Douglas Cox trained Trump’s people to be successful

When Douglas Cox was with Atlantic Records, he did promotional work for artists including Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding.

He wrote a hit for singer Bobby Goldsboro, became a friend of Beatle George Harrison, was director of programming for KRLA radio in Los Angeles and sang the theme song for the movie, “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium” under the pseudonym J.P. Rags.

Cox, who now lives in Henderson, has also been a motivational trainer, speaker and communications consultant for corporations that have included IBM, Redken 5th Avenue and the Trump Organization.

In “Trump Revealed,” a book by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher, the authors wrote about the role Cox played in Trump’s 44th birthday on June 16, 1990 — and had long performed within Trump’s business empire:

“Doug Cox, a motivational speaker Trump admired, warmed up the crowd. A wiry man with a white beard, Cox had run team-building workshops for nearly every employee of the mogul’s casinos over the prior four years. Cox had been in California … when he got an urgent call … asking if he could get to Atlantic City to host the birthday rally.”

Yes, the relentlessly upbeat Cox has the kind of background that makes you want to read what he has to write. That he’s aimed his book,”SH-BOOM! the Power of Positive Aging,” at people between the ages of 50 to 100 makes his work seem all the more appropriate for baby boomers.

“Our bodies make noises when we stand up and our movements are a bit slower than they once were,” the 78-year-old Cox wrote in the book’s introduction. “At the same time, we have the opportunity to be discovering an abundance of joy and pleasure that the young are still ‘experiencing’ but have no way of processing.”

On a recent day a smiling Cox walked up a mountain behind his Sun City McDonald Ranch home as his wife, Sharon, watched.

“He does that every day,” she said. “He does it to feel good.”

Cox took the title for his book from the song first made popular in the ’50s by the Chords — “Sh-Boom” became even better known by several generations of Americans in 2006 when it was used in the animated film “Cars.”

“People between 50 and 100 — the Sh-boomers — are the largest and most powerful group of humanity who ever lived,” Cox said as he sat on the sofa. “We may be young or old, depending on how we are handling this adventure called aging.”

“Life could be a dream,” the opening line of “Sh-boom,” is the way Cox said he’s lived his life and he suggests we try it, too.

“For the last 50 years I have been imagining my future and then doing whatever it takes to turn those dreams into realities,” he wrote. “Wherever you are in life, someone is going to determine your future. Why shouldn’t that someone be you?”

His positivity comes through again and again in the book.

“As far as you can see, as much as you can imagine, as great as you can dream, so must you also believe!”

Repeatedly, Cox said people should not see age as limiting.

“Always remember: whether it is a vocal or a vote, your one voice truly matters.”

Cox said it’s important that we appreciate what we’ve done as we grow older.

“I will look upon my life as a great game or adventure in which I have played the starring role, run the race, lifted the burdens and helped my team to victory. I will think of my aches and pains as a badge of courage for a game well played.”

What “SH-BOOM” makes us realize — you can get the book through amazon.com — is that we should try to be just a bit better with each day of life, that we should always open our hearts to people and the possibilities that come our way.

Paul Harasim’s column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Friday in the Nevada section and Monday in the Health section. Contact him at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @paulharasim on Twitter.