principles he learned in the military and put to work for Donald Trump.  Perdew credits much of his business success to the lessons he learned at West Point and his experience serving in the military.

Recently, Kelly Perdew joined CFIF Corporate Counsel & Senior Vice President Renee Giachino to discuss his new book on military leadership principles for business.  What follows are excerpts from the interview that aired on "Your Turn - Meeting Nonsense With Common Sense" on WEBY 1330AM, Northwest Florida's Talk Radio.

GIACHINO:  My next guest graduated from West Point as a Military Intelligence Officer and earned his Airborne Wings and Ranger Tab.  He earned his MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA and his JD from the UCLA School of Law.  He is a proven businessman.  He knows that the most important decisions in war and business are made based on intensive planning with less than 100% perfect information.  Many of you may know him because he came into your family rooms each week on the show the Apprentice.  He is the winner of Apprentice 2.  Please welcome to "Your Turn" Mr. Kelly Perdew.

Thank you very much for joining us this afternoon.

PERDEW:  Thank you for having me.

GIACHINO:  We are pleased to have you join us to talk about your new book, Take Command:  10 Leadership Principles I Learned in the Military and Put to Work for Donald Trump.  In the book you credit your success on Apprentice and in real life mostly to your West Point education and experience as an Army officer.  Can you share with the listeners some of the things that you learned at West Point that you carried over to the Apprentice and business in general?

PERDEW:  I include the 10 principles in the book but I guess some of them that were the most salient on the Apprentice were the planning aspects.  That is one of them - the planning principle.  I took a little bit of flak for being on the lap top so much of the air time but you would be surprised, and I don't think that it comes through clearly to the viewers of the show, that those tasks were extremely difficult.  We had very little time and very little resources and we had to account for every little penny - whether it was remodeling a three or four bedroom house on Long Island or starting from scratch with an empty space and having 48 hours to prepare a five-star meal in a restaurant and give our surveys for those.

You add into the mix the great job that Mark Burnett does casting and you get some very aggressive and head-strong personalities - not necessarily all working toward the same goal.  It gets to be a pretty dynamic situation so the planning aspect was definitely a big piece of what helped me get through the Apprentice.

GIACHINO:  In the book you write a lot about the different businesses that you have had, the start-up companies, and the success that you had as an entrepreneur.  You had such great success before you went on the show.  What possessed you to subject yourself to the scrutiny of the public eye for 15 weeks of national television?

PERDEW:  I have definitely sought out challenges in my life and I looked at this as just another one of those challenges that was definitely on public display.  I felt pretty strongly heading into it, based on all of the stuff that I had done before, that I had developed these principles and that they would serve me well in that environment.

I went into it thinking that it was not just an interview with Donald Trump but it was an interview with every future investor, employee, business partner that I may have for my future businesses that I may start or be a part of.  So I really comported myself in a manner and acted the way that I would have in normal business situations and felt that this is a great proving ground to check out and prove that these leadership principles really do work.

GIACHINO:  We're talking with Kelly Perdew.  He is a West Point graduate and Airborne Ranger turned entrepreneur and winner of the Apprentice 2.  He now can add to his long resume of success this book called Take Command.  And in the book, as he mentioned, he lists ten essential principles to take command in business and in life.

One of the things that you do in the book, in addition to going through each of those ten principles in great detail, is that you draw in those different chapters from interviews that you had with some pretty amazing people - people who shared some of your background, that is they first had some military experience before they crossed over into the business world.  Can you tell the listeners about some of the people who you had the opportunity to interview in the book?

PERDEW:  Absolutely and I feel incredibly fortunate that with each of these individuals I had the opportunity to interview them personally.  I looked at this book and said that people ask me constantly if my military background is helpful in my winning the Apprentice and in my other business endeavors and the answer was yes.  But I really have not hit a business grand slam home run yet.  And so I looked around and I went to look for individuals who have clearly demonstrated massive business expertise and I got them to add their credibility and to reinforce that these principles are really important - not just ex-military people who have these principles, but everybody has these leadership principles in them and they can develop them.

So I talked to Roger Staubach - I think a lot of people are familiar with that name, a Dallas Cowboy two-time Super Bowl champion, and now CEO of a 1300 person real estate firm with offices all over the United States.  Pete Dawkins, Vice Chair of Citigroup's private banking who was a Heisman Trophy winner at West Point and a Rhodes Scholar and Brigadier General before he got into business.  Jim Kimsey, the founding CEO of AOL.  Marsha Evans, she was until about a month ago the CEO of the Red Cross and before that the president of the Girl Scouts and was responsible for really growing and doing great things for those organizations.

So I was honored to sit down with them and ask them about these leadership principles and real world examples of how they put them to work and their successes.  It was just amazing to meet these people.

