Long before Kwame, Amy or Bill, there was Carolyn.
You could call her Donald Trump's first apprentice.
In 1992, when Carolyn Kepcher was just 23 years old, she took a job as sales and marketing director of a rundown golf club outside New York City, more than a decade before NBC's hit series "The Apprentice" would make its debut.
Her task: to prepare the distressed property for bank auction.
One evening Donald Trump showed up at the course.
"He thought he could turn this piece of property into something glamorous, more wonderful and instantly Trump-like," Kepcher told members of the Salt Lake Chamber on Thursday. "I recognized that in this distressed property I had been granted an opportunity, not presented with a threat."
So when Kepcher was offered the chance to present Trump with further details of the property, she did her homework.
"I knew that if I did a kick-ass job I stood a decent chance of becoming on Mr. Trump's payroll," she said. "When the day of the big meeting at Trump Tower came along, I walked in as bold as brass. I was the only young woman there in a sea of suits."
At the end of her 10-minute presentation, Kepcher recalled Trump taking a long pause and then asking for her opinion.
"My first reaction was, 'What the hell are you asking me for? You're the genius here,' " she said. "But then spying an opportunity, I told him flat out and in considerable detail which of the three scenarios I had outlined would make him the most money."
The rest is history.
Trump soon purchased the property and hired Kepcher, who went on to become chief operating officer and general manager of the course.
Today, Kepcher is executive vice president of the Trump Organization, overseeing 250 employees. But her recent fame can be traced to the TV show "The Apprentice," where she sits beside Trump in the infamous boardroom, offering critiques of contestants hoping not to be fired.
The premise of "The Apprentice," she said, is to find the best employee through a process of "Darwinian elimination."
The surviving contestant, Kepcher said, best embodies the values of the Trump Organization — teamwork, leadership, motivation, creativity and hard work.
It is those qualities that make a good employee, an employee that Kepcher said is "master of her own domain."
"You need to define an area of responsibility that is entirely your own, and then make that area outstanding," she said. "That's how you get your boss's attention. That's how you rise to the next level."
And making the corporate climb, Kepcher maintains, should be one of challenge and eventual triumph.
"When I first interviewed for that job I had never played a round of golf in my life," she said. "I knew absolutely nothing about the golf industry, nor about running a golf club."
But determination and enthusiasm to succeed are often valued more than expertise.
"A life truly worth living is like a well-thought-out obstacle course," she said. "The finest parts, the most memorable parts, the best parts, the parts that someday you'll take pleasure in telling your children and grandchildren about, are often the toughest parts."
E-mail: danderton@desnews.com