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Trump: 'Always be around unsuccessful people because everybody will respect you'

Donald Trump broke from his usual political script for part of a campaign rally on Wednesday to offer advice for success to his college audience. One boastful tip from Trump: “Always be around unsuccessful people because everybody will respect you.”

“When I saw all this youth, this great-looking, young people, I said I’m going to talk for a few minutes about success. Should I do that?” Trump asked the crowd gathered at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, as he pivoted from talking about how the Republican Party has treated him unfairly in the delegate-selection process.

Conceding that “there’s a certain amount of luck” involved in success, Trump recounted the story of “a friend who’s just an unlucky guy. Just an unlucky guy.”

“He’s smart, he went to the Wharton School of Finance, he’s smart, actually he’s a brilliant guy. He’s always been unlucky. And no matter what happens, it just works that way. And he never really succeeded,” Trump lamented.

“And you’ll find that when you become very successful, the people that you will like best are the people that are less successful than you, because when you go to a table you can tell them all of these wonderful stories, and they’ll sit back and listen,” he said. “Does that make sense to you? OK? Always be around unsuccessful people because everybody will respect you. Do you understand that?”

Trump, the author of more than a dozen books, offered his usual career advice, telling his audience, “You have to absolutely love what you do, ideally love what you do in a good business."

“But you know what, if it’s not necessarily that good, the loving is more important than having that good business,” Trump qualified.

He then proceeded to tick through a list of professions he saw as not being the highest-paying but whose practitioners he sees as happier.

“Some people want to be teachers. I mean, some of the happiest people and the most successful people that I know are people that aren’t the richest at all, they don’t make at all the most money,” Trump said. “They’re teachers, they’re scientists, I know people that are scientists — they can’t wait to get to work, they can’t wait. Policemen, you know police departments are, I think terribly disrespected. I think they’re not given the credit for the great job they do, I have to be honest with you.”

Trump also asserted that most people believe success is measured in the form of monetary success.

“It’s not really. I mean, to me, a successful person has a great family who loves the family, loves the children and the children love him or her,” the Republican front-runner said. “To me, that’s a much more successful person than a person that’s made a million dollars or 10 million dollars and is miserable and doesn’t have a good family and nobody likes the person. I’ve seen 'em. I think I’ve seen every type of person there is that God created, if you want to know the truth, and the people that are the happiest are not necessarily the people that are the wealthiest."

Then again, Trump said money does make life easier.

“You don’t have to worry about food and housing and education and sickness, your doctors, you go to the best doctors,” he said, “and hopefully that solves the problem. But it does make life easier.”

The “happy people,” he remarked, “are people that have great families. People that have great relationships with their wives or husband. Very, very important for success.”

Explaining that he does not consider success “necessarily monetary,” Trump said he knows the “most successful people in the world, and many of these people are really miserable people, OK? No matter what.”

“And perhaps I’m in that category, OK? But I’m pretty happy,” he said. “At least, I’m very content, I can tell you.”

He wrapped up by thanking the school for allowing him to use the venue and telling the crowd, "Good luck with your lives."