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Business Rule #14:
Perception Counts
December 17, 2004
(PAGE 4 of 6)
But anyone who’s hoping to gain insight into Trump’s business wizardry by tuning into The Apprentice needs a wakeup call. Watching a group of beautiful well-clad yuppies trying to hawk lemonade on Wall Street and then tear into each other in an artificially constructed “boardroom” is all about entertainment, not education. Even the pointed “You’re fired,” Trump admits is pure artifice.
For the true education, you should have come here to The Apprentice Rules. We’ve dissected every angle of the show and pointed out things that many of the uninitiated missed. But the very artifice of it all is what makes Trump’s ongoing success such a marvel and why he continues to be my personal inspiration. It’s all constructed on a thin foundation of fantasy that his growing fan base continues to buy into, blithely ignoring all evidence to the contrary. We’re told his casinos are bankrupt, but do we listen? No. On our TV, he’s still the cock of the walk, traveling everywhere by private helicopter and limousine, living in lavish luxury, and engaged to an exotic Eastern European beauty. That’s why in the end analysis, it really doesn’t really if Trump is truly the business world’s answer to The Great and Powerful Oz. All that matters is that he believes it and that he will work tirelessly, like the true PR machine he is, to make sure that we keep believing it as well.
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Here, here.
Even in the face of adversity, you have to keep your head up and hang in there. Everybody gets rejected. That’s a part of life. You don’t have the time to deal with rejection as a businessperson; you just have the time to get the job done. You have to keep on plugging. You have to go on to the next step. When your business is in trouble, you have to get back to work, make more calls, think more creatively—or accept failure. Jennifer Massey is probably better off than she has ever been in her entire life, right now, after losing on The Apprentice. Can you imagine the job offers that must be rolling in? She, undoubtedly, will be held in higher regard at her law firm because now, when she’s on a case, it instantly becomes “high profile.” She may have lost, but she’s now a star.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the power of perception.
Great businesspeople must rely on four key qualities: an earnest enthusiasm; an understanding of the people with whom they are dealing; a good knowledge of their products or services; and most importantly, perception.
Perception is about how you dress, how you walk and how you talk. I hate those people who spout, “I’m not going to change for anyone; this is how I am, and that’s how it’s going to be.” Whom are they fooling? People change when they’re in different social milieus; they have a work persona and they have a home persona. So when people say that they’re not going to change for anyone at work, it doesn’t fly with me. You have a perception of yourself and, whether you realize it or not, that’s what you project to those around you.
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But anyone who’s hoping to gain insight into Trump’s business wizardry by tuning into The Apprentice needs a wakeup call.
