President Donald Trump confounds his critics and friends. Maybe he confounds you. But you can understand a lot about Trump if you follow my friend John’s advice. John is a big-time corporate headhunter. He finds people to fill jobs that pay multi-millions. He gets paid only if he finds the perfect executives. When they flop, […]
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President Donald Trump confounds his critics and friends. Maybe he confounds you. But you can understand a lot about Trump if you follow my friend John’s advice.
John is a big-time corporate headhunter. He finds people to fill jobs that pay multi-millions. He gets paid only if he finds the perfect executives. When they flop, he loses much of his fee. So he is careful in his work.
“Ignore most of what a job candidate promises,” is John’s advice. “But focus, utterly focus, on what he or she has done. His or her past reveals the likely future.”
This is the secret if you wish to understand Trump. Focus on what he did as a developer.
Consider the critics, the commentators, bureaucrats, diplomats, world leaders, and other politicians. The multitude he confounds and confuses. Few of them have worked in business. Fewer have owned a business. Virtually none have signed paychecks for armies of workers. Few, if any, have negotiated as developers must every day. Few even understand what a developer is and does.
A good developer dreams. You see a swamp and he dreams of a shopping mall. You see sand and water and he envisions a resort and golf course. You see wasteland and he dreams of a housing development.
A good developer imagines what others cannot. What others scurry from as risks, he sees and seizes as opportunities. He brims with confidence when others bog down in fear.
A good developer negotiates endlessly. Haggling is the lifeblood of his business. He must push and shove, cajole, persuade, pressure, compromise, and flex — with zoning overlords, politicians, lawyers galore, sellers, unions, contractors, and suppliers. And inspectors, bankers, investors, and tenants.
Is it any wonder great developers are great persuaders? They must persuade to survive. Is it any wonder Trump negotiates totally differently from Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry, as well as previous presidents? His history is as different from theirs as steel from marshmallow.
Is it any wonder Trump created a video for North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and crew to view in Singapore? Most critics ignored it or downplayed it. A few scoffed at it. This is because they know so little of business. And they know nothing of how developers persuade.
The video projected the dream of prosperity for Kim’s country. It imagined resorts on the sands where Kim launches missiles. It urged Kim to dream of a wealth of goods to replace the poverty his people suffer. It portrayed high-speed trains and skylines of handsome buildings. (Watch the video for yourself. Google “White House Film for Kim.”)
Leading up to this, Trump rattled sabers. He lined up support from China, South Korea, Japan, and other neighbors. He invoked sanctions and threatened more. He displayed our military might — and made clear we would use it if Kim continued to play idiot.
This is how a developer would approach the politicians of a big city. “Let us dream together of turning your unused railyards into a shopping mecca. Imagine this swampy area as the future home of a sports arena. We have lined up support throughout your city. However, if this does not win your favor, we don’t need to be here. Philadelphia is begging us to come. So is Baltimore.”
Does this sound like the approach Obama, Clinton, and Kerry took with Iran? They negotiated a flimsy agreement. They wrote checks for countless billions. They were rolled. They thought they had persuaded Iran to change the nuclear future of the country. Right. They did little more than persuade Iran to take a planeload of cash.
A good developer has many tricks of persuasion up his sleeve. Trump does. Many of them will confound critics, diplomats, and bureaucrats in the future. Because they do not understand business. They are ignorant of how developers think and work. They peer through lenses crafted from their own experiences. Experiences so different from Trump’s.
The secret to understanding much of what Trump does now is to know what he did, as a developer. His past achievements will likely be reflected in his future.
Critics reading this will howl that some of his past projects failed. They did. A mighty small percentage of them. Better to look at what he did in their wake.
From Tom…as in Morgan.
Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home in upstate New York. You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com. You can read more of his writing at tomasinmorgan.com
