With Đỗ Năm Trăm visiting Vietnam, revisiting an article from 3 years ago about Trump's presidential campaign.
Well, usually the way we speak about loving or hating someone reveals more about ourselves than about that person.
For me too, the future does not matter; in the present, I do not hide that after Lincoln, Trump is my “favorite” president.
People who are overly fond of the somewhat fake and hollow ingratiation of political figures such as… Justin Trudeau (Canada’s prime minister), for example, probably will not like Trump.
Personally, I like him. Throughout 2018, I kept repeating to people who liked to “make a statue” of me: “I am not a good person.” (I restrained myself from adding, “Good people are very ‘dangerous.’”) I simply want to live my life and do what I want for myself and others, rather than be responsible for the “statue” of expectations you have carved of me. Besides, in 2019 I even want to be a “bad person.” I do not care about preserving what I have, because I have had it for a while and that is enough. I want to reinvent myself whenever I wish.
“Bad President” Donald Trump, America's CEO, is, judged by results and KPIs, one of its most successful presidents: the lowest unemployment, high economic growth, a soaring stock market… Hatred of Trump is partly due to media distortion, but he is one of the few presidents unafraid of the media and willing to strike back at dirty media.
Bad, yet able to do much for life. Better than those who keep trying and failing to be good while spending all day speaking ill of others.
9.11.2016
This man started businesses and earned more than USD 2 billion. Then he went bankrupt repeatedly (4 times), sometimes losing all his money and accumulating huge debts. In a cerin some way, then he was even worse off than a beggar! A beggar merely has no money (Zero), whereas this man not only had none but also had an enormous debt to repay (Negative money). What would you do in such a desperate situation? Look for pesticide or rat poison?
Start over and rebuild a great enterprise (Great Again), even greater than before. Your current money does not define you. Who you are, how you think and what you can do define the financial balance you can earn. If he is a billion-dollar man, however often he falls into the mud, he will earn billions again. Indeed, after being “worse off than a beggar,” he built wealth 3 or 4 times his previous billion-dollar peak.
That “unlikable” fellow is Donald Trump, born on 14.06, one of the famous Geminis.
Sharp in business, seasoned in management, and experienced in PR, the Trump brand is very distinctive. A controversial brand. Vietnamese people worry that putting Trump in power is like elevating a madman, an American Hitler, another version of the leader of the Philippines.
Whether it is good or bad, only time will tell.
Personally, however, I believe American politics, like that of other advanced countries (they are still the leading nation), is based more on Administration than Rule. To understand administration, look at how a joint-stock company has the Duty and Responsibility to operate effectively to Serve customers, balancing full Satisfaction of the Customer – Employee – Shareholder triangle's needs. To understand Rule, look at certain countries where people paid with citizens' taxes are called “Mandarins,” and “Mandarins” naturally behave as “superiors,” “dispensing favors” to the “People” (not all of them). That is the difference between Administration and Rule!
If America were a business, the president would be its CEO. This business is so well standardized that during its founding, the technocrats—the Founders of America—created systems, codes of conduct, and core values to which ‘not even one word can be added or removed.’ Their greatness lies in uniting and ensuring the interests and development of a nation that is merely a ‘United States,’ a disparate collection of people. These systems were written once and have endured and positively functioned for hundreds of years, rather than following a ‘fix it wherever it breaks’ approach. America has a proper operating system (System Based), rather than being governed solely by one leader’s will, as though that leader were a God, Saint, Sovereign, or Dictator. It is not a matter of each successor wanting to ‘leave a mark’ distinct from their predecessor. On the surface, things may seem different, but deep within are established gears and a clear course—the course of all America!
During his election campaign, Mr. Trump did Positioning very well. He had an effective organization and, importantly, created a genuine Difference from his competitors, thereby winning a target share of supporters large enough to secure victory. An excellent strategy! If this was a madman, perhaps he was a genius madman! Wait a moment: do you think a clown, a fool or a lunatic could accomplish all of this? Even before the final election, I told my friends that we were greatly underestimating Trump, that Vietnamese people were being led by the media machine and held a somewhat shortsighted view of him. And I believed Trump would win.
So whether Trump is a madman or not, America still operates through a system. During an election campaign, one needs a ‘strategy’ to stand out, but once governing, one may not behave so wildly. Of course, every system has loopholes, and every game has developments and strings pulled behind the scenes. But whether Trump or Clinton wins, America will not change much immediately, because it was designed that way from the start.
Warren Buffet once said to buy shares in companies whose systems are so excellent that even an idiot could run them, because someday an idiot will! But anyone who has managed to preserve wealth is no idiot, folks :- )
America, to use Jim Collins’s wording, is ‘buit to last’ (at least for a few hundred years; according to ‘impermanence,’ one of the universal laws Buddhism discovered and taught, nothing in this world can last forever). Systems are created by people, after all. But afterward, those systems themselves shape people. It is a parallel and intertwined evolution!
As someone whose work involves textiles, I am a little disappointed that the TPP may not pass. But whether it does or not, I must control my own destiny! With Trump in power, the world will become more interesting. My condolences for Clinton's 2 missed chances. This is not about “women's rights” or “gender equality”—my companies have many Women Leaders. It is about Americans being tired of the falsely kind and pleasant behavior of politicians who have been financiers' puppets for years: too Nice, too Kind, too Smooth, yet not real. I was disappointed by Clinton's final message, “Love trumps Hate.” It is beautiful and good, but belongs as a novel's title, or the message of a less advanced public speaker addressing a crowd. From a US president, people need more than that hollow, tiresome, cinematic phrase. In Situation Leadership, Trump was ahead of Clinton; the madman had a clear advantage over the “male version of Bill Clinton.” The person President Obama repeatedly “mocked,” even before that person intended to run for president, will now replace him!
America has chosen its own president. Its people have chosen their own destiny. This act of the drama closes for now. In America, as in Vietnam, people always have a Government Worthy of… Themselves.
