How to get rich

Donald j. trump

Introduction

* (business rule #1: if you don’t tell people about your success, they probably won’t know about it).

* … I don’t do it for the money. I’ve got enough, much more than I’ll ever need. I do it to do it.

* business rule # 2: keep it short, fast and direct.

* business rule #3: begin working at a young age. I did.

Be a general

* if you are careful when finding employees, management becomes a lot easier.

* save yourself time by getting the best people you can. Sometimes this can mean choosing attitude over experience and credentials. Use your creativity to come up with a good mix.

* keep the big picture in mind while attending to the daily details.

Stay focused

Maintain your momentum

* No matter how accomplished you are, no matter how well you think you know your business, you have to remain vigilant about the details of your field. You can’t get by on experience or smarts. Even the best surgeons need to be retrained regularly, to stay current on the latest research and procedures.

Get a Great Assistant

*Surround yourself with people you can trust. I often say it’s good to be paranoid, but not when it comes to your home team.

*Ask God for a great assistant. No joke. A great one can make your life a whole lot easier—or, in my case, almost manageable. Norma Foerderer has been with me for twenty-three years. If you want to know what a great guy I am, just ask her. But not on a Friday

* I’m not a complacent person and I can’t have a complacent staff. I move forward quickly and so must they.

Remember: The Buck Starts Here

* Set the standard. Don’t expect your employees to work harder than you do. In my case, I don’t have to worry about that, because I work seven days a week and love almost every minute of it.

* Winners see problems as just another way to prove themselves.

Problems are never truly hardships to them, and if you haven’t got any problems, then you must not have a business to run

* Having a passion for what you do is crucial. If you can’t get excited about what you are doing, how can you expect anyone else to? If your employees can see and feel your energy, it is bound to affect them.

* Don’t intimidate people. If you do, you’ll never get a straight answer from anyone, and you’ll be defeating your own purpose. I keep my door open, and my people know I’m available as well as approachable

Don’t Equivocate

* If you equivocate, it’s an indication that you’re unsure of yourself and what you’re doing. It’s also what politicians do all the time, and I find it inappropriate, insulting, and condescending

Ask Yourself Two Questions

1. Is there anyone else who can do this better than I can?

That’s just another way of saying: Know yourself, and know your competition. If your competition is better than you are, you need to offer some quality they lack.

2. What am I pretending not to see?

We can all get swept up in the euphoria of a creative moment, or what former president Richard Nixon’s speechwriters used to call “the lift of a dream.” Before the dream lifts you into the clouds, make sure you’ve looked hard at the facts on the ground.

Bullshit Will Only Get You So Far

* If you think you’re in danger of being fired, take control of the situation and ask your boss for a meeting.

Make sure you ask for the meeting at the right time. Tell your boss you want to make sure you are communicating and doing your job to everyone’s satisfaction.

Of course, if your boss is a sadist, or just a lousy communicator, you’ve still got a problem. In that case, fire your boss and get a better job.

There’s no sense in trying to cope with a bad situation that will never improve.

* I never try to dissuade people from quitting. If they don’t want to be here, I don’t want them to be here, either

Every New Hire Is a Gamble

* I especially like employees who spend—and, more important, save—the company’s money as if it were their own. Companies suffer when employees don’t make enough of an effort to control costs

Ideas Are Welcome, but Make Sure You

Have the Right One

* If you run a company, make yourself accessible to your employees. If they feel they can bring ideas to you, they will. If they feel they can’t, they won’t.

Focus on the Talent Instead of the Title

* Never let someone’s job title be the sole indication of their worth.

* People at The Trump Organization have transcended their positions on many occasions. Matthew Calamari, the executive vice president of operations, started as a security guard.

* Vinnie Stellio, who was hired by Matthew Calamari, started as my bodyguard and is now a vice president.

* In other words, try to see beyond a person’s title. You can find talent in unlikely places.

Manage the Person, Not the Job

Keep Your Door Open

* To me, arriving means something is about to begin. Graduation from college is a beginning, not an ending. Each success is the beginning of the next one

* My father was much the same. He once said to me, “You know, the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. I think that has kept me young at heart more than anything else.”

