Perfection: Success

From expanding a family business into a real-estate organization (the Trump Organization), running an NBC TV show and writing bestselling books, Donald Trump embodies the typical qualities of success and has become an icon for it, as the media does well to portray. He has even been rumored as being a future candidate for President of the United States.

It is quite likely that anywhere you go, you will find yourself in an area or come across a building associated with the man, or with one of his organizations. In other words, he is extravagant, and wears his success and wealth on his sleeve, despite not being as wealthy as someone like Bill Gates. The picture below does well to show his power and influence, especially in the business world. He has a confident, no-nonsense look on his face, and is ironically making a hand gesture resembling the one used by Mussolini and Hitler- again, a symbol of power perhaps. He is also wearing a suit, and is always very polished and business-like.

Bill Gates is considered one of the world’s richest people, and through founding Microsoft, has become an icon for success, particularly in the business world.  Gates achieved success in his career after a few failures, and success was not something that simply came to him, but rather, he worked hard for it, as working hard and applying your knowledge is what he strongly believes in. His story is similar to many other successful people, as his academic achievement was so great, that he grew bored of school and later became an enrolled student at Harvard University.

After a year of experimenting with computers and struggling over his interests and passions, Gates dropped out of Harvard and later developed Microsoft, all because he had a “vision”, which became his reality (kind of like the Pygmalion Effect). Thus, Bill Gates was not successful by luck, but rather through hard work and intelligence.  While Gates may not be a direct representative of “perfection” in media, nor even in person, he does represent success and wealth, which is what many these days associated with perfection, particularly those of a business mind.

Unlike Donald Trump, who’s climb to success was based on a divergent vision, Gates’ path became much more convergent over time. Also, notice the difference in appearance between the two pictures. Trump’s formal attire is in stark contrast to Gates’ casual, comfortable one, despite the fact that Gates is much wealthier. If you were to hold up both of these pictures, people are more likely to associate Trump with “success” than Gates. Perhaps, Gates’ attire is emphasizing his stereotype, be it subconsciously or consciously. Also, Gates does not showcase his wealth as Trump does, and appears to have a more selfless attitude, as seen by his philanthropic actions. He has even claimed that he will donate a lot o his money once he retires. In terms of the bigger picture, this means that there is more than one path to success and that everyone has different interpretations of it.