Go for it!
You read it right. President elect Donald Trump broke the glass ceiling. Shattered it. An entrepreneur without political experience inspired the nation and won the greatest contest in the land. You may agree or disagree with his politics, however, please take a moment and appreciate this amazing feat that was just achieved.
What this proves is that anything is possible. You may be down on your luck, you may be praying to catch a break or maybe you just need a little bit of a push. This is it. Donald Trump shattered the glass ceiling of the political class and proved, that a kid from Queens can bootstrap his way to the White House. If someone can bootstrap his or her way to the White House, you can bootstrap your way to achieve anything you want in life.
Yes, Trump had money to start with and self-funded his campaign. That was his resource. To learn from it, it is important to understand what resources you have and where you are shy resources, and see how you can partner with others.
Trump brought onto his team two of the best right wing media executives in the business, one from TV and one from the web. He also leaned on the RNC for a lot of his campaign infrastructure. He leveraged resources where he was weaker in order to grow stronger. You can do the same with your startup. Just understand what your strengths are and find your complements. Then GO!
“Trump had a severe disadvantage when starting out in politics. He won by doing what successful entrepreneurs do — he listened to his buyers, his backers, and tuned his message to scale the momentum of his movement. He found ways to market himself to people who had felt as though they had not been served by the political process, and he realized they could determine the election. This is still a lesson that can apply to entrepreneurs.” Says Frank Speiser, co-founder of Social Flow, one of the leading social media marketing technology companies.
What’s inspirational is to look at how he won the election. Again, you may have a view on him or his policies, but for the moment, let’s look at his strategy. President Trump won the election by bootstrapping it. He hustled. He leveraged every resource available, from surrogates to social media, to spread his message. He was relentless. He kept fighting. The GOP threw everything and everyone at him. He dodged every bullet. The Democrats did the same, to no avail. The entrepreneur never quits. The bootstrap hustle wins the day.
“After all is said and done, the true measure of a man is not his intelligence or how high he rises in this establishment. No, the true measure of a man is how quickly can he respond to the needs of others and how much of himself he can give. Trump never gives up, never loses and never surrenders. “ says Wharton alum, Trump fundraiser and financier Ziad K. Abdelnour.
An entrepreneurial mentality is one of the most powerful things you can possess. Best of all, everyone has it inside of them. You create it by believing in yourself and creating possibilities for success. Have you dreamed of starting your own business? Do it. Donald Trump winning the White House is a call to arms, not for violence but for entrepreneurship. Go for your dreams and they may come.
Trump hustled when no one thought it was possible for him to win. He kept hustling. He found an opening he took it. He then hustled more. He found another opening and took that too. He built a team of people that knew how to shape the conversation and tapped into every resource available. As an entrepreneur, the difference between success and failure often comes down to staying on your path when the establishment tries to take you down. If you’re trending towards success, the establishment in your industry may try to take you down. Take it as a complement, and as a call to action. Resolve wins.
An entrepreneurial mentality is at the heart of the American Dream. Make America Great Again by making yourself great and going for what you want, regardless of the odds, the obstacles or glass in your way. #DreamFWD
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