Think Big and Live Large

*It’s a big world. There’s a lot we don’t know, which means there’s still a lot to be discovered and a lot to be accomplished.

 

  The possibilities are always there. If you’re thinking too small, you might miss them.

* If you’re going to think, think big. If you’re going to live, live large.

Take Control of the Job Interview

Ask for Your Raise at the Right Time

Be Tenacious

Play Golf

* I made a lot of money on the golf course before I ever went into golf as a business. I found solutions to problems, new ideas for ventures, and even a new career. Golf has a way of giving you an equilibrium that you can’t always find in the office

* I realize that some of you don’t care much about golf. Golf is one of those things that has aficionados, just as opera has diehard fans who will fly around the world to catch a certain performance. To people who don’t know or like opera, that seems absurd

I can’t make you love golf, but, believe me, once you’ve had the opportunity to play on a beautiful course, it could turn you into an enormous fan, or even a passionate player, no matter how poorly you hit the ball.

* It’s a great way to improve your business skills, to learn how to maneuver. It can even be equated with learning how to negotiate, which is an art in itself

* Ultimately, the rule here is not just to visit one of my golf courses (though you would be wise to do so) but to turn your passion into profit.

The results of that passion will reward you in more ways than you ever could have expected.

Brand Yourself and Toot Your Horn

* Subtlety and modesty are appropriate for nuns and therapists, but if you’re in business, you’d better learn to speak up and announce your significant accomplishments to the world—nobody else will.

* Once, when some top-of-the-line apartments weren’t selling, I upped the prices, way over the competition. They started selling immediately.

* If you’re on the brink of success in your career, some snob might ask you dismissively, “You don’t want to become a brand name, do you?”

Anyone who asks you that does not have the big picture in focus—and they are usually just envious.

Go with Your Gut

Be Optimistic, but Always Be Prepared for the Worst

* The ups and downs are inevitable, so simply try to be prepared for them

* Call it positive thinking with a lot of reality checks.

* Call it positive thinking with a lot of reality checks

Look Closely Before Changing Careers

* A lot of successful businesspeople think they can apply their management skills to politics, but I’ve noticed that only a select few, like

Michael Bloomberg and Jon Corzine, succeed. Most others lack the temperament for it.

Avoid the Handshake Whenever Possible

* Some business executives believe in a firm handshake. I believe in no handshake. It is a terrible practice. So often, I see someone who is obviously sick, with a bad cold or the flu, who approaches me and says,

“Mr. Trump, I would like to shake your hand.” It’s a medical fact that this is how germs are spread. I wish we could follow the Japanese custom of bowing instead.

Pay Attention to the Details

Connect with Your Audience (The Art of Public Speaking, Part I)

* So: Involve your audience. They will appreciate being included.

Cover These Eleven Bases (The Art of Public Speaking, Part II)

* Notes can sometimes function as a useful reference point, especially if you’re speaking to a large audience. If you’re prepared, no one can tell that you’re using them. Ideally, you don’t want to read a speech. For some reason, no matter how good your delivery is when you read a speech, it’s usually boring. Everyone sees that you’re reading it and it’s never quite the same as delivering it off the cuff. Notes offer the best of both worlds: They keep you focused and moving in the right direction without turning you into a stiff.

 Be a good storyteller. People like stories, and they’ll remember them. A speech shouldn’t become a lecture. Humor goes a long way, and it will

* Look for what you have in common and lead with it. You will create an immediate bond, because they will realize they can relate to you

* Be able to poke fun at yourself. This will make you accessible to people even if you are up on the stage and in the spotlight. We’ve all had disasters in our lives, major and minor. To be able to laugh at them in retrospect is healthy and helpful

Change Your Altitude

Start Visualizing Positively

* I know from experience that if I can see something as a possibility, it has a much better chance of happening than if I can’t see it happening

* Keep a book of inspiring quotes nearby, so you can change a negative wavelength the moment it descends on you. Here are some of my personal favorites:

I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.

—FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

—ALBERT EINSTEIN

Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.

—WINSTON CHURCHILL

Read Carl Jung

* I find reading psychology and self-help books useful. Carl Jung’s theories fascinate me and keep my mind open to my own—and the collective—unconscious.

