In the business of money management, influencing others is a skill that rivals investment expertise. If one can't earn someone's trust, and money, then one can't run a true investment management business, no matter how talented a financial player one may be. To gain the support and gather assets of strangers, money managers must master the art of effective rhetoric.

Plato referred to rhetoric as ‘the art of winning the soul by discourse.' To inspire others, a good communicator needs to engage them both intellectually and emotionally. Trump is a master at this type of communication: like him or hate him his ability to communicate messages is unrivalled. His unceasing ability to create slogans, rival nicknames, and other memes that brand his style of communication is Cicero's classic rhetoric in action. MAGA: Make America Great Again, Lyin' Ted Cruz, Low Energy Jeb Bush, Crooked Hillary Clinton — these monikers are permanently linked to the 2016 US presidential campaign era courtesy of Donald J. Trump.

PASSION PLAY

Unlike the typical silver-tongued politician, Trump cuts to the heart of the matter in bold, simple language. There is no stilted phrasing or tortured concept descriptions. He states a point clearly and succinctly in plain ‘Everyman' language. Agree or disagree with his perspective, his method articulates issues for people, and that is very effective.

The Roman philosopher Cicero first organized the five canons of rhetoric in his De Inventione, as a means of educating the Roman population with Greek intellectual persuasion. These canons: Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, and Delivery are as relevant today in defining effective communication as they were then. Together, they work to create powerful messages across subject matters and audience.

THE 5 CANONS DEFINED

Invention refers to the process of coming up with an idea to develop into an argument. Wheth......................

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This article was published in Opalesque's New Managers a top-down monthly analysis, news and research publication on the global emerging manager space.