GIACHINO:  It is amazing.  Jim Kimsey you mentioned was at the U.S. Military Academy and Ross Perot who was at the U.S. Naval Academy, Bill Coleman who was at the U.S. Air Force Academy and Roger Staubach who went to U.S. Naval Academy, Pete Dawkins went to U.S. Military Academy and Marsha Evans who was in the U.S. Navy.  So for those people out there who are contemplating where they want to go for further education, certainly if you want great success, look at these wonderful examples.  And we are talking with one of them - Kelly Perdew, the author of Take Command.

Kelly, in the third chapter you write about passion - you say be passionate about what you do, and do what you're passionate about.  What advice do you have for folks who are stuck in mundane jobs and cannot afford the luxury of doing something that they are passionate about?

PERDEW:  There are two things.  One is don't fool yourself.  You are never stuck anywhere unless you think you are stuck.  You can always eventually figure your way out.  And I am very much a realist and so I understand that you are not always doing exactly the thing that you want to be doing because you have responsibilities.  So I would offer that in those situations you still need to understand your long term objective and what your passion is and what you need to be going after.  And while you're in those positions that may not be optimal, you can develop the skills that will enable you to reach that objective.

Don't ever sit around wasting your time being lazy and not be operating.  Always understand the long-term objective of what you want and what is going to get you to that place.  And be careful not to use somebody else's definition of success for what's going to make you happy.  Really figure it out on your own and be honest with yourself and then every day you start knocking things off your list from that plan and how you are going to get to it.  You will figure out things to do in that job where you may be in kind of a holding pattern where you can say work on Microsoft Excel or Power Point or my listening skills or my communication skills.  You can continue to develop yourself so that that ultimate objective where you are going to be the most happy or passionate about becomes more achievable.

GIACHINO:  Do you have post-it notes all over your house?  You sound like such a good planner.

PERDEW:  You know I am trying to get to be completely digital.  The 3M Company is not going to be happy with me when I stop completely using post-it notes.  There are still a few hanging around, but most of it is digital now.

GIACHINO:  There are a lot of reasons that I think the listeners will enjoy this book.  Certainly I think the folks out there who are business owners and are looking for people to hire for their company would be interested and this makes a great case that they should look to former military personnel.  I think this book is written very well for many military men and women who are going to enter the business world and are wondering how they are going to sell themselves to those business owners and what their military experience has to offer them.

Another reason, and I wanted to be sure to get this in because I think that it is very important and admirable, but one more reason that I want to encourage the listeners to buy this book is because you donate a percentage of the proceeds.  Can you tell the listeners about the organization that will benefit?

PERDEW:  Absolutely.  I donate a percentage of the proceeds to the U.S.O.  I was incredibly fortunate and spent about an hour and a half at Walter Reed Hospital meeting some of the wounded from what is going on in the desert right now.  It was the most humbling and impactful hour and a half of my life.  West Point Military officer, Airborne Ranger, yadda, yadda, yadda, it doesn't mean squat when you go and sit with these kids who have lost pieces of their bodies and are aggressive and excited and passionate about getting better as fast as they can.  They have the phone sitting next to their bed waiting for their unit to call them and they want to get better and get capable enough depending on what has happened to them to get back to their units.  That is the type of loyalty and teamwork that I talk about in the book and those are leadership principles that have already been instilled in them.  It is just amazing to sit and talk with them and hear the passion in their voices about what they are doing.

GIACHINO:   Maybe that will help me better understand something.  In one of the chapters you advise entrepreneurs out there to hire experts with deep "domain knowledge."  What is meant by that?

PERDEW:  From the teamwork chapter, one of the most important things that you are doing as an entrepreneur is attracting, retaining and motivating teams.  And I think the best leaders - and this is what I have experienced, what I have seen and what I talked with business icons about what they exhibit, they surround themselves with individuals who are smarter than they are on the subjects that they need them to be smarter on.  So if you need a marketing expert, go get the smartest, most aggressive one.  Get someone with these leadership principles and you hire them as your marketing person.  You are not afraid that they are going to be smarter than you in a subject - you are the leader and you motivate them to do what they do even better.

GIACHINO:  You said you have not really yet hit a "home run."  In the foreword of this book Donald Trump credits you on a new project called "Trump Direct Media."  Maybe this will be the home run.  What can you tell us about this project?

PERDEW:  I am an entrepreneur at heart and Donald is obviously an entrepreneur and one of the things that I looked at coming into this year was that there had to be a way for me to work with Donald and not just for him.  I have two business partners and we approached Donald with this idea.  It is basically a high-end Val-pack.  It is one of the value packs that comes to your home and has coupons for vendors.  Our concept was extremely high-end, going into affluent households with a celebrity endorsement.  There will be a Trump Pick every month.  It is the high end consumer products and services delivered to the home with all of the advantages of direct marketing.  We have a website called trumpexclusives and it includes a charity every month, a sweepstakes every month, a Fifth Avenue Club, the whole nine yards.  I feel incredibly fortunate to be in business with Donald.

GIACHINO:  I think your time working for him ended when Randolph took over but you stayed on working for Trump?

