Who's the real good businessman?

Among other reasons why 60 million Americans voted for Donald Trump, was his reputation for being a very sharp businessman. I never bought into this argument.

To me, Trump always was a real estate salesman that hopped from deal to deal, often while bullying other people, burning his bridges, scaring everyone up, until after some spectacular bankruptcies, he recycled himself as a TV host, just like say, a Berlusconi.

Contrast him with Bill Gates, who under an unassuming and nonthreatening personality, negotiated the best business deal ever with IBM, when he was able to take an operating system developed just for “Big Blue”, still got away with licensing it to all of its competitors and building his fortune off of it.

Today, Trump wants to renegotiate all the treaties ever agreed up before his time and show the world how tough a negotiator he really is. Problem is, the very best negotiators never appear tough. On the contrary they know how to reassure their adversaries in order to get the very best out of them.

If you or I ever had to negotiate with Trump, we'd be watching our back, expecting the worst and giving the man absolutely no quarter. In the end, Trump posture end up being self-defeating and like he used to say about his political opponents he is “all talk, but no action!”