Can Trump Teach Us Anything?

Yes, as terrifying a question as that is, El Donald is both the US president and a billionaire businessman. So, we look to him to see if any of his professional play can help you get ahead seriously.

- David Halliday

FORGET GOALS; FORM HABITS

Shatter well-worn professional wisdom about goal-setting to achieve increased levels of daily productivity and success

Each morning Donald Trump – multibillionaire businessman, reality TV star and now leader of the free world – wakes up at 6am and is presented with a pile of articles about himself carefully cut out from the day’s newspapers by his assistant.

It’s a habit he’s practised for decades, in part to help keep abreast of what the world is saying about him and, according to his biographer Professor Michael D’Antonio, to provide an early morning ego boost.

“In one way it’s a strange routine, but it gets him going and keeps him sustained,” D’Antonio says.

Whatever you think of the man himself – and in this case GQ’s opting out of that debate – forming habits, however unusual, rather than simply meeting one-off goals, is a trait of many a successful man.

Since school it’s always been about setting and meeting targets. Think about where you want to be and what you want to achieve – list those goals, break them down, then, one day, enjoy the fact that this hard work led to a backyard pool with a swim-up bar.

If only it were that simple. That said, it mightn’t be the best way to achieve desired levels of professional success.

This rather strong play against ingrained, goal-led convention is central to the work of Jay Papasan, a business executive and co-author of The New York Times bestseller The One Thing.

Papasan believes that the key to success is to build better habits.