Bill competed persistently to earn a prestigious position as the apprentice for real estate tycoon Donald Trump. Bill claimed the position on NBC's first season of the sensational reality TV show "The Apprentice." Bill Rancic early on learned the art of negotiating, as he had to compete for bathroom time with his three older sisters. His parents were both successful educators. Rancic’s father, who ped away in 1999 after a battle with cancer, was a school superintendent and college professor while his mother worked as a school principal and now serves as an adjunct professor. Proven to be a hard worker all his life, the profits Rancic earned from his own boat wash and wax business helped pay for his college tuition. Rancic is an example of a true entrepreneur. He founded cigarsaroundtheworld.com eight years ago in a 400-square-foot studio apartment with very little money. Today it is a thriving multi-million dollar national operation that is part of a publicly traded company, Synergy Brands (sybr/nasdaq). While Rancic still manages the day-to-day operation of the cigar business, he is also making a name for himself in the Chicago real estate market. Rancic is a sought-after speaker at major universities and corporations where he speaks about how, through hard work and “thinking-out-of-the-box,” success can be achieved even against the worst odds. He also helps to p on this message to the residents of the Mercy Home for Boys where he has volunteered as a tutor for underprivileged kids for four years.

When it comes to adventure, Rancic is ready to join in. He enjoys water-skiing, snowboarding and scuba diving and has run in two Chicago Marathons. His father taught him the art of living a balanced life and always took the time to enjoy even the simplest pleasures. With this in mind, Rancic is careful to not take even the littlest things for granted. Having the opportunity to participate in The Apprentice is something for which Rancic will be forever grateful. The opportunity to learn from the best, coupled with the challenge of competing against 15 other successful participants was an offer Rancic couldn’t refuse. He now finds satisfaction in being a role model for other people who are trying to achieve what he has worked so hard for… the American dream. Rancic has proven that the American dream is still alive, and that hard work and determination are still a recipe for success in this country. Rancic has been fortunate to have many achievements in his life but is most proud of the creation of the Dr. Edward T. Rancic scholarship fund. After the loss of his father, Rancic and his sisters created the fund to ist students who are in financial need and have the desire to become educators. Rancic is also an advocate supporter in National Institution for Health, as well as the Youth Aids society. He is currently working for the Trump Organization, as well as completing his book from Harper’s Collins due out this fall, the working title is “‘You’re Hired’ an Inspirational Book About How to Succeed in Life and Business from the winner of The Apprentice.”

Bill Rancic Auction

t's hot, it's fast, and now it can be yours.
I want to put you in the driver's seat of my brand new 2005 Chrysler Crossfire Roadster Convertible, the very same car I won on Season One of Donald Trump's The Apprentice. Considered to be one of the hottest and most desired sports cars on the road today, this particular vehicle has only 600 miles on it and is in near mint condition. In addition to being fully loaded, the car is also equipped with such customized amenities as a cigar humidor and custom luggage designed to fit perfectly in the trunk.
But that's not all! In addition to winning one of the hottest cars on the market today, the winning bidder will also receive the original window sticker signed by stars from the hit reality TV series, The Apprentice: Donald Trump, George Ross, Carolyn Kepcher and me, Bill Rancic. This one-of-a-kind car, given to me by Donald Trump for being the final contestant The Apprentice, is the perfect start to the ultimate car collection, and the piéce de rèsistance for any serious car collector.

Crossfire
"I am incredibly excited someone will have the opportunity to take home the very Crossfire I was fortunate enough to win on the first season of The Apprentice," said Bill Rancic. "This is such a cool and unique car. It's fully loaded and even comes with a built-in cigar humidor and custom luggage designed for the trunk."
The Dr. Edward T. Rancic Memorial Fund for Cancer Research
"In an effort to find the best possible way to support research for renal cell cancer, I decided to start a charity in my father's name," said Bill Rancic. "By auctioning off this unique vehicle I am hopeful I will make a difference in the continued fight against this deadly disease."
Now is your chance to skip the long waiting list for these cars and bid on my Crossfire convertible for a good cause!

