it’s being filmed or not. My business credentials and experience
came into the picture as the necessary background for creating a
show based on high-stake New York corporate business.
How does positive thinking fit into this Apprenticescenario?
First of all, I didn’t say no. I knew it was a risk, but I was positive
about what might happen. If I’d chosen to listen solely to the neg-
atives about the endeavor, such as “most new TV shows fail” or
“reality TV is on the way out” or “you’ll lose your credibility”
or “you’ll lose your grasp on your business empire” and about fifty
other negatives, I never would have given it a thought. But instead,
I chose a positive perspective. I asked myself the “what if ” ques-
tion. What if it was a success? What if I enjoyed it? What if it
proved to be enlightening? What if it brought The Trump Organ-
ization the recognition it deserved? What if the jobs provided
to the winners proved to be valuable stepping stones to deserv-
ing individuals? I had a long list of positives to go along with the
negatives.
I’m a pragmatic positive thinker. When I hear people saying
that anything you want to do is possible, that seems childish or at
least uninformed to me. Some things are not going to happen. For
example, if I suddenly decided tomorrow that I wanted to win a
gold medal at the Olympics as a swimmer, and I was sure I could
because I was so positive about it, well, I think I’d have to have
some mental checks. It’s not going to happen, no matter how hard
I train. Or if I decided I was going to give Tiger Woods a run for
his money as a golfer, starting tomorrow, I think I’d have to worry
about being a little irrational. Be positive, but be realistic.
Back to the persistence issue. You have to be positive every sin-
gle day.You have to put a daily effort into it, because believe me,
no one else is going to help you with this. Most people think their
lives will be easier if they have less competition.The fact that you
believe in yourself could get in their way. Good. Get in their way!
DONALD J. TRUMP