What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders

If you’re following anything going on in America right now, you can’t help but have noticed two unlikely presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.

Generally speaking, Bernie Sander’s following can’t stand Donald Trump, and Trump’s following doesn’t like Bernie Sanders.

In spite of how different Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders may seem, they have a lot more in common than they think they do, and in this video, I get into what entrepreneurs can learn from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

In case you’re reading this post or watching this video and you’re not from America, let me tell you how completely opposite these guys are.

You may have heard of. . .

Dog lovers vs. cat lovers

Yankees fans vs. the Red Sox fans

Droid users vs. iPhone users (obviously we know the greatest phone. . .)

And then you have Bernie vs. Trump

But these two have a lot more in common than you think they do, and entrepreneurs can learn a lot from them.

Who Will Vote for You?

The most important people in the life of an entrepreneur that’s building a business are voters. Your voter is the customer. They vote by purchasing your product. When they buy your product and exchange money with you, that’s a vote!

[bctt tweet=”Your customers vote by purchasing your product. #entrepreneur” username=”patrickbetdavid”]

Down with the Establishment!

What I like about both Trump and Sanders is that neither of them have gone to the establishment. And in the world of politics, the establishment are the people who decide who becomes the nominee. They support people like Clinton or Cruz; not Trump, not Bernie Sanders.

Trump and Sanders don’t listen to the establishment; they instead listen to the voter, and the voters are responding to them. Both of them have gotten millions of voters.

Bernie Sanders is a Democratic socialist, and Donald Trump is a Republican capitalist. The principles they believe in are diametrically opposed. But what they’re doing, and their fundamental approach to getting the vote is very similar. They’re both disrupting.

Entrepreneurial Disrupters

Jeff Bezos is a disrupter.

Elon Musk is a disrupter.

Let me tell you why.

Books Kill Trees!

Jeff Bezos said, “I know we’ve been reading print books all this time, but print books kill trees. We don’t need to waste trees any more. Instead, we’ll read eBooks.”

We no longer need Borders. And Borders went out of business. We no longer need Barnes and Noble, and Barnes and Noble stores are shutting down all over the place.

Jeff Bezos is a disrupter.

Who Needs Gasoline?

Elon Musk went into an established industry that no one has touched or been able to compete in for decades. You don’t hear about a lot of new car companies coming out, and the ones such as Fisker that have tried, didn’t work. Then Tesla came out, and an order for 300,000 cars was placed. The price of gas started going down. That’s disrupting.

The establishment doesn’t like Elon Musk because a lot of people make money when there’s oil involved.

And Elon Musk said, “We don’t need gas stations. I’m going to put chargers all over America, and they’re going to be free of charge. You don’t need to pay for it!”

Elon Musk is a disrupter.

I could go on and on about disrupters. There are so many of them! Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders, Steve Jobs – they’ve all disrupted the establishment.

I’m in the financial industry, and in the insurance world, a lot of money is shared. Way too many people get a piece of the money before a policy is approved. We’re working on disrupting that entire industry in a way that’s never been done before.

A lot of people don’t like that we’re shaking things up a little bit, and they’re getting upset about it. “Hey, who does this Patrick Bet-David guy think he is, disrupting a boring life insurance industry that’s been around for thousands of years? Who is this Middle Eastern guy from Iran who is running a business, thinking he’s going to disrupt us? We don’t like this guy.”

But we’re growing, and we’re going to disrupt this industry because the corporate establishment needs to be disrupted. 

[bctt tweet=”The corporate establishment needs to be disrupted. #entrepreneur” username=”patrickbetdavid”]

The establishment can’t control Bernie. He doesn’t want their money. They can’t control Trump. He doesn’t want their money.

What is Disruption?

Let me bring it to the lowest level so it’s easy to understand.

If you are raised in a Middle-Eastern or Asian family, there are certain expectations. And yes, I know this is a stereotype; I heard them all the time growing up.

The idea is that you either need to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. If you’re not one of those three things, you’re not good. If you don’t get a four-year degree from a prestigious school, you’re not good.

Then all of a sudden, someone in the family decides to disrupt. They may say, “I don’t want to do the school thing! I’m not going to college! I’m going to be an entrepreneur.” To their family, they are a disrupter.

Love Them or Hate Them

History books are written about disrupters.

People study disrupters.

People admire disrupters.

People hate disrupters!

People love disrupters!

Do you want to be a disrupter? If you do, you have to ask yourself the question. . .

Can You Take the Heat?

Why don’t most people want to be disrupters? Because in order to be validated as a disrupter, you have to go through three phases, and those three phases require you to go through heat. And most people can’t handle the heat.

Phase #1: Ridicule

When Donald Trump got up and said, “I’m running for President!” people said he was out of his mind, and that he was just doing it because he wanted marketing campaign dollars. Everybody ridiculed and laughed at him.

When Bernie Sanders said, “I’m running for President!” People thought he was out of his mind and didn’t stand a chance against Hillary Clinton. He started at 7%, 17%, 27, 37. . . Holy moly. More than eight million people have donated to his campaign, but initially people thought he was out of his mind.

Phase #2: Violent Opposition

Disrupters are violently opposed. All kinds of negative, hateful things are done to and said about disrupters.

Phase #3: Self-Evidence

At some point, once the disrupter starts to gain traction, people begin to say things like, “Oh, we knew he was going to do it! Everybody knew!”

No, not everybody knew. Most people never saw the first two phases they went through. That’s the heat.

Can you handle the heat when you’re disrupting an industry?

[bctt tweet=”Can you handle the heat when you’re disrupting an industry? #entrepreneur” username=”patrickbetdavid”]

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are complete opposites. But they’ve both been willing and able to withstand the heat, and entrepreneurs can learn a lot from their example. Sometimes as an entrepreneur, you have to be brave enough to disrupt an industry, because many of the new things that we enjoy and use came about because someone had the courage to disrupt an industry.

Share your comments and questions below, and if you haven’t subscribed to this crazy channel where we talk about entrepreneurship, be sure to click on the button below to subscribe.
 

 

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