There is an old saying that “behind every great man there is a great woman.” I do not believe such sex-ordering in the statement, but what I am trying to highlight with this post is: greatness is not achieved alone.
We can look to the duo of Steve Jobs and Steve “Woz” Wozniak as an example of this lack of solo greatness. Known for his innovation (and negativity), Steve Jobs was the business manager and visionary. Woz played an equally if not more important role as the technological inventor. Together, Apple Inc. was born. Jobs did not tackle the task of making Apple alone, but when I search both names on Amazon, I only find two books on Woz while I find two movies and countless books on Jobs.
Think about the following group: Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Christ Hughes. Who were they supporting? Mark Zuckerberg. Hughes was the beta tester. Saverin was the CFO and business manager (much like Jobs with the marketing role). Moskovitz was the CTO (chief technology officer) and lead engineer. McCollum technically held no formal roles, but is listed as a founder. Lastly, Zuckerberg was the visionary behind the operation (much like Jobs). It wasn’t just Zuckerberg who formed a multibillion dollar company; it was a team that allowed greatness to be achieved.
I find it funny how Jobs and Zuckerberg will go down in history with multiple books written about them, while the others will be mere subsections within the endless chapters.
Today, there is yet another individual behind the famous. I doubt he will have a book written about him and I am willing to bet that you have never heard of him. His name is Corey Lewandowski.
Lewandowski graduated from University of Massachusetts at Lowell and then received his M.A. in political science at American University. He spent time as a campaign manager (without any success) and then as a lobbyist with Americans for Prosperity where he was known for his high energy and tenacity.
Recently, Lewandowski appeared on the radar of the national stage; he is the campaign manager of the infamous Donald Trump.
Do you think Donald schedules his own television events?
Me: Absolutely not.
Do you think Trump truly tweets all of his tweets?
Me: Absolutely not (independent investigations of his tweeting confirm this).
Lewandowski is the man sitting behind the campaign curtain. It is through his leadership that Trump won New Hampshire by around 55,000 votes (19 percentage points). The move to not debate in Iowa was not emotional, it was calculated. Lewandowski was quoted as saying: “And Fox will go from probably having 24 million viewers to about 2 million.” Nearly 3 million people tuned into Trump’s charity event, which raised approximately $6 million for the Wounded Warriors Project.
How about the first Democratic debate? Trump live-tweeted the ENTIRE event. What a calculated move! Why? Because rather than tuning into the debate, half of the people were staring at their phones on their lap waiting to see the next boisterous comment be tweeted by Trump. Good move Lewandowski!
Now let’s talk dollars. Of the remaining candidates, Trump has raised the least as of January 31, 2016. He has spent less than Carson, Sanders, Rubio, Cruz, Bush and Clinton. Specifically, he has spent only half of what Rubio has and nearly 1/7th of Clinton. How is this all possible? Trump truly doesn’t need to spend campaign dollars because he is estimated to have been mentioned over 108,000 times on the media according to The Atlantic (Clinton is in second with around 45,000 mentions). On ABC, NBC and CBS evening news, Trump’s campaign has been discussed for 234 minutes from January-December of 2015 according to the tyndallreport.com via CNN (Carson came in second for the GOP at 54 minutes). Trump is slaughtering the competition with costless campaigning…or should I say Lewandowski’s gambles are paying off.
When John F. Kennedy won the Massachusetts Democratic primary in 1946, his father Joseph Kennedy cashed in a favor to have the Boston American never print Kennedy’s opponent’s name (Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector by James Hilty). Unlike Kennedy, Trump doesn’t need to have a favor cashed in because he has Lewandowski behind the curtain helping to ensure the media is focused all on Trump.
If Trump wins the primary it will be mostly because of Lewandowski. If Trump wins the presidency, it should be almost completely credited to Lewandowski. A win should be indicative of a direct appointment of Lewandowski to Trump’s Chief of Staff.
Needless to say, Lewandowski will not get a book written about him. Like so many before him, his legacy will be a mere footnote within the pages of the book on Trump’s campaign that, undoubtedly, will soon be published.
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