Donald was born in 1946. A son of a real estate developer with a growing real estate empire. From the age of 3 as he plays on the floor with his blocks, he could overhear his dad speaking on the phone with contractors, talking about prices, and about elevators, and about wood. By the time he was 16, he already knew everything there is to know about building buildings. Alhough he had never studied it, he knew everything about it.
As a young man, he took a loan from his dad to go do his own thing. And like father like son he went on to build a real estate empire of his own. Owning everything from megahotels to casinos and numerous gulf parks around the country. This made him one of the richest business moguls in the world. But his success did not stop there. He went into showbiz making his own reality TV show. Trump had his own clothing brand, a modeling agency among other businesses. He even branched into politics becoming the President of the United States of America. Love him or Hate Him, everyone knows the name, Donald Trump ~ One of the biggest brand names of our era.
Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland to a modest family. His Mother worked around the clock sowing shoes and his Father made cloth and weaving loom. But then the invention of steam loom machines came along which crushed his father’s loom business. This left him with no employment. To say the least, they were in abject poverty. Watching his Dad as he begged for work will impact the young Carnegie forever. It was so bad that they had to sell everything, amounting to 20 pounds to immigrate to America.
Nevertheless, His parent still struggled to find jobs. Andrew Carnegie had no choice but to drop out of school to support his family. He worked in extreme conditions unspeakable for a little boy. Then he finally landed a job as a messenger boy delivering telegraphs. By the time he was 17, he had perfected his telegraph skills. He got so skilled at hearing mohr’s code that he could recite messages without needing to write them down. This caught the eye of a regional manager at a railroad company. He hired Carnegie to be his personal telegrapher at a salary of $35 a month. In today’s money, that is about a $1000.
The company was the largest corporation in the world. For the business savvy Carnegie, this was an opportunity like no other. Because he understood that he has gotten a front-row seat to learn how to run a successful business. He seized the opportunity to apply himself where ever he can. He was an industrious young boy. His Boss noticed his potential and decided to take him under his wing, mentoring him like a second father. And O boy did he flourish.
Then came the second world war. The whole world was in a panic. But it was in the mist of the chaos that he got his biggest business opportunity.
He noticed that the wooden bridges get burned easily and there was a need for iron ones. So he launched the KEYSTONE BRIDGE COMPANY. This wasn’t the apex of his business acumen. Usually, you need a supply of metal from the iron mining companies. But instead, he made his own iron mines. As a result cutting off the middlemen and gaining more control of the process. Thus, improving his profit margins exponentially. Furthermore, he went forward to leverage his connections in the railroad industry to make money there too. Essentially he was operating a triad of 3 companies, each strengthening one another.
- First is his mining extraction company for Iron,
- Second is his bridge company which makes use of the iron,
- and thirdly, once the bridge was built, he will monetize by selling rail.
The concept worked to a T.
From there the sky was no longer the limit. He went on to leverage every new business opportunity, always ahead of the competition. When the technology for producing steel at a large scale came about, Carnegie moved with lightning speed successfully building America’s first steel plants. This made it possible to create large structures from steel – given birth to sky scrappers and forever transforming the city’s skyline.
It is safe to say Andrew Carnegie led a wealthy life of success and abundance. At some point, his net worth equaled 2% of the whole countries GDP making him the richest man on the planet.
Now question, is there a difference between Donald Trump’s success and Andrew Carnegie’s success? After all, they are both success stories, right?
Looking from the outside they look almost identical, shrewd and distinguished businessmen. But when you take a closer look, their difference is as clear as night and day- deeply contrasting.
Trump came from a wealthy family, born with a golden spoon if you may. He went to school in a limo. Attended the best private schools in the country. And when he was ready to do his own thing, His Dad gave him a million dollars as a head-start.
While on the other hand we have a Scottish immigrant with only 5 years of schooling. Whose family was so poor they had to sell everything to move to America in search of greener pastures. He didn’t get any help from his father. Heck, he had to drop out of school to help his family, a boy already walking in the shoes of a man.
And so, is it safe to say that even though all of us have a single unanimous idea of what success looks like, success could have different components, different motivations, different inspirations, and forces? For instance, it could be a force of natural inclination like we saw in Donald Trump’s story, where he became a successful man just like his Dad. Or it could be a force of necessity as in the case of Andrew Carnegie, who had to suffer & fight to become a successful man because his Dad wasn’t.
Thus on one hand we find success stories where people succeed in life due to talent and live predisposition as in the case of Donald who grew to be successful. Because since childbirth success was all around him, it was the norm – the natural thing to happen.
And on the other hand, we find success stories of people molded by harsh circumstances. People who had to push back at the burden of difficulties that life has trapped them in, and out of the pressure they emerged stronger and got elevated to heights unthought of. So in essence, they became successful not in spite of the difficulties they went through but because of those difficulties. Difficulties that could be termed as “Desirable Difficulties“.
In Conclusion
There are a lot of things that happen in our lives that we may regard as unfortunate. But if we look back to a lot of the good things that we have now and our achievements, we realize that they were preceded by difficulties (desirable difficulties) I.e. hurdles that we had to cross to get where we are currently.
I’m an engineering student studying in Russia, and I study in Russian. There are times when I know the answer to a question or want to make a contribution in class, but I find it difficult to articulate myself in Russian while my Russian classmates just blow through everything with ease. But I know that if I stick with it and get my degree, when I apply for a job, the fact that english is my primary language will be attractive. And my knowing Russian at a technical level will be a massive advantage.
Andrew Carnegie said, “the greatest gift you can give a young man is poverty”. It is one thing to be tall because of your parents genes or to be rich because your parents are rich, and itโs another to come from nothing but acquire everything, thus, twisting the very fabric of fate, and the fate of those who will come after you ~ Forever.
Tony Robbins said, ” Life does not happen to us, Life happens for us”. So look into your life, and the things you see as obstacles, and I bet if you start looking at them from just a slightly different angle, they will prove to be blessings in disguise.
Desirable difficulties is life’s way of moulding you into the person that is worthy of the blessings she had prepared for you. The obstacle is the way, so keep striving forward ๐ฏ.