* If someone had told me in business school that studying psychology would be important for financial success, I would not have believed it

* The relatively small number of hours I’ve spent reading Jung have been more than worth it. Start with his autobiography,

Memories, Dreams, Reflections, and you will be in for a fascinating time while simultaneously fine-tuning your intuition and instincts. You will also gain a technique for seeing into—versus reading into—the people around you. Believe me, this will serve you well on many levels.

* The word persona has an interesting root. It comes from the Latin word meaning “mask.” This, however, is not derogatory. It’s necessary. Each of us has a persona. We need it for survival. It’s the face we put on for public use, and it can be intentional or unconscious.

Have an Ego

* I remember saying to someone, “Show me someone with no ego and I’ll show you a big loser.”

* No ego means very little life force, and too much means a dictatorial personality. Keep your ego in a healthy balance, for your own well-being as well as for those around you.

Keep Critics in Perspective

*… find you interesting enough for public consumption; they wouldn’t be taking the time to criticize you. Think of their criticism as a compliment, proof of your significance.

Homework Is Required and There Will Be a Test

* Every industry and profession has its bottom line for what is required to succeed. If you can’t stand to practice every day, being a musician is out of the question. If you hate to exercise, being an athlete is not for you.

* Can you imagine hearing a surgeon say, “Well, it didn’t go quite right, but I sure learned a lot”? I wouldn’t want that guy operating on me. The same applies to anyone in business, because if you’re in business, it’s not just your money involved, but very often the money and well-being of others as well. In my business, I can’t take chances. If something is not quite right with the design or construction of a superstructure, a lot of people could be injured or killed. I’ve got to know what’s going on. Bottom line, it will be my responsibility.

Listen to a Ping-Pong Game

* Be aware of the marketplace. Know what’s going on now. That’s one reason I devote several hours a day to reading. That’s how long it takes to both keep up with current events and learn from the greats in history.

How can you expect to be successful if your idea of what’s happening in the world is vague or nonexistent?

* Comparing ourselves to others is a waste of time. I’ve heard people say, “Well, Mr. Lucky had a million dollars before he was thirty and I’ve worked just as hard as he has.” Well, Mr. Lucky has nothing to do with you, your possibilities, your success, or your failure. Don’t let anyone else be your yardstick. That’s taking power away from yourself in a big way.

* I’ll sum up with two of my favorite quotes:

There are no short cuts to anywhere worth going.

—BEVERLY SILLS

The harder I work, the luckier I get.

—GARY PLAYER

Reflect for Three Hours a Day

* It made me realize how much I need a certain amount of quiet time—usually about three hours a day—in order to stay balanced. It’s time I use to read and reflect, and I always feel renewed and refreshed by this. It also gives me material to feed my extroverted nature.

   For me, the early morning hours are best for this kind of reflection. I’m an early riser, usually up by 5A.M., which gives me a few hours to read newspapers and magazines of all sorts—local, national, and international.

Dress for Your Culture

* I used to pride myself on buying very inexpensive suits and other clothing. It just didn’t make sense to pay thousands of dollars for great clothes when you could buy something for a hundred dollars. Who would know the difference?

* Over the years, I’ve learned that this is wrongheaded. I now buy very high-quality shoes, and they seem to last forever, whereas the cheapos used to wear out quickly and always looked as cheap as the price I’d paid for them. The same is true for suits.

* The way we dress says a lot about us before we ever say a word. To me, dressing successfully means understanding your environment: knowing the culture and making an effort to reflect—and respect—it.

* Make it easy for people to take you seriously. I would wonder about someone who arrived for a meeting or an interview and was dressed inappropriately for the culture of that particular workplace—for example, a guy showing up at Trump Tower in a cowboy hat, boots, and a fringed cowhide jacket. It’s more about culture than style. Be aware of your surroundings and dress accordingly.

* It’s certainly not groundbreaking news that the early victories by the women on The Apprentice were, to a very large extent, dependent on their sex appeal. The fact that sex sells is nothing new. However, women are judged harshly when they go too far, so be careful in how you present yourself. If you want to be acknowledged for your intelligence as well as your beauty, don’t stand in your own way. Not everyone can tune out a knock-em-dead appearance. Think of how you would like to be perceived, and proceed from there

 I tend to notice what people are wearing only if they look exceptionally well put together—or exceptionally badly put together. It has more to do with style than which designer they may or may not be wearing. As I said, expensive clothing usually looks like it was worth the price.

