5 Ways to Trump Your Career

5 Ways to Trump Your CareerLove him or hate him, Donald Trump is not going away anytime soon. While there are plenty of what NOT to do tips we can take from his long and controversial career, theres no disputing the fact that his billions in the bank came from somewhere. And although Trump is a pretty unique phenomenon (no matter what you do to your hair to try to emulate his signature do), there are definitely some takeaways that we can apply to our own careers. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) 1. Get investors.Trump inherited money from the family real estate business, and used this to get started with his own investment career. Now, most of us dont have millionaire parents (at least not before this weeks Powerball drawing), so were not working with that kind of startup capital. But these days we have a hr of great crowdsourcing tools, if you have a small business or an idea that you want to bring to life. Sites like gofundme.com give y ou the opportunity to bring investors into your professional life.2. Dont give up.Some choices will just not pan out, whether its a job you hate or your Atlantic City casino going belly-up. Trumps professional entities have gone through a number of bankruptcy proceedings over the years, yet here he still is. The most important idea to take from this is that theres always another opportunity. Learn from your losses and frustrations, and be ready to leave them behind and try again somewhere else.3. Realize everything comes down to the deals you make.Trump is synonymous with the phrase the art of the deal. Its debatable whether political deals are exactly the same as business deals, but a philosophy that Trump clearly takes to heart is one that states that you will never get ahead if you dont negotiate for yourself. That can apply to salary negotiations, working with your boss, or even managing relationships with your colleagues. Always look out for your own best interests.4. Try new t hings.How many billionaire businessmen can you remember hosting Saturday Night Live? When I welches a kid, Donald Trump was THE go-to businessman. In later years, he started to branch out more into the entertainment industrynot the most intuitive path for someone with a Wharton business degree. And after that ran its course (with endless seasons of Apprentices and Celebrity Apprentices running around New York trying to organize soft drink launch parties to curry favor with The Donald), he took another odd turnthis time into politics. Reinventing yourself is necessary to stay out of professional ruts.5. Find talented people around you.The whole premise of The Apprentice was taking a successful person (Trump) and finding new and fresh talent to bring into his professional orbit. Its a formula that has worked in a number of industries (every Gordon Ramsay cooking show seems to feature a chef-ship in one of his restaurants as a prize), and can work in the real world as well. No one, not even Trump, can manage an empire alone. The key is to find people around you who bring knowledge and skills that you might not have, to make sure youre performing your best. If youre a manager, that might mean hiring diverse talent. If youre not a manager, that might mean bonding with a variety of different coworkers, or finding a diverse sortiment of people to add to your network.If you like what The Donald has to say, you are likely already paging through your copy of The Art of the Deal for the third or fourth time. But even if you cant imagine yourself ever voting for him on Election Day, its not the worst thing to stay open to the idea that there are things he can teach us about our own careers.