All proceeds from this auction will benefit the Dr. Edward T. Rancic Memorial Fund for Cancer Research at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, a charity I founded in honor of my father. The Dr. Edward T. Rancic Memorial Fund for Cancer Research at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health will establish a fellowship program at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the Bethesda, MD campus of the National Institutes of Health. The Dr. Edward T. Rancic Memorial Fellow -- a promising, postdoctoral cancer investigator who will work for two to three years in the laboratory of tumor immunology headed by Richard Childs, M.D., of NHLBI -- will provide critical "person-power" to further the quest to uncover more effective immunotherapies for the treatment for renal cell cancer. The fund and the initiative it supports will stand as a fitting tribute to the memory Dr. Rancic, who contributed to important renal cancer research as a participant in an NHLBI study conducted by Dr. Childs and his collaborators.
Renal cell carcinoma, commonly known as kidney cancer, is on the rise in the United States. Most common in adults over the age of 40, particularly men, renal cell carcinoma is considered by many to be one of the more under-researched cancers. Nearly 30,000 people are diagnosed with kidney cancer each year, half of whom develop mestastatic disease that is ociated with an extremely poor prognosis.
Those who wish to support the important work addressed by the Rancic Memorial fellow can send donations the Rancic Memorial Fund at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. For contact and other information, visit www.fnih.org.

Does Bill Rancic have to give up his job now that his year is over?

According to NBC, his year isn't up yet. Rancic won the first season of "The Apprentice" in an April 15 finale last spring. So his yearlong job, working on the former Chicago Sun-Times building that is being demolished to build a 90-story condominium and hotel tower, continues until April 15, 2005.

NBC spokesman Jim Dowd says "Bill is hard at work on the project in Chicago and will be up until the very last minute at which point he will either decide to go out on his own or approach Mr Trump with a proposal for a second year." Rancic has told at least one publication that he intends to stay in the real-estate development arena, saying "For me, the way I'd like this story to end would be to do a deal with Donald Trump where we build a building together as partners. But we'll see what happens.”

The year didn't end calmly at Rancic's Chicago project, however. On Dec. 29, a fire broke out in the building's ventilation system and burned for 90 minutes before being extinguished.

'Apprentice' finalist Bill Rancic dating former 'Bachelor 3' fiancee Jen Schefft

n one of the more interesting recent pieces of reality TV show gossip, Extra! and the Chicago Sun-Times report that Bill Rancic, one of the two finalists on NBC's The Apprentice, is dating Jen Schefft, the woman selected by Andrew Firestone as his bride-to-be on ABC's The Bachelor 3.
While it's easy for us to see why any normal, red-blooded male would be attracted to Jen, a native of Mentor, Ohio, who now lives in Chicago, her relationship with Chicago native Bill is more than a little ironic ... because, according to Extra!, Bill was a finalist to be the bachelor on The Bachelor 3. In the end, the producers ultimately picked Andrew over Bill, and Andrew subsequently picked the single life over Jen, which left both of them free for their current relationship.

Extra! also has a copy of Bill's audition tape for a reality TV dating show which was never produced, which it promises to make available online in the near future. In the tape, Bill says that he is "all about looks" with regard to women (no Average Jane series for him...) . The tape eventually made its way into the hands of the Bachelor 3 producers, which is how Bill ended up in consideration for the role of the bachelor until the very end.
We note that Jen may have traded in one Lothario for another. Many reports after the Andrew-Jen breakup focused on Andrew's continuing womanizing before, during and after his engagement to Jen, including one of the worst pick-up lines ever: "Do you get sometimes? I do." to a female TV reporter.

While Bill may be less of a cad than Andrew was, Apprentice finalist Katrina Campins has claimed that Bill had a post-show affair with third-place finisher Amy Henry. Meanwhile People Magazine reported that Bill got "back rubs" from another female cast member, Amy's friend (and former soft-core erotica star) Kristi Frank, during the show.

For her sake, we hope that Jen isn't going from the frying pan into the fire. Of course, if Bill were to be Donald Trump's choice in tonight's final show, he'd have to move to New York City ... but then again, Jen has already moved from the North Coast to the West Coast in the pursuit of true love, so we don't see why a move to the East Coast would be much different.

'Apprentice' winner Bill Rancic to star in an on-the-job sequel?

