20 January 2008

Trump Traits

A couple of months ago a blog post titled "Rhythm is the Power" was about what Joseph Jaffe, Duran Duran and Donald Trump have in common. This week I was cleaning out the TIVO and ran across an episode of the CNBC's The Millionaire Inside with Donald Trump as the only guest. In the episode he mentioned key points that were critical to what he saw as success.

Now we can all sit here and say "Well, he can afford to follow the traits because he has millions to fall back on should something go wrong." While that may be true, you and I cannot let that kind of thinking hold us back. If we cannot totally wrap ourselves around these "Trump Traits" then we are doomed to "working for the man" until we retire believing that spending more hours in office will define our legacy. I personally do not see my legacy as a plaque on a desk that reads "Dave sat here for 20 years, did his job, and never asked for a new chair."

I see my legacy as one that my children and their children will pass on to their kids. So as I watched that episode of Millionaire Inside nee Billionaire Inside, the things that he talked about were concepts and ideas that are rooted in common sense. Just like Tom Peters, Dr. Stephen Covey, and others like them, teach the use of common sense is the prime factor for success. No need to get fancy and paint a pretty "touchy, feely" picture of success because they don't work unless of course, the picture is painted on a canvas based on common sense. So as the show progressed it was interesting to see that as The Donald got into talking about the path to his success he kept underscoring (albeit covertly) the role common sense played in his success. While I am not saying anything new, I am saying what others, to include Trump, have said over and over again.

Therefore, for many of us, we now have to ask; How long will it take to ensure that these "Trump Traits" sink into our thick noggins? How often do we have to be told these things? Then how long before we make that change? The answer my friends is real simple: AS LONG AND AS OFTEN AS IT TAKES.

Here are the Trump Traits as mentioned in the CNBC series: The Millionaire Inside
  • Find Your Passion
  • Be Tenacious
  • Don't Fear Risk
  • Revenge Can Be Good (don't take crap from people)
  • Know Your Subject
  • Negotiate Face to Face
  • Build Your Brand (by being persistent)
  • Get in the game (Real Estate...hmmmm)
  • Think Globally (the world is truly flat)
  • Negotiate a new deal
  • Have a killer idea
  • Implement your idea well
  • Have Confidence
  • Never Lose Focus
Each one of these traits has had volumes written about them. So I will not get too much into them now but I will revisit them from time to time. However, between now and then I invite you to think about this list and see how they apply to you and your situation. Also, figure out how by applying the traits you can create a legacy that can be passed along to future generations.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

That's pretty good company I'm keeping :)

I'm going to use your post as a reminder and motivation to continue doing what I'm doing and focus my efforts on...well....focus!

Joe