Success and Confidence: The Trump Effect

With election activity heating up in the USA, and the prominent Donald Trump attracting a lot of media attention as well as leading positions in the polls it is interesting to think about what a crazy world we live in that someone like him has accumulated so much wealth and power.  It begs the question, why is he a billionaire and not me?

The one thing that stands out about Donald Trump’s character which likely has much to do with his success is the unflappable confidence he has in his own opinions.  It takes a certain type of person to be able to double down from a personal debt of $900M and get back to billionaire status.  It says something about the amount of risk he’s willing to take on, as well as the amount of assets he has been able to leverage.

His confidence is further evidenced by the way he talks about crazy ideas like building a wall on the Mexican border – with absolute conviction.

Confidence is a trait that on it’s own convinces us of an underlying intelligence even when it doesn’t exist.

When you need to get buy-in from others, confidence is an important part of gaining support.  It’s no doubt that Trump’s confidence allowed him to negotiate tremendous deals that allowed him to build his empire.