PERDEW:  Right.  December 16^th was my year anniversary when Season 4 ended and that was how long my contract was for and we agreed to extend for about ninety days so I am going through the end of March to get this business off the ground.  And I also in the process of raising a several million dollar venture capital fund to co-invest in early stage companies - which is very exciting for me being an entrepreneur.  I have only been able to impact one or two companies at a time and now with a significant fund behind me I will be able to help 30-40 companies over the next 2-5 years really get their legs under them and grow some great products to build great companies.

GIACHINO:  Well I don't think we will see you on the Bachelor anytime soon because it sounds like you are going to be extremely busy.  Tell us about something else that is coming up soon for you.  I understand that you have a new show that you will be hosting on the Military Channel called G.I. Factory which will premiere on March 24, 2006.  What can you tell us about this?

PERDEW:  I was asked to host a show that takes the viewer into the factories across the U.S. where the military vehicles, equipment and weapons are actually produced for our troops.  So I have been riding around in Abrams, firing F-16s - sort of takes me back to when I was in the military, and watching as these incredibly passionate and professional workers in these factories take raw materials and turn them into products.  We take the viewer through that entire process so that they understand how it is going.

GIACHINO:  I want to encourage the listeners to visit your website as well.  At the end of the book you suggest to the readers that they e-mail to you their own success stories.  There may in fact be a sequel in the works.  Can you please tell the listeners whether they can e-mail you their own questions at your website?

PERDEW:  Absolutely.  I set up a forum on my site.  It is pretty simple to register and there has already been pretty significant feedback, not only on the book, but also on any other entrepreneurial idea.  There are strategy sessions and resources for entrepreneurs and there is a pretty nice nucleus of very smart people already exchanging ideas there.  So all of you entrepreneurs out there or you people in transition that want some advise or just have some questions go ahead and come on to kellyperdew.com and check out the forums.  I am on there weekly in terms of answering specific questions and I will try to get to everybody but there is a limited amount of time.

GIACHINO:  You also donate your time as celebrity spokesperson for Big Brothers/Sisters and the National Guard Youth Challenge Program.  Where do you find the time?

PERDEW:  Prioritizing.  When you start planning you figure out what is important to you and then you figure out how to make it happen.

GIACHINO:  I want to go back to your first chapter where you talk about duty.  I think it is very appropriate that duty is chapter one.  It is probably one of the most important principles and one that maybe a lot of us forget about - duty, duty to our country, and loyalty.  In the first chapter on duty, you write how doing our duty in the workplace means taking orders, sometimes from people we disagree with.  Occasionally, however, isn't it okay and even good to question authority?

PERDEW:  It absolutely is.  One of the things that I try to point out is that many of these principles have to kind of work in tension and in balance with each other.  Your duty and your responsibility to follow an order should never overshadow your requirement in my mind - the tenth principle which to me is the most important, that is integrity.  I would never recommend someone to follow their duty to the detriment of their integrity.  But when I am talking about duty I think that sometimes it is very difficult for leaders to follow.  And one of the things that you learn very quickly in the military because of the ramifications of not being efficient and executing the mission is that people die.  So during the beginning strategy phase when you are trying to decide what to do you should air exactly what you think.  If the commander screwed up or something cannot work, tell him.  Once the team and/or the leader comes to a final conclusion as to how to go, so long as it is not an unlawful order or so long as it is not against the law or impugns your integrity in any way then don't be one of those bellyachers.  Don't be one of those people dragging their feet and moaning and gossiping.  You and your organization will be so much better off if you can just say we all voiced our opinion and this is the collective thought process and this is the direction that we are going to go.  Pick up and move that direction and you are going to be much more successful if you operate like that.

GIACHINO:  I think a lot of that bears witness in the chapter that you write about loyalty.  As I mentioned, you write about the ten principles to take command in business and in life and you address each one separately in its own chapter.

One of the things that came to my mind when I read this book and it is one of the things in my life that I try to follow when I have a difficult decision to make, particularly professionally - where it seems that you may be a little more torn on what to do, I remind myself that I have to get up and look myself in the mirror and like what I see.  Is that essentially what you mean by integrity - by knowing what to do 99 percent of the time?

PERDEW:  Absolutely.  Your character defines you.  I have found that if people approach me and they are wrestling with this moral dilemma that is going on, if you really push back on them and suggest that they really know what the right thing to do is, the answer is usually yes.  It might be very difficult and it might put you in jeopardy of being immoral or illegal or maybe getting fired for it.  Or what is more likely, and this is what Pete Dawkins says, is that you are in a big organization and you don't get along with your boss and they want to do things that you don't want to do and if you voice that you are cutting your own throat in the future of the organization.  So you have to make a decision and it is a very personal decision.  I offer and I have found that if you really do everything with integrity the whole time it gets to be really easy to make the decision.  You don't have to wrestle with it.  You just do it.  Whatever comes, comes.

GIACHINO:  That's right.  You said 99% of the time you know what the right thing is.

Kelly, thank you very much for joining us.  Kelly Perdew, the author of Take Command:  10 Leadership Principles I Learned in the Military and Put to Work for Donald Trump.

PERDEW:  You're welcome