Wayne Allyn Root has been called the Trump of Las Vegas. He is a successful businessman, talk show host, reality TV producer, and relentless showman and self-promotor. He was even the Libertarian Party’s candidate for Vice President in 2008. The parallels between his career and Trump’s are very real, albeit his life and career have been on a smaller scale than the President’s.

It’s little wonder that Root would be the one who would write a book about Trump and his secrets of success. Root is a self-professed student of Trump, a man who has spent a good deal of time studying the 45th President and his methods. Trump is the man the Root has modelled much of his own behaviour and strategy on, and it has paid off handsomely for the Vegas-based entrepreneur.

Trump Rules is a brilliant book, in that it takes the time to explain exactly why Trump has been such a huge success. It’s not really a political book, but a business self-help book, one designed to give you a blueprint of how to build a business, stand up to your critics, and always come out on top.

Root begins the book by sharing his own story, and how he and President Trump are so similar. He talks about the Trump phenomenon during the Republican Presidential primaries in 2015 and 2016, where he took on a deep field of 16 other politicians and defeated them, and then went on to defeat Hillary Clinton, who until that point had been the best-known and best-funded Presidential candidate in history.

He goes on to explain why Trump won the Presidency in the first place. He was real and authentic, a breath of fresh air compared to the typical politicians from both parties. He pointed out real problems that were affecting the American people, such as trade deals that had led to massive job losses, unchecked illegal immigration that was cynically designed to help the “progressive” movement import enough votes to win at the ballot box and create a permanent electoral majority, ISIS and other US adversaries running amok and causing devastation in their wake, and Wall Street cronyism that was destroying the economy for every day working people, while allowing the elites to line their pockets.

Root reproduces a number of columns he wrote for various mainstream conservative media in 2015 and 2016, in which he outlined the Trump phenomenon and predicted its success at the ballot box. He then goes on to explain why studying Trump and his methods are worthwhile for me as the reader of this book, if I, too, am interested in victory and in winning at business and life.

Here are the 10 Trump Rules, as identified by Wayne:

#1 : Always #WINNING

#2 Fail Your Way To The Top

#3 Screw The Critics

#4 The EGO Rules

#5 Always Pitching, Never Bitching

#6 It’s All About The Story

#7 Celebrity

#8 Everybody Needs A Brand

#9 The Power Of Relentless

#10 Chutzpah (AKA, Becoming More Jewish)

The first rule is one that really makes sense. Winners have high standards. They obsess about winning, and they don’t tolerate losing. Does that mean they never lose? No. But they put all their focus on winning, and create a mentality of victory. Losers think about why they can’t win, winners think about how they can win. Whether it’s Donald Trump, Wayne Allyn Root, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Elon Musk, or Steve Jobs, winners focus on victory, and set standards that only tolerate winning.

The second rule is one I learned a long time ago, from my friend Olympic Champion Mark McKoy. He failed his way to an Olympic Gold Medal. It took him 4 Olympics to finally win his Gold Medal. And Trump is the same. He just lost the Presidency in a very controversial election, and he seems to be poised to turn that loss into a huge win. He’s like Elon Musk; I wouldn’t bet against him. Even when he loses, he finds a way to learn from it and come back bigger and stronger. And that’s Root’s point in this chapter. He shares the stories of many successful people in various fields who have failed, and then come back from those failures to win big. The examples he uses include Donald Trump, Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, Colonel Sanders, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Abe Lincoln, Jack Bogel, Walt Disney, and Winston Churchill.

As Root himself puts it, relentlessly overcoming failure is one of the essential rules for success. Success is like baseball. If you’re a .300 hitter in baseball, you’re going to be in the Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown, and you’ll make a boatload of money. In business, 3 successes and 7 failures equals the magical life of your dreams! Let’s go! Fail your way to the top!!

The third rule is screw the critics! Donald Trump is relentlessly focused on winning, and any winner has lots of haters. Haters gonna hate! Trump not only doesn’t let them slow him down, he uses their hate as an inspiration to spur him on to greater heights. He’s not the only one. The legendary Michael Jordan, whom I consider the 2nd greatest basketball player of all time, used the trash talking that his opponents did against him to spur himself on to legendary performances, time and time again.  In fact, his trainer and mindset coach, Tim Grover, says that Michael sometimes needed the ‘hate’ of critics so badly, that he would make it up even when no one was criticizing him! He would take someone bumping into him on the court and make it mean that he was being disrespected, and then use that as fuel to go have a legendary game.

Root says that if you’re not attracting critics, you’re doing something wrong! Most critics criticize out of bitterness or envy. They are like crabs in a bucket, if they see you trying to climb out, they will pull you back in. The trick is to outrun their pathetic grasp.

Root ends this chapter by saying Screw The Critics, because a) critics are idiots, b) critics are bitter and jealous, c) critics want you to fail, and that’s wishful thinking on their part, and d) critics are usually dead wrong about everything, and they’re only critics because they aren’t able to actually do anything.

