Don't Hate Donald Trump, Learn From Him

I first heard Trump's name from "The Apprentice". Now I see election news about him just about everywhere. 

He sure doesn't appear to have a pleasing personality, and I can't say I would like him as a person.

But I admire him as a successful businessman.  Not many people can make a building worth more just because their name's on it. 

Some may argue that his success comes from the money he inherited. It sure gave him a leg up. 

Just like you'll always hear people attribute success to “having a high IQ,” “talent,” or “luck.”

Just like some people like to talk about how Bill Gates' success comes from his wealthy family. 

It sounds like people are successful for no real reason. They were just born in a good family. They were just in the right place at the right time. They have the right opportunity. It just “happened”, no hard work involved whatsoever. 

Given the same circumstances, how many can achieve what Trump has today? How many will become "Bill Gates?"

The truth is most people don’t want to hear what it really takes to be successful. They'd rather buy lottery tickets and hope to get rich. 

Successful people got where they are because of hard work. It's unlikely they can double their income without doubling their own skills. 

Can you imagine the amount of work and skills Bill Gates had to develop to grow Microsoft from $0.1 million/year to $60,000 million/year? 

If you look at Donald Trump, he starts his day at 5:00 am. He spends about three hours reading. He works all day, almost non-stop. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/nyregion/23routine.html?_r=0) While the average American adult spends only 19 minutes a day reading. (http://time.com/2909743/americans-reading/)

The same goes for all successful people.  The point is, you need to put the work in. 

For one thing, they are consistent, keep doing it over and over again. If you've seen people try to stay in shape, you'd know most of them can spend a month to lose 2 pounds, but they can't keep at that level without continuous exercise. That's why you see so many people soon gaining weight back. They can do it once or twice, but they can't keep it up. 

Michael Jordan had the reputation for working incredibly hard. He'd continue practicing on break time. He'd arrive earlier than anyone else and stay later to prepare for games.

I doubt if anyone is born hard-working. You have to train yourself. It is easier to procrastinate and to just hope something will be different. Successful people have trained themselves to work hard. 

Like Michael Jordan says: “Maybe it was my own fault. Maybe I lead you to believe it was easy when it wasn’t. Maybe I made you think my highlights started at the free throw line and not in the gym. Maybe I made you think that every shot I took was a game winner. That my game was built on flash and not fire. Maybe it’s my fault that you didn’t see that failure gave me strength, that my pain was my motivation. Maybe I lead you to believe that basketball was a God-given gift and not something that I worked for every single day of my life. Maybe I destroyed the game. Or maybe…you’re just making excuses.”