His examples were about him essentially manipulating rules to his favor. I do not think they contain much substance and would only be beneficial in Wall Street and politics.
He saw opportunities, sometimes embedded within problems, and worked them to his favor. This is what he's referring to when he speaks of the learned skill of transforming "nothing into something", and it's a skill that obviously applies to business.
"Politics" plays a role in pretty much every social interaction. Even though I'm just an introverted programmer, I find myself in dozens of situations every month where following the basic observations he makes have helped me succeed.