Be Your Own Best Financial Adviser

* Many people go out and hire financial advisers, but I have also seen a lot of those advisers destroy people

* When it comes to picking a financial adviser, rely on your own judgment based on what you read in reliable publications like The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Week, and Fortune. They are usually terrific, even though, on occasion, they say some negative things about me.

Invest Simply

* There are numerous firms that provide comprehensive charts and other information on the best returns from certain financial advisers and funds.

Study those charts, not over the short term (maybe they just got lucky) but over a fifteen- or twenty-year period

* Generally there is a reason for success. When you look at legends like

Alan “Ace” Greenberg and Warren Buffett and marvel at how good they are, you will likely see that what makes them so successful is the same quality you should apply to every one of your own investments—common sense.

 I’ve read many of Warren Buffett’s annual reports. In every case, what fascinates me is that he is able to reduce things to the simplest of terms

Get a Prenuptial Agreement

* If I hadn’t signed a prenup, I would be writing this book from the perspective of somebody who lost big

Cut Out the Middleman

* Wayne Newton is a great friend of mine, and he made a lot of money over the years. Unfortunately, given terrible advice, he lost his money and was forced to declare bankruptcy. Meanwhile, his lawyers were eating him alive.

He called me and said, “Donald, I heard you owed $9.2 billion to a hundred banks in the early nineties and you never went bankrupt. How did you do it? Because I just can’t seem to get out of this mess. My lawyers are making a fortune and the banks are impossible.”

I asked Wayne how many banks were involved. He told me it was three. “You’re lucky,” I said. “I had ninety-nine banks and I made a point of becoming best friends with everybody at every bank. You have to do the same.”

I gave him some more advice, which he has generously acknowledged in many interviews. I told him, “Wayne, you are a major celebrity. Have your secretary call the three banks and get the person who is really in charge, not the figurehead, and personally talk to all three people. Arrange a meeting with them, ideally a dinner with them and their families. Get to know them. At the end of this period of time, they’ll like you. They’ll be impressed by you because you are a celebrity. They may control a lot of money, but they don’t control fame, and people are impressed by fame.

Forget your lawyers. They are never going to want to settle the case, because then their legal fees stop. You must do it yourself. Call the bankers. Become friendly with the bankers. And make a deal.”

* Of course, there will be times when lawyers are essential. Some people are scoundrels.1 In those instances, sue the bastards. But whenever possible, settle. It saves a lot of time for everyone involved.

Teach Your Children the Value of a Dollar

* My kids know the value of money from example. They see how hard I work. I don’t talk about it with them because I don’t have to—they have eyes

* My parents were frugal in the sense that they knew it wasn’t easy to make money, and that it should be treated with respect. They lived well but simply, and were not flamboyant in their spending

* We rarely went out to eat. We took relatively few elaborate vacations.

They emphasized schooling and education. We had a solid family life, and I remember feeling very fortunate. Each of us was expected to contribute something not only to the family as a whole, but to society.

That is a Trump family value that is ingrained in me, and one I’ve tried to live up to.

* My children have benefited from affluence, as I did, but it’s surprising how unspoiled they are in many ways. They have budgets and live within them. They have limits on their credit cards, and they have them more for protection in an emergency than for anything else. When they were growing up, both of my sons earned extra money during their summer vacations by mowing lawns, cutting trees, moving stones, and doing

 landscaping work at the Seven Springs estate in Westchester. Ivanka attended the School of American Ballet, which requires an enormous amount of discipline and training.

*… the sooner you understand the value of money, the more likely you are to possess large amounts of it.

   If your children see you being careless with money, they will assume it’s okay for them to be careless. Children watch. That’s how they learn.

Your priorities will often become their priorities. Any family can have a wild card or two, but on the whole, it’s been proven that children will learn from what they see.

  If you obviously enjoy going to Las Vegas to gamble, it’s likely they’ll think this is a good thing and will follow suit. If you like going to Carnegie Hall and bring the kids along, they’ll think this is an exciting event because you do. Children inherently like to please, so think about the values you exhibit. Sooner or later, kids will form their own tastes, but the initial exposure is important.

