to be done toward the end of his life, so he wasn’t a novice at writ-
ing music at that point. That’s just how he worked—he was a per-
fectionist who wouldn’t settle for less than his best. He didn’t need
to impress anyone—except himself. That’s a good way to be,
whether you’re a businessperson or a musician.
Compete with yourself to be the best you can be.
That’s the mindset of entrepreneurs—they know that com-
peting with others might possibly lower their own standards. That
may sound tough, but it’s the truth. You have to have your own vi-
sion and stick with it. Picasso definitely had his own way of see-
ing things that certainly worked to his advantage, artistically and
financially. Don’t be afraid of being unique. It’s like being afraid of
your best self.
Back to Picasso’s statement about art being a lie. One take on
that is that the arts very often make the difficult look effortless.
How hard is it to put paint on a canvas? Easy if you don’t know
what you’re doing. A little more complex if you do know what
you’re doing. In my first book, The Art of the Deal,I chose the title
for those very reasons. Anyone in business knows that negotiating
and making deals requires a lot of background work. People don’t
see me doing that part, but it doesn’t mean I don’t do it. For ex-
ample, when people see the beautiful marble in Trump Tower, they
see that it looks fantastic, but they usually have no idea what I went
through personally to achieve the end result. No one cares about
the blood, sweat, and tears that art or beauty can require. It’s the
end result that matters.
Art is also representational. In other words, it’s not life, but it’s
about life. It can point to truths that we might not notice in our
busy daily lives. It gives us a reflection. When I do a deal, it’s a re-
flection of my astuteness as a businessman. I strive for a compre-
hensive approach, much as an artist would. No matter what your
field is, you can learn a lot by emulating that approach as much
as possible.
DONALD J. TRUMP