Donald Trump is a famous figure in the real estate and business world. He earned his economics degree from the Wharton School and a third-generation businessman from his family. He is also famous with his quote, “Think big”, and has written numerous best-selling books, done billions of dollars of real estate deals, and has also produced and hosted The Apprentice television series for over 12 years.
Trump has achieved some remarkable success in the real estate world. He appeared on Forbes World’s Billionaires list for the first time in 1989. In January 2017, Donald Trump won and was elected as the 45th and current President of the United States. Today, Forbes estimated Trump’s net worth at $3.5 billion, making him one of the richest politicians in the American history.
1. Work Really Hard
Donald Trump is someone who believed that the harder he works, the luckier he gets. And he is absolutely right. A lot of people thought that rich and successful people are free to do what they love and they can wake up anytime they want. This is far from the truth, rich and successful people are hard working people and they seldom take vacation. This is why they are so successful.
Trump once said, “I usually sleep about four hours per night. I’m in bed by 1am and up to read the newspapers at 5am. That’s all I need and it gives me a competitive edge. I have friends who are successful and sleep ten hours a night, and I ask them, “How can you compete against a people like me if I only sleep four hours?” It rarely can be done. No matter how brilliant you are, there’s not enough time in the day.”
In fact, this does not only happen to Trump. Many other successful people follow the same hard working model. They work really hard and seldom take time off. Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest men once told Daily Mail in an interview in 2011, “I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I’m still fanatical, but now I’m a little less fanatical.”
So work hard for your dreams and the success you want. There is no free lunch in this world and if you want to achieve the amazing result you desire, you must put in the hard work.
2. Don’t Do It for the Money
Most people find it hard to become successful and achieve an outstanding result in life because they focus on the wrong thing. They choose to do it for the money. Think about it, rich and successful people do not do it for the money because if they do, they would have stopped and quitted when they made their first fortune from their business to enjoy life.
Chances are, successful people like Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, and many others do not do it for the money. For these people, money is just a byproduct of their hard work and they use money as a way of keeping score. The more they produce and the more they achieve, the more money will come to them. They understand this and thus, they never work for work.
On the contrary, most ordinary people work for money. They start a business because they want to make a fortune. The problem is that when you make money your priority, you will miss out other important factors of success such as creating value to help others. And when people see you as someone who is trying to make every penny out of them rather than helping them, they will never do business with you again in the future. So do not do it for the money.
3. Focus on What You Do Best
In the early 1990s when Trump amassed huge wealth from his business, he lost his focus because he wanted to do many things at once. Many people went to him ask for business deals. And when the market crashed, Trump went into serious debt and some of his businesses have to file for bankruptcy. However, that did not stop him from moving forward and continuing doing what he does best, making real estate deals.
Trump once told the press that when the time was tough and everybody around him went bankrupt, it was difficult for him to survive too. And he decided to do one thing, which was to focus on what he did best. And when he started to negotiate deals and making the business move, things started to get better. Eventually, he got out of his debt and comes back even bigger. Trump wrote a book about his comeback in 1997, the book called “The Art of the Comeback”.
Therefore, choose to focus on what you do best. Michael Jordan is a great basketball player. What do you think will happen if he tries to play golf and tennis at the same time? He will lose his focus and spread his effort thin. This is why focus is important if you want to be successful in what you do.
4. Hire Great Employees
Donald Trump believed that if you want to do well in your business, you must hire great employees. First, you can never be successful by doing all the things alone. You need to leverage and get help from others. And when it comes to hiring, choose to hire great employees rather the good or average ones.
According to Trump, good and average employees will do things like most people. They will not lead you to a higher ground, and at the same time, they will just do their job accordingly. You cannot fire them because they are doing their job, but they will never perform and bring greater success to you. So hire great people rather than the average and good people.
5. Believe in Yourself
“To be a winner, you have to see yourself as a winner. If you don’t think like a winner, it’s just not going to happen.” This is what Trump told his audience in one of his speeches. You have to see yourself as successful and believe that you can do it before anyone else. If you do not believe in yourself, who else would?
