Donald and Mahmood

Search terms: leaders of men

It is often assumed that blogs tend to be written by the “little man”, those who cannot get their voices heard by other, more traditional means – people like geriatric1927, for instance, the nom de blog of a 79-year-old pensioner called Peter whose videoed reflections on his life as a small businessman and health inspector in Leicester have gained a cult following on youtube.com. However, this does not have to be the case. Here are just two examples of leaders-of-men types who have hit the blogosphere. Perhaps construction’s own visionaries will see fit to follow suit …

First up, it’s the USA’s answer to Alan “You’re fired” Sugar, Donald “You’re fired” Trump, who uses his website donaldtrump.trumpuniversity.com (note: the word “trump” will feature with some frequency over the next few sentences) to dispense essential advice on how to be more like Donald Trump. The most recent posting from the multimillionaire entrepreneur, chief executive of the Trump Organization and developer of the Trump Tower, instructs us how to “be positive every single day”. Trump writes: “Get out of your own static comfort zone by moving forward with momentum and power that positive thinking can give you. Every time a negative thought comes at you, zap it. Replace it with a positive thought. That takes energy, but the result will be stamina – positive stamina, a necessary ingredient for success.”

With the requisite positive stamina, nothing it appears can stand in your way and you’ll be building a 60-storey monument to your own wealth and importance in no time. “Sometimes you just have to be tough. I use the example of a brick wall. Is there a brick wall in your way? Fine, that happens. But you have a choice. You can walk away from the wall. You can go over the wall. You can go under the wall. You can go around the wall. You can also obliterate the wall.” Hmm… I’m not sure he’s quite got the point of the “brick wall” metaphor. Or maybe I just need to get out of my own static comfort zone.

Trump is not alone in being a big fish trying to find an audience in a vast pond. Intriguingly, Iranian president Mahmood Ahmadinejad has also found time to post a blog on www.ahmadinejad.ir, although attentive readers may detect from his greeting, “Oh Almighty God, please, we beg you to send us our Guardian soon and appoint us as His close companions”, a slightly different tack to Trump, or even Peter from Leicester. So far, the only comment Ahmadinejad has received is “I hope you can make the words a little bigger so that reading can be easier” – a level of response that the USA’s public enemy number one may find a little disappointing.