Last March, hundreds of men and women wearing business suits and special wristbands waited in line at Bellevue Square for a chance to earn their spots on Donald Trump’s entrepreneurial reality show, The Apprentice. Many contestant hopefuls had arrived before the sun came up and were testing their skills of endurance by passing time in the tedious line.

Meanwhile, James Sun, a 29-year-old UW alumnus, was enjoying a leisurely afternoon of shopping with his family when he noticed the uncommonly formal crowd.

“I was at the mall at about three in the afternoon, just walking around with my wife and kids in blue jeans and a T-shirt,” recalled Sun.

“There was a big line of people dressed up in nice clothes, with briefcases. We wondered, ‘What is going on over there?’ It was The Apprentice tryouts. Most of these people had been there since five or six o’clock in the morning.”

The coincidence seemed serendipitous. Sun, an entrepreneur himself, was very familiar with the show.

“I’ve always been a big fan since episode one, season one. My wife asked, ‘Why don’t you go on?’ She’s crazy with stuff like that,” he said.

And, as it turns out, she is also woman who knows an opportunity when she sees it.

“I was literally the last guy to walk into the auditions,” Sun remembered, “and I was the only guy not wearing a suit. Whether that helped me or not, I’m not sure.”

Looking back on the audition, Sun believes it may have set an appropriate tone for producers. As a contestant, he represents a new breed of businessman.

“I’m the first true Internet guy to ever be on the show. I’m from a dot-com background; I have a web 2.0 company, and you don’t see a lot of those kind of people on the show,” he explained. “You see a lot of lawyers, but you don’t see Internet folks. People that are in high tech don’t have triple-A personalities.”

Enter Sun, an eloquent, mile-a-minute talker with a big smile and ambitions to match.

“It freaked them out to have an Internet tech guy that was so loud. Believe it or not, that really helped me big time,” he said.

Setting goals

After emigrating to the northwest from Korea, Sun began reading The Wall Street Journal at age 13. Upon graduating high school he received a full academic scholarship to the UW, and he quickly entered the business school. For Sun, however, business wasn’t relegated to the classroom.

“I didn’t have to worry about how to pay for school, but I knew that spending four years in college is a very expensive proposition in lost opportunity cost. I was investing in my education, which I knew was very important, but I wasn’t able to pursue my business aspirations,” he said.

So the indomitable Sun made plans of his own during his spare time.

“I started a technology investment fund when I was 18,” he said. Beginning with just $5,000, he traded investment funds and stocks throughout his four years of undergrad studies.

“My classmates would always ask: ‘Why are you running in and out of classrooms? You’re always in such a hurry.’ I would say, ‘Look, I’m running a business right now!’”

Sun’s first attempt at real-world success paid off: “Ultimately, it let me graduate with over two million dollars,” he said.

Real-world education

In some ways, he considers that practical application of his skills as one of the most beneficial experiences of his college years, even though it had nothing to do with school.

“I don’t think that business schools in general did a very good job of preparing students for what business is going to be,” he said. “It isn’t math and analysis; it’s really about understanding people and customers. There is a lot of psychology and human dynamics involved.”

Sun, with his self-described over-the-top personality, isn’t willing to settle for age-old business principles or mundane charts and graphs. He places more emphasis on personal interactions, he says, and that seems to make the difference between pencil- pusher and innovator.

“Lots of students come out of business school and go into the mode of reciting their textbooks. That’s just not the way it works,” he said. “I even noticed it with people on the show. I can smell when something’s recited from a mile away. I just know it. I’m like, ‘OK, this person isn’t able to think critically. They are simply reciting a book.’”

Learning about himself

Coincidentally, the professor Sun recalls learning the most from is Laura Schildkraut. Three years ago, Schildkraut made the UW home to a slew of national media by teaching a Management Lessons course commonly known as “the Apprentice class.”

“She tied the class environment to the real-world environment,” Sun said. “After I graduated I would think, ‘Wow, I am using some of the stuff that I learned.’”

At the moment, Sun is contractually obliged to remain tight-lipped about the show, but when asked if he had learned anything from the experience, he had much to say.

“I think you learn about yourself every day, he said. “I learned that you can accomplish a tremendous amount with few resources. You can take a few people who are likeminded and passionate and accomplish things much faster than if you had a huge team. Inside the human brain there is an untapped potential, a human ability. If pushed hard enough, you can tap into it.”

But was it difficult for Sun, a strong personality with an independent streak, to work within those groups?

“You want to know what kind of leader you are? Look behind you and see if anyone’s following. When you’re the CEO, you like being the leader. But I also recognize that in life, wherever you go, you have to be a team player in order to be a great leader. If no one’s behind you, you’re a lone tyrant.”

So what’s next?

Sun’s leadership style seems to have left an impression on The Apprentice set. He hinted that Donald Trump and super-producer Mark Burnett are going to continue working with him as he launches his own business, a professional social networking website called Zoodango.com.

“With Zoodango, you meet people online, where you establish a relationship before you meet face to face,” Sun explained. “You can set up meetings at any Starbucks in North America. Trump and Burnett thought that was really interesting, because in today’s world everything is so online … we’re missing that face-to-face dynamic.”

At press time James Sun is still vying for his chance to be the next apprentice, every Sunday night, and on April 26 at 6 p.m. he will return to the UW to host a lecture, “The Apprentice and Beyond,” in Kane Hall.

Reach reporter Sarah Anderson at news@thedaily.washington.edu.