In the last month or so I wrote a book about Donald Trump, and in particular, how has he crushed the field in the 2016 presidential race?
In short, there are two reasons: He’s a highly skilled winner, and most importantly in this game we call an election, he’s a wizard of influence.
While I will share more details with you in the coming weeks, there was something more general that kept circling in my mind while I was writing the book.
That is, whether you are a Republican or a Democrat. Whether you were hoping for Christie, Jeb, Rubio, Carly, or anyone else. Or whether you are still rooting for Bernie, Hillary, Trump, Cruz, or Kasich, just think about what it takes to run.
What does it take for these people to stand for what truly matters to them?
If you go back to the beginning, there were 22 contenders in the first Democratic and Republican debates. On the one hand, this group was so large that for the first few debates the Republican field was divided into two groups.
Yet, on the other hand, that is only 22 people out of some 318 million Americans who are brave enough to stand on that stage.
Consider what that takes.
All of the years that each of the candidates has toiled to just qualify for that stage. And then, on top of that, only these people were willing to get up on this largest of world stages and make a stand for what truly matters to them.
Knowing what it takes, they were willing to throw their hat in the ring for a grueling presidential race. Doing so, they accepted that their entire lives would be put under the microscope. They committed to beg for money and votes. They accepted being insulted, beaten up, and many of them, a high likelihood of taking a thrashing.
Think of what it takes to stand and do that.
While of course there will only be one winner in this race, anyone who is willing to make a stand for what truly matters to them is a winner in my book.