Conventional wisdom among the punditry had it that men in their seventies don't change, so President Trump's speechifying would never grow more sophisticated than the rabble-rousing populist they saw on the campaign trail. As usual, political writers, who do not understand what entrepreneurs do, have underestimated Donald Trump. His triumph last night in his first speech to a joint session of Congress has them cornered.

People who build large and successful businesses and keep them growing are lifelong learners. Unexpected challenges require quick learning and assessment in order to formulate plans and supervise their execution. Donald Trump clearly learns as he goes. Any fair-minded look at his career reveals that he has mastered many complexities in building an evolving constellation of companies. He has done business in many countries, sells many different kinds of products, and is successful in multiple industries: real estate, television, branding, golf, and on and on.

As a professor at Harvard Business School and then as a management consultant, I had the opportunity to work with a lot of CEOs, including many entrepreneurs. Nearly all were incredibly smart, picking up information and understanding its implications. They hired me or talked to me because they wanted to learn from my expertise. They were nearly all excellent at concentrated, focused learning.

Maybe, sooner or later, the Democrats and their media coterie will realize that President Trump figures out what he needs to accomplish and behaves in ways he thinks will work.

He is a strategic guy, which means he is thinking ahead.

While his personality is vivid, it is also expressed in multiple modes, not just the angry demagogue seen by the fever-swamp left.

He is used to playing various roles and is a gifted performer and communicator to a wide spectrum of the public.

And most of all, he learns and he grows, and he gets the advice he can find, and then he learns from it.