The fourth rule is to understand and live by the EGO rules.  Let’s face it, what’s wrong with having an ego? A healthy ego is absolutely vital for success. Without it, you can’t win. There is such a thing as too much ego, but that’s really not most people’s problem. Their problem is that they don’t believe in themselves enough. Root identifies 5 Trump EGO rules, that he says you must master in order to achieve the success you seek.

Trump EGO Rule #1: If It’s To be, It’s Up To Me. Young, impressionable people are taught that ego is bad, Balderdash. There is not ONE major success story who lacks an ego. They all believe in themselves, and have loads of ego. Here’s a direct quote from the book “If you don’t spend your life promoting and selling your talents, no one will notice” you. Little kids get this instinctively. They are always saying “Mommy, daddy look at me! Look at me!” They believe in themselves, and they want to be successful, and they want you to know it. There’s a lot we can all learn from kids, and having a Trump-sized ego, as a prerequisite for winning, is one of them. You and only you are in control of your destiny. Your success, or lack thereof, is all up to you. That’s the key takeaway from this rule.

Trump EGO Rule #2: Self-promotion. There is nothing wrong with self-promotion. If you can’t or won’t sell yourself, nobody else will. And nobody else can do it as well as you. Get over it! The greatest self-promoters in history are among the greatest successes. PT Barnum. Mother Theresa. Donald Trump. Mohammad Ali. Wayne Allyn Root. These are all shameless self-promoters who were able to cut through the clutter by selling themselves. That’s a big part of their ability to attract success.

Trump EGO Rule #3: Bragging. The great Mohammad Ali once said “It ain’t bragging if you can back it up.” Mothers everywhere are probably appalled by this, but there is no question that it works. Bragging sets the bar high. It forces you to work harder to make your vision happen. Bragging also is akin to positive thinking. It has you see, hear and feel that which you are intending to manifest, and that is how the subconscious works to turn it into reality. Trump and his family grew up attending Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s church, and the originator of the positive thinking movement would have been so proud of his one-time congregationalist.

Trump EGO Rule #4: Cojones. You gotta have big balls if you want to succeed. Trump has always had big balls. He challenged the Republican establishment and beat them to win his party’s nomination. He challenged Hillary and the DC establishment and beat them to win the Presidency.

In his book, Root compares this to Joshua Chamberlain’s actions on Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg. Chamberlain, a college professor from Maine with no prior military experience, was tasked with defending that hill. Surrounded by a much larger force, and out of ammunition, Chamberlain ordered his men to fix bayonets and charge. His men took heart from their leader’s boldness, and their spirits rose as they followed him into battle. The Confederates were taken off-guard, and their morale collapsed. They broke and ran, and many surrendered to the Yankee force. It is no exaggeration to say that Chamberlain turned the tide of battle that day, and that was the battle that turned the tide of the war against the South.

Show cojones. Go for it. Charge in. That’s how you win!

Trump EGO Rule #5: Reinvention. Donald Trump has reinvented himself and his career many times. He started off in real estate and casinos. Then he licensed his brand to others. Then he started a reality TV show. And finally, he became the President of the United States. This is a powerful rule. I, too, have reinvented myself numerous times, going from a junior telecom exec, to a financial analyst, to a salesperson, to a sales director, to a personal trainer, and finally to an author, podcast host, and motivational and success guru. And I’m just getting started!

The fifth rule is always pitching, never bitching! Root talks about how Trump is always pitching, and never complaining. He did it super successfully as a billionaire real estate developer, getting people to buy-in to his vision for his amazing properties. Root said that he absorbed this lesson completely. He is always pitching; his companies, his talents, his products and services, from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to bed. It’s a very powerful rule. Root is a big believer in a full pipeline, which is one of the things he says he learned from Trump. If he has 10 deals on the go, he will work to get another 10 going. The more opportunities you are pitching, the more likely it is that one of them will be a home run.

Root says that he is constantly following up with people he wants to do business with: he’s emailing, texting, calling, or meeting them for lunch or dinner to talk business. He keeps pitching. Even when he gets a no, he treats that as a maybe!

Trump rule number 6 is that it’s all about the story.  According to Root, Donald Trump is the greatest storyteller in history! Storytelling is how human beings relate to and learn form each other. Donald Miller created a whole business out of pitching with story, called StoryBrand. It really put him on the map as a success guru. Steve Jobs built Apple’s success with the power of story. Apple went from being a struggling company in the mid-to-late nineties to the most valuable company in history on the strength of Jobs’s ability to tell powerful stories. Donald Trump rode the power of storytelling to a multibillion-dollar fortune and the Presidency of the United States. Facts tell, but stories always sell, says Root, and he is right.