* Not teaching your kids about money is like not caring whether they eat. If they enter the world without financial knowledge, they will have a much harder go of it. Make sure you let them in on your way of thinking about money—how you manage expenses, how you save, where you invest

  Let them know that having money isn’t necessarily a sign of greed. It’s an important element for survival. Just getting a first apartment can be a lesson for your kids: They suddenly learn about security deposits! Equip them for life as best you can. Buy them a subscription to Money or some other personal-finance magazine. Give them incentives for saving their allowance

If You Have Them by the Balls, Their Hearts and Minds Will Follow

* An interviewer from Brazil recently asked me what the best parts and the worst parts of having so much money and success were. I had the same answer to both questions: the effect it has on people.

Anyone in a position of power will probably agree with me. There are pluses and minuses.

The plus side is that people will listen to you more readily than if you aren’t on the map financially. The minus side is that they will reduce you to one dimension and keep you there

* Convincing others has a lot to do with understanding negotiation.

Study the art of persuasion. Practice it. Develop an understanding of its profound value across all aspects of life

* Make it easy on the people you are trying to convince. Give them readily accessible metaphors and analogies. If you are too far over their heads, they’ll feel frustrated or, worse, inferior. Let them know you’re all on the same level in some way. Use humor. It’s a great icebreaker. I sometimes tell people that I wish our meeting had been yesterday, because I was having a great hair day and they missed it!

 Convincing other people of how wonderful you are and how lofty your ideas are is a good way to convince them to tune out or, better yet, to escape from you as soon as possible. We all need to have a healthy dose of confidence to be convincing, but don’t bulldoze. If you do, you may see a lot of people in front of you at first, but the room will soon be empty

* Here is the golden rule of negotiating:

He who has the gold makes the rules.

If you walk into a negotiation and know nothing about the other party, let them talk, listen to their tone, observe their body language, and determine whether they really want to make a deal or just show you how smart they are.

* Most important, know the party on the other side of the table before sitting down with them. Research who you’re dealing with, how they negotiate, and what they want from you

Consider What the Other Side Wants

Be Reasonable and Flexible

* A good negotiator must be flexible to be successful.

Trust Your Instincts

Know Exactly What You Want and Keep It to Yourself

Make Sure Both Sides Come Out Winning

Let Your Guard Down, but Only on Purpose

Being Stubborn Is Often an Asset

Be Patient

* One good tactic for speeding up a deal is to show a lack of interest in it. This will often make the other side rekindle their efforts to get something going

Be Strategically Dramatic

Sometimes You Still Have to Screw Them

* For many years I’ve said that if someone screws you, screw them back.

* When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can. Like it says in the Bible, an eye for an eye.

* Be paranoid. I know this observation doesn’t make any of us sound very good, but let’s face the fact that it’s possible that even your best friend wants to steal your spouse and your money. As I say every week in

The Apprentice, it’s a jungle out there. We’re worse than lions—at least they do it for food. We do it for the thrill of the hunt.

Sometimes You Have to Hold a Grudge

Learn the Value of Saying No

The Art of the Hair

Gossip

Page Six, My Way

A Week in the Life

* Everyone’s heard of the New York minute, but by now that’s outdated—it’s become the New York second. That’s no exaggeration. Seconds count when you have hundreds of phone calls a day to handle.

* M. I return the fourteen calls that came in during the meeting, which include those from lawyers, publishers, reporters, and friends. The only thing worse than having so many calls is not having any calls, so I’m not complaining

* I also keep letters and quotes, such as “Hope is not a strategy.”

* During the march toward war in Iraq, someone sent me this joke: “You know the world has changed when you realize the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, and Germany doesn’t want to go to war.”

* Donald is a master at marketing. But you can’t market and be a master at marketing unless you’ve got great product—it doesn’t work like that

* As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.” In business, nothing is ever too small to notice

* I take a call from a writer doing an article on motivation and leadership.

One of the questions asked is how I handle a person who consistently makes the same mistakes. I tell them the truth: I don’t. They’re working for someone else now.

Prime time

* You never interrupt the boss in a meeting. You never interrupt the client in a meeting, either.

Acknowledgments

Appendix