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Mark Burnett, creator and co-executive producer of NBC's The Apprentice, is considering production of a spinoff series featuring Bill Rancic, the winner of the program's one-year job with The Trump Organization, during his employment with real-estate tycoon Donald Trump. Although no formal production plan has been put in place, Burnett was quoted as saying that a follow-up series on Bill was a "fairly obvious choice."
Considering that over 40 million viewers watched some portion of the finale, we tend to agree with Mark Burnett. However, we note that a sequel to The Apprentice covering Bill's year of overseeing (in some fashion) construction of the 90-story Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago might end up filled with as many conflicts as Burnett's sequel to The Restaurant.

For one thing, the Chicago project may not be built, since both the financing and the final permits from the city are not in place. For another thing, Bill's role in the organization may be more "show" than "substance," considering the complexity of the Chicago project.
More importantly, though, Burnett told the Hollywood Reporter that one idea for the sequel would be for Bill to hire some of the other contestants from the first season of The Apprentice to work for him in the Trump Chicago project. We have a hard time believing that Bill -- or, for that matter, Donald Trump himself -- would want, say, self-proclaimed "wild man" Sam Solovey or renowned liar Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, to pick the show's best-known failures, working for him if they had any real responsibilities.

We also have a tough time believing that Amy Henry, Kristi Frank, Troy McClain, or the other competent candidates would want to be a part of such a made-for-TV event after failing to become the ultimate winner. Would Amy, for example, actually want to work in a subordinate role for an organization led by senior managers who called her a "Stepford wife"? And show runner-up Kwame Jackson has already received a better job offer from Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban than any offer Mark Burnett or Donald Trump is likely to make.

But stranger things have happened in the name of television ratings, so we won't count Mark Burnett's plan out ... yet.

Bill Rancic's House: Only Slightly Less Interesting than Bill Rancic

Big article in the Trib today about Bill Rancic's house. We'd pretend like we're not interested but…come on, real estate ography is where it's at.

The article is called "A House Fit for an Apprentice," which sounds to us like a subtle dig that his house isn't fancy enough for the Tribune folks. Apprentices are usually kind of poor and all, right? And they like, live with their mentors? And make horseshoes? Or make brooms carry buckets of water until it all goes horribly awry? If there are any buckets in Bill's house, the article doesn't mention them.

Bill lives on the North Side in a "three-story coach house." Uh, what kind of coach used to go in there? Aren't coach houses ex-garages from way back? Whatever, it's 3,200 square feet, which means it's a little bigger than 26 of our dorm rooms from freshman year, which is the only space we ever lived in that we actually measured and is therefore our only source of comparison. (It was 11 X 11.)

It looks like Bill's not much of a Trading Spaces fan—he claims to have furnished his entire house in 15 minutes. He didn't plan on living there (investment property, natch), so he put in a fancy kitchen that he never uses, a shower that he regrets not making a steam shower, and no medicine cabinets. Ah, the life! In all, it seems like Bill lives a lonely Gatsby-like existence in a house that feels like a hotel, with expensive shirts as his only comfort. He eats cereal every day and listens to Counting Crows, which means he could probably be just as happy living in our old dorm, where we ate cereal every day and complained about other people listening to Counting Crows.

We kept hoping for "and that's his money vault" or "that's where the hookers crash" or "here's his champagne faucet," but we're going to have to learn to live with disappointment. Bill's kinda rich but not very creative. Somebody get that guy a few episodes of Cribs.

'You're Hired' By Bill Rancic

Bill Rancic, winner of the hit TV show The Apprentice, tells how anyone can become their own personal success in both business and life, using his own experiences as a self-made entrepreneur.

Getting back to basics, Rancic shares insights about his own path to The Apprentice—his work ethic, top business strategies, and lessons learned competing on the show, working for Donald Trump—and offers a practical, step-by-step guide to climbing the success ladder from first job to the boardroom. From valuable lessons learned as a budding ten-year-old entrepreneur pitching pancake sales; to starting his own small business to pay for college; to launching an online cigar company now worth millions—Rancic proves you don't need to be a Harvard MBA to be a success in business.

Includes a foreword by Donald Trump!

Bill Rancic: How to Succeed in Business and Life

"The Apprentice" and Donald Trump have made Bill Rancic a recognized personality. Bill has chosen to expand on his recognizability by writing a book based on his personal philosophy on how to be successful in the business world, as well as in personal life.