The best politicians have always been the best storytellers; Lincoln, both Roosevelts, JFK, Reagan, Clinton and now Trump. They know that the audience will never remember all the facts, but they will remember an emotionally charged story and how it made them feel. Politics, like business, is all about selling. And selling is at its core about storytelling.

The seventh Trump rule is that celebrity sells. That’s why top brands in the world are willing to pay celebrities lots of money to endorse their products. That’s why PR firms are paid gobs of money to put together SWAG bags of free stuff from the best brands in the world at awards shows and give them to the celebrities attending, in hope that they will like and use the product and transfer their celebrity magic to their followers, who will then buy said product that their favourite celebrity is using. As Root puts it, celebrity can literally make or break any brand.

Trump has always understood this. That’s why he has always been photographed with top celebrities his whole career. That’s why he launched Celebrity Apprentice, which became one of the biggest hits in TV history. Trump has used his celebrity status to get tons of earned free media. It helped him sell his projects and products, and it helped him win the Presidency over Hillary Clinton, despite being outspent 2 to 1. The free media he got helped him overcome her cash advantage.

Trump rule number 8 its that everybody needs their own brand. Let’s face it, if you are in business, you gotta have a brand. In fact, you have a brand, it just may not be the one you want. Root says that Trump is one of greatest branding geniuses of all time, and he is right. That’s how he built his real estate empire. The Trump brand is arguably the most famous real estate brand in history. He followed the 4 Rules of Branding:

1. KISS (Keep it simple, stupid)
2. Make sure it’s memorable
3. People have to hear it and instantly say “WOW! I want that!”
4. Attach it to celebrity

And he understands how to brand his opponents. Who could forget Low Energy Jeb, Little  Marco, Crazy Bernie, and Crooked Hillary? His critics called these names juvenile, but they stuck in the minds of voters, and helped him sink their chances. How? There was a germ of truth in each moniker, and that’s what made it stick. Another key to branding is repetition, and Trump would say Crooked Hillary every chance he got, during interviews, in his tweets, and at campaign rallies. Everybody heard it, and everybody bought it.

Root learned well at the feet of the master. He’s not Wayne Allyn Root, he’s a brand. On his podcast and radio and TV shows, he’s WAR. At his business speeches, he calls himself an SOB — Son Of A Butcher. It’s simple, and easy to remember, and after his speeches, his fans would come up to him and say “I want a photo with my favourite SOB!”

Rule number nine is the power of relentless. Root actually wrote a book by this title in 2015, and it was endorsed by none other than Donald J Trump. Trump personifies being relentless. He is like a pitbull with a bone in his mouth. He’s a bull in a china shop. He never gives up. He never lets go, and that’s why in the end, he usually wins.

Even in the very controversial 2020 election, where Biden performed worse than Hillary in all but 6 battleground states, where he somehow, miraculously, outperformed her and snatched the Presidency away from Trump, he did not back down. He kept fighting, he kept going, he exhausted every legal means before him.

And he promised that he will be back. I wouldn’t bet against him. There are two people in this world that I will always bet on, myself, and Donald Trump.

And maybe, Elon Musk.

Root says that if you really want to win big in this life, become relentless and unstoppable. Refuse to give up, no matter what happens.That mindset alone will change your life for the better.

Trump rule number 10 is to have chutzpah, otherwise known as become more Jewish! Root was born Jewish, and he makes a powerful point, namely, that the Jewish people are by far “the most successful group and race of people to ever come to America”. Donald Trump grew up in Queens, New York, amongst Jewish real estate developers, and he studied what made them so successful. The Trump Rules are in many ways the Jewish Rules for Success.

Root calls the Jews The Relentless Tribe. Why? Because they are always in motion! For example, look at the unbelievable success of the the state of Israel. It has the 3rd highest entrepreneurship rate in the world, and the highest rate for women and people over 55. It has the most startups per capita in the world, and the highest ratio of university degrees, computers, and Nobel Prizes in the world. That’s insane!

Here are the 9 Jewish Rules for Success:

1. Be relentless to survive
2. It’s good to have a chip on your shoulder
3. Stop complaining
4. Life is short, so take action now. Take aggressive action, right now.
5. Turn lemons into lemonade
6. Take control of your life. Government officials don’t care about you. They care about themselves. Take charge of your destiny?
7. Own a business. Learn how to sell. Proudly sell.The wealthiest people in society are business owners and salesmen.
8. Be fearless. Take on your financial and business challenges.
9. Be a risk-taker. It’s the only way to win!!

The last point about chutzpah is you gotta have the audacity to dream big and expect to win. That’s what Donald Trump has always done, and that’s why he is one of the biggest successes of all time.

This is a fantastic book! I love it! It’s the best Trump book out there, and you should buy it and profit from it. But you shouldn’t just buy it for yourself! You need to buy 10 copies and give one to every person you care about, and encourage them to read it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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