That’s the motto of The Donald’s latest business venture, Trump University. Yes, you heard me right, Donald Trump has started an online University, complete with lectures, seminars, blogs, chat kiosks, esteemed faculty, and of course, distinguished Chairman of the University, Trump himself.
Like the University of Phoenix, Trump has built his online learning initiative on a firm business model. The mission of this so-called university is “success,” in a trade-school kind of way. The ambition is to teach skills and “trade-secrets” that are designed to turn a quick profit in the marketplace. The site is replete with self-help euphemisms like: “what’s the altitude of your attitude,” “bloom where you are planted,” and “your mind can build castles, just make sure the foundations are in place first.”
Self-help schlock notwithstanding, I was tempted by some of the offerings. For a mere twenty-nine dollars, I could get a “Career Assessment Profile.” A 76-question online test that measures key dimensions of my personality and can predict job performance. According to the site, the test can “tap into your hidden abilities and find the job that best matches your personality.” Twenty-nine dollars seemed like a small price to pay to tap my hidden potential. What if low-paying scholarly work really isn’t my thing? Maybe the assessment will reveal that I’m better suited to wheeling and dealing at the top of the corporate ladder. The only thing that stopped me from signing on was the memory of a similar test I took in high school which revealed that my true calling is police work (a noble profession, but, if you knew me, you would roll your eyes at the thought of kim white, the enforcer).
I also had to restrain myself from using the institute credit card to sign up for Trump’s intriguing “Women-Centric Studies program”
Trump University is developing a new “women-centric” curriculum, starting with Prof. Karen Kahn Wilson’s live course, Success Strategies for Women. This four-session course, scheduled for September and October, will be delivered over the Web. It will focus on the distinct strengths that women bring to the workplace and how they’re related to findings in the latest research on female neurology. It has always been “common knowledge” that men and women think and behave differently–in the workplace and elsewhere–but these differences can now be explained through hard science.
Could it be? Is the business community finally realizing the unique contributions women have to offer? Are courses like this designed to change the business environment so that cognitive skills native to the female become highly respected and sought after? Or does Trump University offer this course because they know that this is what I wish for, and what I might pay for?
From the “Trump University Winner Wear” collection