Trump’s ‘Lessons’ About Life ‘Are So Profound,’ Says Gingrich

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Newt Gingrich shared a blog post on his website on May 2 on President Donald Trump’s “ten lessons he had learned about life.” Gingrich said that he found the message “so profound,” he shared what he said to students at University of Alabama.

As you embark on this great adventure, let me share some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from a lifetime spent building dreams and beating the odds. I beat a lot of odds. A lot of people said, “I don’t know,” but it worked out okay. Where are we? Oh gee, I’m president. How did that happen?

Now, you’re going to be in the same position. Would you like to hear some of these ideas or should I just skip over that part, huh? That’s going to be more interesting than all the other stuff, which was slightly political, right? I’m going to give it to you, though—just as I see it and as I’ve learned it, the hard way and the easy way.

First, if you’re here today and think that you’re too young to do something great, let me tell you that you are wrong. You’re not too young. You can have great success at a very young age. You’re all very young. In America, with drive and ambition, young people can do anything.

‘Don’t Waste Your Youth’

I was 28 when I took my first big gamble—to develop a hotel in Midtown Manhattan, the Grand Hyatt—and it worked out incredibly well. But I was very young at the time. I was like a very young person in sort of an old person’s business. (READ MORE: TREND ALERT: Young Americans Are Going Red And Refusing To Look Back)

Steve Jobs was 21 when he founded Apple. Walt Disney was 21 when he founded Disney. James Madison, James Monroe, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson—they were no older than 25 when they began the journeys that etched their names into the history books for all time.

So to everyone here today: Don’t waste your youth. Go out and fight right from the beginning—from the day you leave this incredible university. Go out and fight. Fight tough, fight fair—but go out and fight. You’re gonna be very successful, because now is the time to work harder than you have ever worked before. Push yourself further than you have ever pushed yourself before. Find your limits—and then smash through everything. Go and smash through.

You’ve watched that football team smash through—you’re gonna do the same thing. You’re at the age when you have the time and vitality to do really incredible things, if you give it your all. You’ll look back, and a decade from now, you’ll be astounded by what you’ve achieved.

‘Love What You Do’

You’ll remember this day. You’ll remember when the guy named Trump was giving the commencement address and he said, “I could do it.” And guess what? I think you’re going to remember that very fondly. I hope so.

Second of all, and very importantly, you have to love what you do, okay? You have to. I rarely see somebody that’s successful that doesn’t love what he or she does. That way, you really like work—it isn’t work. It’s fun. I find it fun. I work all the time, and I find that fun. If I didn’t find it, I wouldn’t be successful—whether it was real estate or in showbiz. I had a lot of different careers.

But I loved real estate so much. I was very successful in real estate because I loved it. I learned a lot from my father because I watched him work. He was a workaholic. He loved to work. He was a good man. He was a tough guy—tough as hell, actually. Now that I think back, I don’t know if you could even get away with that nowadays. He was tough, but he was a good man, I’ll tell you. (RELATED NEWS: Experts Sound Alarm Over So-Called ‘Remarkable Religious Transformation’ Amongst One Generation)

He worked seven days a week. He worked Saturdays, Sundays—it didn’t matter. And I learned by watching him. He loved his life. He loved what he was doing. He had a great long-term marriage—many, many, many years. He beat me on that one. Now, mine were very successful, but they haven’t lasted quite as long. It was close to 70 years. That was a long time. I said, “Pop, you beat me on that one.”

But you know what I learned from him? That he loved life. And all he did was work. I see people that don’t work hard and they’re miserable. So go out and find something you love—and do it.

‘America Doesn’t Aim Small’

You have to find something that you love, and you have to follow your own instincts. Listen to your parents—they’re very wise—but you have to follow your instincts and your heart, your soul, and you want to be the very, very best you can be. Treat every day like a home game against Auburn. Fight like hell and enjoy doing it—and your coach can tell you all about that.

Third thing is to think big. You know, if you’re going to do something, you might as well think big, because it’s just as tough. You can think small—I know a lot of people, they thought small. They’re very smart. I know others that weren’t nearly as smart, but they had a better picture of the big picture. Because it’s just as hard to solve a small problem as a big problem. It’s just as much energy and everything else, except the result is going to be a smaller one.

So love what you do—but think big, if it’s possible. Now, if it’s not possible, that’s okay too. You do something—you have to do something that you love. You will have all the same headaches and challenges, all the same delays and setbacks, so you might as well do something that’s just amazing.

America doesn’t aim small. Alabama doesn’t aim small. And neither do you. So think big when possible. Think big. (RELATED NEWS: Great American Revival: ‘The King Of Kings’ Explodes At Box Office)

Fourth is work hard. Work hard. Never, ever stop. An example is a great athlete actually—Gary Player, golfer. Great, great golfer. He wasn’t as big as other men. He was actually on the small side—don’t tell him that, he’s a friend of mine. Don’t tell him that, because he doesn’t understand that. But he worked very, very hard. He made up for it. He never stopped. He won 168 golf tournaments—think of that. I said, “Gary, you’re winning like every weekend. Do you ever choke or anything?” He said, “I don’t know what choke means.”

Keep Acting Local

Politicians you elect in your city, county, and state usually have a greater impact on your daily life than anyone in the federal government. During “off-years,” these local races send ripple effects throughout American communities. It is up to you to shape them.

It seems like every time we at Million Voices speak to lawmakers and their teams, they all tell us the same thing: if just 10 people in their district write letters about issues that matter to them, elected officials know they have a serious crisis on their hands. A thousand people could message that same lawmaker via email or social media, and it would mean nothing. But hand-written, or even printed and signed letters, will make your politicians take action (if they really care about your vote, that is).

Contacting your representatives should be easy, but there are myriad ways they can ignore your calls to action. That’s where we come in. 

Yes, Million Voices helps you with voter guides. Yes, we send letters from YOU directly to your elected officials because it’s the only way to guarantee they’ll listen to you. Yes, we publish data, articles, text messages, and help bridge the gap between education and civic action. But what do you want? Tell us today.

We want to make YOU the hero of our American story by giving you the tools you need to make a difference, from your local, state, all the way up to the federal level.

Join us in our mission to advocate for religious freedom, support fair and secure elections, and uphold the values that this great nation was built upon. Tell us what you want from the next four years, and we will fight to make it a reality … again!