Don Draper - Mad Men Serie - Alpha Male Traits

Show set in early 60′s New York advertising culture called "Mad Men", in which the men are very masculine, overtly sexual and totally unapologetic about it.
I wanted to see these guys in action, so I watched the very first episode and was totally blown away.
The show's protagonist, Don Draper, is a strong, archetypal male that we, as men, can learn a lot from.

Don Draper Speak little and well

Don doesn't dilute the value of his words by yapping to anyone who will listen. He speaks sparingly, unsentimentally, yet not unemotionally and not without thinking about it first.
He doesn't beat around the bush and launch into preambles - he just speaks mind.

Be your own approver

Don doesn't seek approval from other people because he doesn't need external confirmation that what he's doing is good, right or approved of. He just does it.

Don Draper Practice discretion

Don doesn't stick his nose in other people's business and he doesn't even want to hear it when it's offered to him! People feel like they can confide in him because they know he won't betray their confidence or gossip.
In our Facebook world, where everybody shares everything with everybody indiscriminately, it's a rare treat to run into [real] people who believe in the sanctity of their own and others' privacy.

Don Draper is a good old fashioned hard worker.

He persistently bugged Roger Sterling for a job while he was still a salesman. He finally talked him into it, then worked his way up from a copywriter to a senior partner and the figurehead of an entire advertising agency. Now he's ballin'.
It's a fallacy that anybody gets to where they are in life as the sole result of their own efforts. There are the people who supported you in various ways, whether your know about it or not, and then there's a randomness factor that's ignored in favor of the more romantic individualist ideal.
But all things being equal, assuming full responsibility for your own future is the best policy and if anything, will make others more inclined to want to help you get to where you want to be, because you're helping yourself.

Don Draper is a man of integrity

Yeah, he's human and has foibles and messes up, but he never shuns his self-chosen responsibility to live up to HIS deepest held beliefs and standards. There's a line that Peggy says in the show that goes "I never expect Mr. Draper to be anything other than what he is." That kind of consistency of character is as rare as it is refreshing.

Don Draper lives in the present

"My life has only one direction: forward." is one of Don's (and the show's) greatest lines. Those words convey a genuine sense of urgency to pack as much life as possible into one's allotted days; all the more genuine since they're backed by action.

Don Draper cares about results and results only

Don knows that the world and his business don't run on good intentions and hours spent behind a desk - they run on solid ideas. He expects a lot out of his employees but could care less how much time it takes them to produce something of value, so long as they produce it. This leads to the next point:

Don Draper lives in the real world

There's a certain breed of person that faces things head on and accepts the world as it is (and not as they wish it were). Being a man requires a fearless, sometimes painful appraisal of reality. Notice that Don looks people in the eye and always pays attention to what's going on around him, whether at home or in the office.
He's gathering data from REALITY, so he can make smart decisions.

Don Draper doesn't whine

It's hard as hell not to complain about something that's really getting us down. Even the manliest of men need to be understood and there's a reason talk therapy is a highly lucrative industry - people need to vent.
Yet complaining about things doesn't necessarily bring us closer to remedying them.
Don takes massive action to solve his problems and gets his catharsis in between the sheets with his mistresses. How ironic that Freud treated women for hysteria when THEY were the original talk therapists, healing frustrated men since the dawn of time with their empathetic bodies and sympathetic natures.

Don is an example of the American dream

...A dream that's all the more poignant in light of his desertion during the Korean war.
It might have been the wrong thing to do but fighting in a war that you don't necessarily believe in and giving up a chance at a normal life in exchange for an all-too-likely and premature death is asking a lot from anybody.
Don clearly feels some shame about his decision to assume the identity of his fallen comrade, but every day he makes amends for it by living as fully as he can in the present. The real Don Draper can rest peacefully knowing that a second chance at life isn't being squandered in his name.

Don Draper genuinely loves women

He delights in them and can't resist them. He never lets a woman move him off his terms, and the ladies love it.
David Deida, author of "The Way of the Superior Man" likens a superior man to an immovable tree with deep roots, and a woman to a storm blowing tempestuously all around him. It's a woman's duty to test men for consistency, integrity and unflappability; it's a man's duty to pass.

I'll wrap with a word of warning

It's tempting to mimic a strong male role model like Don, even though he's a fictional television character but remember the point above about getting your data from reality. Don embodies many positive masculine virtues but his way of going through the world is scripted and an attempt to emulate it and apply it to your own life is asking for a rude awakening. Take it from me!

10 Reasons Don Draper Is More Manly Than You :

1-He Exemplifies Confidence.

2-He knows consumer's wants.

3-He Thinks on the Fly.

4-Don Stands His Ground.

5-The Kodak Carousel.

6-Lucky Strike Cigarettes.

7-He can throw a punch.

8-The inventor of love.

9-Don's always got Style.

10-Outclassing a Hippie.