Donald Trumps Blueprint for Success
It is no secret that Donald Trump is successful.
I know what you’re thinking:
“He got it all handed to him on a silver platter! That’s not success, that’s just a matter of being born into the right family.”
I concede the fact that Trump was born into a great family, and he had all the opportunities he could want as a young and ambitious man, looking to make his mark on the world.
Not everyone who is born privileged go on to become President of the United States though.
That’s why I find Trump so interesting.
He has achieved remarkable success in three very different arenas — Real Estate, Entertainment and Politics.
That’s not a coincidence.
Whatever your opinion of the man, it’s clear he knows what he’s doing.
He didn’t get to where he is by accident.
So how did he get to where he is today?
The Gospel of Success
Donald Trump grew up in the church of positive thinking.
Throughout his childhood he went to the sermons of Norman Vincent Peale.
Peale is widely considered the father of the Personal Development movement, and authored the book in this area.
The Power of Positive Thinking has sold over five million copies, and is translated to 15 languages.
How do I know that Peale had a profound and lasting influence on Donald Trump?
How about the fact that Peale officiated at Trumps first wedding?
The point is that Trump believes in positive thinking.
That is why you sometimes hear him saying things that sound outrageous — like when he claimed the crowd at his inauguration was the biggest ever, which is objectively false.
However as the brilliant Scott Adams illustrates perfectly in his book on persuasion Win Bigly, facts simply doesn’t matter.
What matters is that he convinces people.
What matters is what he thinks and says, because it will be so.
That is his mindset. A mindset that has served him well.
He believes that as long as he keeps talking about his successs, it will manifest itself.
Based on almost all of his interviews — including this recent one — and what he writes in his book on negotiation; The Art of the Deal, it is clear that this is one of core beliefs. “Change your thoughts and it will be so”.
Donald Trump lives by these words, and it certainly contributes to his success.
Skill Stacking
Over the years, Donald Trump has developed a very unique set of skills. One might say he has stacked one skill on top of another, until he got to a point, where he is the only person in the world, with that specific set of skills.
To understand why this is important, I’m going to draw on this brilliant article by Win Bigly author, Scott Adams.
The point of the article, is that you don’t have to be the best in the world at any one thing. You just need to have a working knowledge of a set of subjects, very few other people have.
Let’s look at some of the areas in which Trump has a working knowledge:
- Negotiation
- Deal Making
- Public Speaking
- Charisma
- Persuasion
- Business Acumen
- Captivating an audience
- People Skills
- Political Astuteness
Interestingly, he is not the best in the world at any one of these skills.
For instance there are many better business people than him.
I’m sure you can think of a Master Wizard or two.
The same goes for every single one of the skills on the list. Are there more charismatic people in the world? Yes. Are there better persuaders? Yes. Better politicians? Deal-makers? Negotiators? Yes, yes yes.
What makes him effective then, is not his ability to be world-class in one single area.
What makes him effective is his understanding and application of a range of skills and the interplay between them.
Trump would not have been as effective if he hadn’t had experience from reality TV.
His Experience from The Apprentice allowed him to gain a deep understanding of what motivates people, and how to capture an audience.
Both of these skills were put to use during his presidential campaign.
On top of that, he has years of experience making deals and negotiating with intimidating and powerful people. Skills that served him well during his campaign, and which undoubtedly serve him well as commander in chief.
A working knowledge of politics, business fundamentals, persuasion and human behavior has increased his value exponentially. So much so that he is arguably the most valuable person in the world at the time of this writing.
Adding it up
What we’re left with then, is that there are two keys to Donald Trumps success.
The first one is his mind-set. The idea of positive thinking. The idea of thinking and speaking about success, until it becomes reality.
The second is skill-stacking.
Add enough skills on top of each other and you are valuable because no one else has the exact same set of skills.
These ideas are simple to implement, and you might want to experiment with them to see the difference they make in your life.
