16. How Donald Trump teaches Business 101
In the first episode of The Apprentice, Trump separated the participants into two teams: a girls team and a boys team.
He gave each team $200, and told them to set up a lemonade stand on a street in New York and make money.
The girls team won by generating revenues of $800 (400% return on investment). The boys team only generated $400 (200% return on investment).
I believe the first lesson from billionaire Donald Trump is that you've got to understand and be able to go through a complete business cycle. You've got to go from marketing (attracting busy pedestrians to stop at your lemonade stand), to selling (interacting one on one with each potential client and persuade him/her to buy a lemonade), to production (actually producing the lemonade and collecting the money).
Notice that Trump didn't ask them to write a business plan!
In other words, if you're afraid of people, if you're afraid of selling, you should reconsider your idea of going into business.
Like the saying goes, "Show me a guy who's afraid of rejection, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time."
In the end, I think that lemonade exercise was brilliant.
In subsequent episodes, Trump tested the "apprentices" on various other business models, focusing on event management, project management, etc.
He gave each team $200, and told them to set up a lemonade stand on a street in New York and make money.
The girls team won by generating revenues of $800 (400% return on investment). The boys team only generated $400 (200% return on investment).
I believe the first lesson from billionaire Donald Trump is that you've got to understand and be able to go through a complete business cycle. You've got to go from marketing (attracting busy pedestrians to stop at your lemonade stand), to selling (interacting one on one with each potential client and persuade him/her to buy a lemonade), to production (actually producing the lemonade and collecting the money).
Notice that Trump didn't ask them to write a business plan!
In other words, if you're afraid of people, if you're afraid of selling, you should reconsider your idea of going into business.
Like the saying goes, "Show me a guy who's afraid of rejection, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time."
In the end, I think that lemonade exercise was brilliant.
In subsequent episodes, Trump tested the "apprentices" on various other business models, focusing on event management, project management, etc.
posted by Super Peter at 1:32 PM
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