Besides, McClelland has also suggested that as successful entrepreneurs need to influence other people, they should possess a high need for power. This is socialized power. It is distinguished from personalized power that is characterized by satisfaction from exercising dominance over other people, and personal aggrandizement.
Finally, those with a high need for affiliation need harmonious relationships with other people and need to feel accepted by other people. High affiliative individuals prefer work that provides significant personal interaction. (NetMBA, 2009)
In this theory, all motives are considered to be learned. A motive is defined as ‘the redintegration by a cue of a change in an affective situation.’ （Cofer, 1964） And the relative intensify of these motives varies between individuals. McClelland saw the achievement need as the most critical for the country’s economic growth and success. The need to achieve is linked to entrepreneurial spirit and the development of available resources. In this essay it will be emphasizing on the achievement motive, although all three will be investigated. McClelland identified four characteristics of people with a strong achievement need. (Mullins, 2007)
First, they prefer moderate task difficulty and goals as an achievement inventive. This provides the best opportunity of proving they can do better. If the task is too difficult or too risky, it would reduce the chances of success and of gaining need satisfaction. If the course of action is too easy or too safe, there is little challenge in accomplishing the task and little satisfaction from success.
Second, they prefer personal responsibility for performance. They like to attain success through the focus of their own abilities and efforts rather than by teamwork or chance factors outside their control.
Third, achievers need regular feedback in order to monitor the progress of their achievements. Feedback enables them to determine success or failure in the accomplishment of their goals and to derive satisfaction from their activities.
Forth, they are more innovative. As they always seek moderately challenging tasks they tend always to be moving on to something a little more challenging. In seeking short cuts they are more likely to cheat. There is a constant search for variety and for information to find new ways of doing things. They are more restless and avoid routine.
McClelland suggests four steps in attempting to develop achievement drive. First, they strive to attain feedback on performance. Reinforcement of success serves to strengthen the desire to attain higher performance. Second, they develop models of achievement by seeking to emulate people who have performed well. Third, they attempt to modify their self-image and to see themselves as needing challenges and success. Forth, they control day-dreaming and thinking about themselves in more positive terms. (Mullins, 2007)
McClelland’s work thus raises two interesting points. First, the theory suggests that motivation is changeable even in adulthood. Second, rather than treating motivation as an independent variable, motivation becomes a dependent variable as the focus is on the antecedent conditions that develop a particular need. (Bowditch, 2001)
Donald Trump Motivation
Donald J. Trump is the very definition of the American success story. He has continually set new standards of excellence while expanding his interests in luxury residential real estate, world-class hotels, office buildings, championship golf clubs, gaming, merchandising and entertainment. Mr. Trump is committed to personal and direct involvement in everything that his name represents. This commitment has made him the preeminent developer of quality real estate known around the world. (Evancarmichael, 2009)
Donald John Trump was born June 14, 1946, in New York, NY. The third generation in a family of businessmen, Donald has his father, Fred Trump, to thank for his deal-making and entrepreneurial skills. Donald was strongly influenced by his father in his eventual goals to make a career in real estate development. With an innate eye for business and the additional training he received in school and while working for his father, Trump knew what he wanted to do with his life, and whatever it was, he knew it would be big. (AskMen, 2009)
Trump spent his high school years at the New York Military Academy, where his energetic aggression and competitiveness were encouraged. He performed well academically and socially, but he never formed close relationships because his drive to win repelled friendships. He first started college at Fordham in the Bronx, New York to be close to home. However, he later transferred to the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. He was attracted to its focus on entrepreneurship.
Trump had transformed himself into one of the most powerful real-estate moguls of the '80s, with ownership of buildings such as Trump Tower on 5th Av., Trump Parc, the Plaza Hotel, and the New Jersey Generals. He also penetrated the casino business in Atlantic City and New Jersey, and transportation with the Trump Shuttle airline. Despite his knack for making deals and recognizing a good investment when he saw one, Trump's billion-dollar empire crumbled in 1990, when he was forced into bankruptcy for over $2 billion bank loans that he couldn't pay. Although he handed over most of his holdings to the creditor banks, he remarkably managed to bounce back by the end of the 1990s. (Answers, 2009)
One of the most remarkable things with Donald Trump is he is personally involved with everything that his name represents. He has set new standards of excellence in real estate in his luxury residential buildings, office buildings, , championship golf clubs while expanding interests in gaming and entertainment.
Even Donald Trump, successful and driven as he is, has moments when he needs to refocus and consciously get motivated. In his best selling book, ‘How to Get Rich’, Donald Trump revealed a clever way to stay motivated. He keeps a box in his office crammed with newspaper clippings and letters that serve as reminders of his success to date. He can sift through the contents of the box and relive those special moments from his past. By reading newspaper and magazine articles about his achievements he can quickly and easily motivate himself to attain even bigger goals. And by re-reading letters from people he respects he can once again enjoy their endorsement of what he does and what he has achieved. This simple act of reviewing previous successes is a
powerful way to shift how you think and feel - to renew your sense of what is possible and to get you into inspired action. The more you condition your mind to focus on what you are capable of - the more of your abilities you can tap into. And when you activate more of your potential you will succeed much more often. (PHPBB, 2009)
Donald Trump said, "Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game." He loves the up's and down's of playing the game of getting ahead in life. He desires to succeed and compete against the brightest of minds. (Associatedcontent, 2009) Television personality , who at the age of 85, recently on his multi-million dollar Beverly Hills home, has now been assisted by real estate mogul , who has agreed to purchase the home and lease it back to McMahon."I don't know the man, but I grew up watching him on TV," Trump said in an exclusive interview with The Times. Trump said he stepped in because helping McMahon "would be an honor." (NowPublic, 2009)
Trump is a self confident and extravagant businessman that has made himself instantly recognizable wherever he goes. Donald Trump said, ‘As long as your going to be thinking anyway, think big.’ (Youngentrepreneur, 2009) Having weathered many storms in his business and personal life, Trump is truly a survivor and he is a great example of what can be achieved with a winning attitude.