You have to understand that your journey to success starts and ends with you. Sure, there will be other people to help you along the way, like Trump. However, without Trump, there will never be the Trump Tower. Thousands of people helped build the magnificent tower, but Trump is the one who made the dream possible.
When he retired at age 65, he received his first social security check for $105. Colonel Sanders then took the initiative to sell his fried chicken recipes across the country. He would knock on doors and travel miles to sell his recipes. There were many days he slept in his car. After receiving 1009 rejections, he finally got a yes. And he sold his fried chicken recipe to which became Kentucky Fried Chicken today. The only thing that kept Colonel Sanders to go on and on without giving up was that he believed in himself.
6. Think Big and Dream Big
Donald Trump is famous for his quote, “I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.” Highly successful people choose to think big. Average and unsuccessful people are afraid of thinking big because they are scared of failure and rejection.
Elon Musk has a vision of replacing electric cars in the world and makes Earth a better living place. He made it possible through Tesla. Today, Tesla’s global sales have passed 250,000 units in September 2017. Besides that, Elon also envisions colonizing Mars. The idea may sound crazy to many, but it is due to his big dream that SpaceX is made possible. And just like what Donald Trump quoted since you are going to be thinking anyway, why not just think big?
7. Leverage Your Success
Donald Trump says, “The best way to impress people is through results. It’s easier for me to do deals now because I’ve had so many triumphs. You have to create success to impress people in the world of business. If you’re young and you haven’t had any successes yet, then you have to create the impression of success. It doesn’t matter whether the success is a small one or a big one, you have to start with something and build on it.”
He believed that success breeds more successes. Things will be tough in the beginning because you are nobody and most people do not want to do business with you because you are not successful. This is why you need to leverage your success. Start small and build the results. When you received a good result, use it to build even more and bigger results. There is a saying, “Fake it until you make it”, and it is true.
Before you “make it”, most people will call you fake, delusional and a liar. After you have become successful, people will call you visionary and a leader. Thus, it does not matter what people call you at first, what truly matters is that you choose to believe and set out to achieve. Every master was once a beginner and you have to start somewhere. So choose to believe and see yourself as successful at all times.
8. Follow Your Heart
A lot of times people will think that what you are trying to accomplish is impossible and they will think that you are trying to avoid the “truth”. Your parents may say that you are wrong or your friends may think that you are just a dreamer, but whatever people tell you, you have to follow your heart and do what you think is right.
When the Wright Brothers tried to build an airplane, people thought they were crazy. They were just bicycle repairman, how can they build something that can fly? Rather than listening to the naysayers, they choose to go with their heart and follow their instinct. Today, you are able to take a flight from London to New York in about 8 hours thanks to the Wright Brothers who were willing to follow their heart and went against the naysayers.
9. Never Give Up
“You can change and you can move around, but never ever give up.” This is what Trump told his audience in a speech. Trump believed that successful people are not smart people or people with higher educational credentials, but rather, successful people are simply people who refuse to give up.
A winner will never quit and a quitter will never win. You have to remember that when you give up or quit, you will waste all the effort and time you have poured into your attempt. Too many people quit and give up way too soon.
Napoleon Hill, the famous and best-selling author of “Think and Grow Rich” wrote in his book that before success comes into any man’s life, he is sure to meet with temporary defeat and failure. And when defeat overtakes a man, the easiest way to do is to quit. And this is exactly why most people fail to achieve the success they desire in life. Only those who choose to stay on and never give up are the ones who will taste the reward of success.
10. Love What You Do
Trump said that you have to love what you do if you want to be successful in it. And just like what every extraordinary people say, when you are passionate about what you do, you will work harder for it. Plus, even when you face difficult times in your journey, you will continue with it because you love doing it. You are not doing it for the money or anything, you do it because you love doing it.
Steve Jobs said the same thing in his commencement speech at Harvard University. He said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”
High achievers are successful because they are passionate and they love what they do. You have to do the same. Find the passion in what you do and learn to love your work. When you are passionate, you will do more, perform better, and become successful in it.
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