About 3,000 people came to hear Trump’s take on how to become successful.
“You can learn a lot from failure—but you can’t keep learning it again and again,” the Manhattan real estate mogul said.
“Think like a winner—put yourself in the position of a winner. People not equipped for success shouldn’t be an entrepreneur.”
His ingredients for success include the ability to handle pressure, love what you are doing, know your business, and “don’t give up—never ever give up.” He added that there is an element of luck in most successes.
Trump said he likes Ottawa. “It’s a wonderful part of the world; as soon as I came here I noticed that it felt different.”
Managing Director and President of Prairie Merchant Corporation, Wilson described his early years in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, his parents’ community service work, and his meteoric success in his energy business.
He gave a very personal account of the mistakes he made before coming to the realization that he wasn’t really successful if he wasn’t happy and if he wasn’t truly engaged with his family. That was when he started to look after his health and became more present in the lives of his wife and children.
“Success evaluated only by wealth is shallow…. I spend almost as much time giving money away as I do making it,” said Wilson, calling himself a “a capitalist with a heart.”
He received a long, standing ovation after he finished his talk.
Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien ended the lecture portion of the day by giving The Donald a penny minted in 1912, the year Trump’s mother was born.
‘Transition to Philanthropy’
In a backstage interview later, Wilson talked about his “transition to philanthropy” which started when FirstEnergy Capital Corp., the company he co-founded in 1993, “decided to use marketing as its charity budget, or charity as its marketing budget.”
“We were shameless about integrating the two and we started to realize that there was an incredible gap in the marketplace for people just trying to help and not expecting much back in return other than a little bit of brand [recognition], a little bit of profile.”
He explained that the 200 charities the company supported weren’t asked for much in the way of accountability.
“We made sure that everybody on the board of a given charity knew that we were supporting them. We were very careful to make sure that we expanded the value of the dollar that we gave. And what happened is that over time we just managed to build profile and enjoy the experience so much that philanthropy became second nature.”
He said the best source of monetary backing for someone in the early stages of investment is family and friends.
“That’s where you start. And if your family and friends don’t have enough money, you need more family and more friends. You just have to keep looking, you have to expand your network—there’s no simple way, no pile of money waiting for unusual, unique, or oddball ideas. It just doesn’t exist.You have to find people that share your passion. And that can be hard.”
Wilson has invested in a couple of Ottawa companies. One, called Ecotraction, presented its road salt alternative on Dragon’s Den, a venture-capitalist TV show on which Wilson is a panelist, and got backing from all five of the dragons.
This season Wilson is investing in an Ottawa fashion company and will announce it on the September 30 show. The company is headed up by “a woman that I believe really knows how to take this to another level. And someone I’m quite excited about backing.”
“I know some of the other dragons are pretty hard on people who come on the show with ideas; I don’t think that’s fair, I don’t think that’s right. I think we should be offering them what constructive criticism we can. As my mother once said, ‘gratuitous rudeness serves no purpose in this world.’”
As for what the economic strengths are in Eastern Ontario, Wilson said, “technology, technology, and technology. Never forget, so many people worry about what the region is good at. Every region needs entrepreneurs at every level. Whether it’s another restaurant, another bike rental company—wherever there are people there are ideas and businesses that can be done better. It’s that simple. So, big picture, technology is obviously the driver here.”
Some of his investments “are now focused on fun,” he said. “I own a piece of three different sports franchises, and I’m backing three different [musical] artists. In terms of philanthropy, I think the next thing to come is going to be more work in the field of domestic abuse.”
Wilson is active in profiling and funding research into the issue of domestic abuse and he has funded the Wilson Centre for Domestic Abuse Studies at the Calgary Counselling Centre.
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