Analysis
A high degree of achievement motivation led to the expansion of ‘entrepreneurial’ occupations. Entrepreneurs are the business organizers, managers and salesmen who exercise control over the means of economic production and trade. The Donald Trump, is of the following entrepreneur characters which were demonstrated to a considerable extent by experimental investigations by McClelland. First, entrepreneur would have a liking for taking moderate, though not excessive, risks, and confidence in the ability to succeed in such tasks. Donald once said, ‘Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that's more productive.’ Besides, he has the energetic action directed towards self-advancement such as writing business books, opening Trump Universities online and producing reality program, The Apprentice. Leading groups and classes, and being involved in community efforts, social activities, events or movements are areas where Donald Trump really shines and expresses his creativity. In addition, he has the desire for freedom and individual responsibility. Donald Trump insists upon a great deal of personal freedom and does not easily adapt himself to others' needs and wishes. Furthermore, he has obvious attainment of individual success, usually signaled by the acquisition of wealth. In addition to these, Donald Trump also possesses skills in organization, and the capacity for long-term planning. All theses characteristics are associated with strong achievement motivation. (Vernon, 1969)
McClelland considered that the principal psychological factor involved in the occurrence of high achievement motivation was parental treatment. Trump started his business career in an office he shared with his father in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York. He worked with his father for five years, where they were busy making deals together. Trump has been quoted as saying, “My father was my mentor, and I learned a tremendous amount about every aspect of the construction industry from him.” Otherwise, Fred C. Trump often stated that, “some of my best deals were made by my son, Donald... everything he seems to touch turns to gold.” Trump then entered the very different world of Manhattan real estate. His father expected his sons to be capable of self-reliant and independent action at an early age. He also did not seek to dominate over his sons and placed relatively few restrictions on Donald’s actions.
Donald was strongly influenced by his father in his eventual goals to make a career in real estate development Trump learned his deal-making and entrepreneurial skills from his father, Frederick, who was forced at eleven years of age—upon his father's death—to run the family business. This is in accordance with McClelland who suggest that those scoring highly on achievement will be attracted to an entrepreneurial role, and that people high on this motive are likely to have grown up in environments which expected competence of them, give them independence at an early age and evaluate them highly.
Achievement motivation may be associated with a variety of goals, but in general the behaviour adopted will involve activity which is directed towards the attainment of some standard excellence. It may include competition with others, in which they are surpassed. But on the other hand, the individual may be chiefly concerned to set himself a high standard of performance or level of aspiration, and to reach this through his own efforts, overcoming any obstacle to his success. Donald Trump is a very confident, competitive, successful and extravagant businessman who has made himself instantly recognizable wherever he goes. Whatever theory one may have, all agree that Donald Trump is a very goal driven person and it is believed that he will always resurface no matter how his investments turn out. Trump summed up his future in these few words, “Anyone who thinks my story is anywhere near over is sadly mistaken.”
McClelland suggest that those with high achievement motivation were striving to attain feedback on performance. He keeps a box in his office crammed with newspaper clippings and letters that serve as reminders of his success to date. By reading newspaper and magazine articles about his achievements he can quickly and easily motivate himself to attain higher performance. Donald Trump is challenged by opportunities and work hard to achieve a goal. Money is not an incentive but may serve as a means of giving feedback on performance. Money may seem to be important high achievers, but they value it more as symbolizing successful task performance and goal achievement. The study found that whether or not people made big paychecks, for example, was less of a motivating factor than whether they made more than their coworkers. In other words, winning the arbitrary “competition” appears to be more important than the reward itself. Which may be why Donald Trump is so fond of saying that money is not a motivation for him “except as a way to keep score.”
High achievement motivation, as we seen, is unrelated to affiliation motivation, and indeed may be negatively correlated with it. Nevertheless, successful entrepreneurial activities do, according to McClelland, involve ‘other-directedness’-the capacity to adapt one’s behavior flexibility to the desires and needs of others, and to treat people as individuals, not merely in accordance with traditional attitudes. (Vernon, 1969) Donald is a very social creature, with a strong need to communicate and to interact with people. He enjoys using and playing with words and has a real flair for getting his ideas across in a clever, interesting, articulate manner. Writing and speaking are areas he has talent for. This supplies a check on excessive personal motivation. Thus these activities are most successful when strong achievement motivation is accompanied by ‘other-directedness’.
Conclusion
The motivation characteristics have lead to the development and success of the entrepreneur. Donald Trump did have a good head start with his father’s guidance and influence, but because of his personal drive and motivation he was able to achieve greater things. He surpassed his father’s success and with his own merits established a name for himself in the field of real estate. His aspiration for bigger things encouraged him to move from Brooklyn, New York to a small studio apartment in , New York. He took the risk and went beyond his comfort zone. It is there that he progressed from closing small deals to bigger ones.
The extent of achievement motivation varies between individuals. McClelland introduced that an individual’s specific needs are acquired over time and shaped by one’s life experience. The need for achievement is usually strong in entrepreneurs and the basic characteristics are taking responsibility for results of their behavior, ability to take calculated risks, set attainable goals and the ability of welcome feedback about their performance which successfully applied to the Donald Trump. So I can conclude that strong achievement motivation is accompanied by the affiliative motivation lead to successful entrepreneurial activities for Donald Trump.
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