Rancic uses personal incidents to illustrate his points. Some of the stories reflect his youth and then move into college and later years. Many of the incidents reflect mistakes that he made and he makes the point that you can learn more from mistakes than from success. This personal touch gives the reader an insight into Rancic, as well as makes the listening enjoyable as well as informational. He is also frank about his shortcomings and what he did to overcome them. Motivation is a point that he stresses for both personal, as well as business ventures.

An area that he delves into is putting a value on your own time that is reasonable, and not settling for less. This sounds great, but he also is realistic in setting his goals and acknowledges that some people do not have the resources and/or ability to realize their own worth and hold out for it.

The use of quotes from famous and not-so-well-known persons give additional emphasis to the point Rancic is making. He uses a variety of quotes with ease and familiarity. One example of a quote that I enjoyed is "Most important decisions facing a company are made by individuals, not by committees," from Lee Iacocca.

Rancic's speaking voice is pleasant and entertaining. He is able to emphasize what he feels is important, as well as interjecting a sense of humor to the stories. The speech flow is smooth and conversational. One aspect that older teens will appreciate is that this is audio book is not preaching at them, but sharing experiences, which makes the listening a pleasure.

'Apprentice' Winner Rancic Establishes Kidney Cancer Fund

Bill Rancic, self-made millionaire and winner of The Apprentice reality television show, visited the Clinical Center recently to thank NIH staff for the care of his father, Ed Rancic, a kidney cancer patient. In 2000, Dr. Ed Rancic enrolled in the NHLBI intramural allogeneic transplant trial, but his cancer was very advanced and aggressive and he died shortly after returning home to Chicago. To commemorate his father, Bill plans to establish an NIH fund for the advancement of biomedical research in stem cell transplantation to treat kidney cancer.
According to NHLBI investigator Dr. Richard Childs, who treated Ed Rancic, "Bill felt that NIH gave his father hope when everyone else had already written him off."

One of Bill's personal goals, now that he has realized his dream of working with Donald Trump, is to help the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) fight against kidney cancer. The foundation will administer the research fund. According to Childs, Bill hopes the fund will stimulate interest in NIH research and encourage young scientists to study novel treatment methods to improve the outcome in kidney cancer patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

"[Bill] has a wonderful personality and radiates energy and optimism, and I think he would be a terrific unofficial spokesman and advocate for the research we are conducting here in the intramural program," said Childs.

Bill Rancic Helps Inspire Mercy Home for Boys & Girls' Volunteers

Bill Rancic, winner of Donald Trump's reality television show "The Apprentice" has been a Mercy Home hero the past few years as a tutor for a number of the youth who live there. Tonight he will again display his commitment and dedication to the Home by helping at an exclusive event for current and prospective volunteer mentors and tutors. This recruiting event will be held from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at the newly constructed Hay Boys' Campus on 1127 W. Adams St. While giving away free autographed copies of his book, "You're Hired: How to Succeed in Business and Life from the Winner of The Apprentice" Bill will also speak to current and potential volunteers about his experiences at Mercy Home and with Donald Trump.

Jennifer Brown, Volunteer Resources Coordinator, is amazed with Bill's commitment, "He was one of the most dedicated and enthusiastic tutors at Mercy Home. We are so proud that he still takes time from his busy schedule to volunteer." Father Scott Donahue, ociate President of Mercy Home for Boys & Girls also is thankful for Bill's efforts, "Bill has been the perfect volunteer -- reliable, committed and pionate about our work. We need more people with his devotion to take a step forward and make a difference in a child's life."
Mercy Home for Boys & Girls has been offering mentoring and tutoring opportunities for youth living at the Home and in other communities in the Chicago area. The mentoring program, Friends First, is one of the most trusted mentoring programs in Chicago because it provides mentors with training, ongoing support and encouragement with direct contact to our staff. The tutoring program offers volunteers a weekly opportunity to watch a child progress right before their eyes. For a child, just having someone who cares whether they do their homework makes a big difference.

Visit mercyhome.org or call (312) 738-7552 to find out how you can make a difference in a child's life. Mercy Home for Boys & Girls is a 117-year-old not-for-profit residential care facility in Chicago's West Loop and Beverly neighborhood caring for hurting and troubled children ages 11 to 21+ seeking security, stability, guidance and the opportunity to change. Mercy Home is more than 99% donor supported. For more information, visit http://www.mercyhome.org/ .