Member-only story
How do some “idiots” become so successful?
NOTE: this is a follow up to this article.
Donald Trump: an un-rare example
Love him or hate him, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Donald Trump has achieved more than most.
As discussed in the first part, if success is defined as the ability to control scarce resources that improve one’s impact-making potential, then Trump has been quite successful — even after accounting for his silver spoon.
After all, he managed to capture one of the scarcest resources around — the Presidency of the United States.
His “success” may even seem incongruous to many who doubt his intellectual capabilities. But he’s not as much of an exception as one might think.
There are many people among those who have achieved out-sized “success” — CEOs, investors, politicians, financial tycoons — whose intellectual capabilities and decision-making are in line with Donald Trump.
I.e., they may be wrong more often than even the average person. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re also more “successful” than the average person.
In many ways, Donald Trump is the perfect example of the fact that you don’t need to be correct to be successful. While being right sounds like it would be the most…
