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So where did Semhar go wrong?  Ironically enough for a “spoken word artist,” I think it was her words that got her into more trouble than doing poorly at the immunity challenge.

During inter-tribe introductions, Papa Bear put her on the spot to say a few lines after she gave her occupation.   She promptly did so and then in a confessional said that if someone puts you on the spot, you need to step up and prove your worth and that proves that your word is good.  Sounds great, she did what she needed to do.  I’m not going to be a judge as to whether her poetry was awesome or not, but I do believe she has a lot of soul and belief in what she does though.

Then comes the immunity challenge and here is where Semhar messes up.  Volunteering herself to do the coconut-tossing part of the challenge isn’t where she went wrong, it was selling herself too hard as the best candidate for the job when she really wasn’t.  She very quickly grew exhausted and became a defecit to her team winning the challenge.  In fact, they probably would have won if someone else had been in her place.

The main lesson I believe we learn from Semhar’s experience is the old adage, “Don’t write a check you can’t cash.”  Stepping up and volunteering to do the challenge is a good thing in itself, but selling yourself as the best choice of other candidates and then coming up quite subpar is what did her in.  The truth of the matter is be adventurous, but also be aware of your limits and don’t impede your group (whether it be on Survivor or at the workplace).

She said in her defense something like… “It takes guts to step up for the team and do what I did.  Would you rather have someone who takes a chance and steps up or someone that sits on the sidelines?”  My answer to that is conditional not concrete.  I’d rather have someone who steps up and is able to put a worthwhile effort to whatever the challenge may be, but I’d rather someone sit on the sidelines if it is all talk and no action.  Don’t limit yourself, but know your abilities when things get to be crucial for your situation.

After the challenge she then tries to apologize for her poor performance, and here is where I think that she further lost her shot at staying.  She does the correct thing in apologizing, but she went about it in a very routine, mundane way.  There was no emotion or any conviction behind it from what we could see from editing.  It was the cookie-cutter kind we see when a parent sees their oldest child messing with the youngest.  The parent then tells the child-in-the-wrong to apologize to the other or else.  And we see a very shallow apology that has no meaning or truthfulness to it.

This was the kind she offered, and for a “spoken word artist” it was kind of disappointing the lack of emotion.  Being sincere and honestly sorry about her performance probably could have kept her there another three days.   Ozzie was supporting her, and even prompted her to do more politicking to keep herself there.  The one scene we saw her talking to Whitney was a very poor case to keep her.  No conciseness, sincerity, or even the slightest tone that gave the impression that she truly wanted to stay.  Lesson number two, when you offer an apology, do it out of sincerity not out of necessity or in attempt to make yourself look better.

Ah Semhar, we barely got to know you.   What do you think was Semhar’s biggest error to learn from?