There are a thousand experts on any given day tearing him apart. Millions are marching on the streets against him. He's been accused of everything from lying to groping. Women hate him. Minorities hate him. He has hair that has probably been implanted from the Himalayan Yeti. His face has stranger expressions than the average alien. He has a mouth that's like an electric saw out of control. He is so suspicious of internet hackers that he plans on sending important messages by carrier pigeons. He's laughed at, ridiculed and the subject of a million memes.
But there's just one problem.
He is also the President of the United States.
So you've got to ask yourself one question. If he has pulled off such an outrageous victory against all odds what is it that the world of start ups can learn from him. After all the chances of failure of any start up is 95% in the first year, so you need to pull off a pretty outrageous victory here too.
And as for his outrageous ideas. Some of the world's most blockbuster sites are based on outrageous propositions. You make money by giving free mail to the entire planet - Gmail. Everyone wants to share everything with everyone - Facebook. A picture is not just a thousand words - it's a million subscribers - Instagram. Video will rule the world - You Tube!
Love him. Hate him. Admire him. Despise him. Let's see what we can learn from the 45th President of The United States of America Mr Donald John Trump.
Figure out the weak point of who you're up against. Everyone felt that Hillary was better than Trump but was she too much better? Generally it is felt that Americans vote for a President they feel they can sit down and have a glass of beer with. So Trump made it a point to 'bond' with his voters. While Hillary got cast as a prissy superior personality.
It's ok if you say the same thing again and again as long as it's the right thing. Trump said the exact same thing from his first speech to his inauguration speech. 'The Washington gang was a clique robbing from the poor". "America needed to be given back to the Americans". And a few related statements. Again and again. While Hillary covered a wide range of 120 topics Trump had just 6 things to say. And those 6 got him elected!
Be out of your mind but not out of their minds. I'm going to build a wall. I'm going to build a wall. I'm going to bomb the ISIS. Trump made one seemingly absurd statement after another. Many thought that he was out of his mind but the clever thing was that he was never out of their minds. He stayed top of mind and top of headlines throughout.
Press the right buttons and press them hard. Now this gets slightly complicated. It's something called the 'affect heuristic' where the brain takes a shortcut and makes an emotional decision out of anger or fear rather than logic. So when Trump goes on and on about 'bad hombres' and 'scary terrorists' and ''doom and gloom' that needs to be stopped, many people who press the 'Trump button' while voting did it because of the 'heuristic affect.'
Believe that you can. In the end this was probably the most important factor. The Republicans believed he couldn't win. The experts believed he couldn't win. Most of the civilized world believed that he couldn't win. But he believed he could. And he did.
Probably the most important lesson. If self believe can make an outsider the president of the most powerful country on earth, think of what it could do for your start up?
Columnist
The author is a legendary ad man who has won over a 100 awards in his career. He is also an author, a novelist a playwright and song writer. Now he has founded the unusual and powerful website adytude.com which helps power other websites, brands and businesses ahead
