I'v grown to like him...

Mr. Donald J. Trump


I first read his book Think Big and Kick Ass.

I liked it though I thought he was too aggressive, sometimes unnecessarily.
I especially did not like a story on a certain woman he had hired who rose to senior position in his organization. Unfortunately he got into trouble and needed her help in contacting one of her friends who would help in sorting the problem but she refused. He then fired her and made her life miserable wherever she went.

I thought to myself, 'hey she has a choice to help you or not. She rose in position in your company because she was good at what she did not because you did her a favor by hiring her.' His view (in my view) was she was disloyal yet had he not found her and hired her she would not have amounted to much.
Today my view has modified, I agree she was disloyal and had his companies gone down, she would have gone down as well. However, I still hold that she did not owe him more than loyalty. She had worked her way up but he took too much credit for her achievements by messing her up.

In the same book, I liked the story of man who he had generally treated well when he came into his hotel since they were in the same industry (real estate), but this guy one day woke up and sued Mr.Trump for no good reason. Mr.Trump did not like him much thereafter and treated him badly whenever he went to the hotel, gave him the worst table and all but the guy never stopped going to the hotel and this did not please Mr.Trump much.
In my view this guy made clear his statement, 'we do not owe each other anything'. He probably realised that he shall someday have to pay for the good treatment he had been receiving and at that time he will not have a choice to pay or not.

I strongly think that all I owe anyone is respect, of their views, their opinions, their time, their property, their religion, anything that is truly theirs, the rest is my/your choice to give or not.

Just recently, I started watching The Apprentice from the first season, there has been so much talk about it over the years and often when I flow with the current, I end up disappointed as I prefer forming my own opinions.

The participants are ok (some great, some not so) but whoever has stood out is Mr. Trump himself.

He works from an informed point of view, he will let the participants fight in the boardroom, listen to opinion from his right hand 'men' but the verdict he delivers is his opinion. I like how he reasons, how he thinks.
So far, only one time did it not work this way, he had to hire a guy whom he had a few doubts about but it was the final level of the game and the general rules were stronger than opinion at this point.

I decided to google him up,he is larger than life! He is not limited by thought,many times our thoughts are along what we have been exposed to that's seemingly possible. His words are often leaning towards, 'bigger, better, larger than has ever been seen in the whole world, he's open to beyond what has ever been seen.That is limitless!

Someone may dismiss me as easily impressed since I come from a developing country and have not seen anything yet. That may be true to some extent :).

I hope to reach mind blowing levels in what I do and become, but am not blind to the fact that after I reach there, Mr.Trump reaches there, it shall no longer be 'mind blowing' and 'than has ever been seen' and someone else will conquer it but what a sense of accomplishment!

Excellence

Excellent is not the opposite of bad. It takes lots of effort to be excellent as not bad,average and good are normally acceptable.

We often seek excellence in tough and ultimate points such as the final examinations, interviews, presentations, in court etc but rarely in normal progress.
Sometimes if you perform excellently in a normal progress activity, it appears as a waste of energy and time... "what for? who needs it?"!
A supervisor who expects excellence in his department is often considered, 'too demanding, too rigid, and hard to please' On the other hand an employee who delivers excellently will be often regarded as 'missgoodytwoshoes, push over, or boss's pet'

We fail repeatedly to make excellence a habit.

In my view, excellence has a bad side to it when performing tasks that I do not necessarily like or enjoy. When I deliver excellently in these tasks, everyone assumes am good at these tasks and high chances are next time I will be picked to perform the same tasks. Once I had to put together an annual report for an organisation, I did not enjoy the task and thought the final product could have been better with professional advice. When I explained that it could have been better, it was taken to be modesty or too hard on myself.

Excellence has also not been too kind to many in their careers. When a person delivers excellently on a role far beneath their capabilities, the recipients tend to hold the person, selfishly I think, especially if more challenging positions are outside their organisation. This is a lose lose situation as one will remain a Pawn and not exploit the Queen potential and the other who's plays a potential Queen on a Pawns position will leave the King unprotected.

At the end of the day, excellence wins by a landslide. It generates value even when it is on 'passive' state. When small not so meaningful tasks are delivered excellently, the bar is raised, we now have a new level of excellence. If a score of 5/5 was excellent we can now move 10/10 as the new point and we can move the point all the way to the sky.

It is not too late for me, for you, for all of us to seek excellence!