Donald Trump - Trump - How to Get Rich

If there is a downside to being a well-known name, it is that you become an easy target. The media needs to tear down what it builds up; that’s just part of journalism—stories are about heroes and villains, or success and failure. If you’re a brand name, they’re going to take a shot at you. It comes with the territory, and I’ve learned to live with it. As we say on The Apprentice : It’s not personal. It’s business.

Fortunately, if you have the critics who matter on your side, reading the newspaper can be a lot of fun. Herbert Muschamp, the architecture critic for The New York Times , is a scholar and an authority when it comes to buildings. To receive a compliment from him has an intrinsic value that will never diminish. When he wrote an article on Trump World Tower and described it as a handsome hunk of a glass tower, I was very honored. Here’s more of what he wrote:

Although Donald Trump prefers to publicize the aggressive side of his nature—it’s the manly thing to do—he is also the only beauty freak at large in New York City real estate development…. It’s not surprising that unofficial approval of Trump’s building should come by way of the Museum of Modern Art. The tower embodies the Miesian aesthetic through which the Modern’s design department’s taste was initially formulated—I hope Trump sticks with this material. Trump does better when he ignores his critics than when he pays attention to them.

So don’t be afraid to toot your own horn when you’ve done something worth tooting about.

And don’t believe the critics unless they love your work.

Being an entrepreneur is not a group effort. You have to trust yourself. You may have superb academic credentials, but without instincts you’ll have a hard time getting to—and staying at—the top.

This is one of those gray areas that remain an enigma even to those who have finely honed business instincts. There are inexplicable signs that can guide you to or away from certain deals and certain people.

For example, within a few seconds of meeting Mark Burnett, the creator of The Apprentice , I knew he was one hundred percent solid, both as a person and as a professional, which is a remarkable accomplishment in the entertainment industry.

On the other hand, I’ve met people that I have an aversion to for no particular reason, and while I try not to be judgmental, I have reason by now to trust my gut. Carl Jung said our conscious minds use only five percent of our brain power for daily functioning. If we can learn to tap into that unconscious, subconscious, and dormant ninety-five percent, the results can be amazing.

There are a lot of ups and downs, but you can ride them out if you’re prepared for them.

Learning to expect problems saved me from a lot of wasted energy, and it will save you from unexpected surprises. It’s like Wall Street; it’s like life. The ups and downs are inevitable, so simply try to be prepared for them.

Sometimes I’ll ask myself why I want to take on some new, big challenge. A substantial loss is always a possibility. Can I handle it if it doesn’t go well? Will I be asking myself later,Why did I ever do that? What was I thinking? I’m actually a very cautious person, which is different from being a pessimistic person. Call it positive thinking with a lot of reality checks.

In 2000, I thought about running for president of the United States as a third-party candidate. I proposed some sensible ideas: tax cuts for the middle class, tougher trade deals, a ban on unregulated soft money in campaigns, comprehensive health care reform. I formed an exploratory committee and met with Reform Party leaders, but in the end I realized I was enjoying my business too much to run for office.

Remember the rule I mentioned earlier about how you shouldn’t equivocate? That may work for business, but in politics, you usually have to watch your words. I’m too blunt to be a politician. Then, there’s my long-held aversion to shaking hands. (More on this in a moment.) Had I entered the race, I wouldn’t have been very popular. Even during the few months I was considering candidacy, I noticed that people began to treat me differently—in a more reserved, less friendly way. Before, I had been The Donald, someone they would wave and smile at. Suddenly, it was a different ball game, and it didn’t seem like much fun to me. One guy I had been friendly with for years saw me at Le Cirque and for the first time in my life called me Mr. Trump. He had always called me Donald. That was a real heads-up.

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.

There’s a larger point here, beyond the obvious ones about not confusing your talent for office politics with a gift for electoral politics. Anyone with more than a little curiosity and ambition will at some point be tempted to try a different challenge on new terrain. Take the risk, but before you do, do everything you can to learn what you’re getting yourself into, and be as sure as you can that you’ve got the right mind-set for the job.

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.

The worst is having to shake hands during a meal. On one occasion, a man walked out of the restaurant’s bathroom, jiggling his hands as though they were still wet and he hadn’t used a towel. He spotted me, walked over to my table, and said, Mr. Trump, you’re the greatest. Would you please shake my hand?

I knew that if I didn’t shake his hand, he’d be saying terrible things about me for thirty years. I also knew that if I agreed, my own hands would be loaded with germs or whatever the hell he’d carried out of the bathroom. I had a choice.

In this case, I decided to shake hands, because I was a little overweight at the time and knew that if I shook his hand I wouldn’t eat my meal—and that would be a good thing.

If you don’t know every aspect of what you’re doing, down to the paper clips, you’re setting yourself up for some unwelcome surprises.

I once read about an esteemed brain surgeon in San Francisco who was known for being fanatical about detail and organization. He would go over the components of an upcoming surgery in his head as he jogged every morning. He’d visualize every detail, as if to remind himself of everything he’d learned, every difficulty and complication he might encounter.

He wasn’t known for his bedside manner, but he was the best. If I had to have brain surgery, he’s the kind of surgeon I’d choose. But you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to pay attention to the details.

One of the problems with my schedule lately is that I am unable to accommodate most of the requests I receive for public speaking. I happen to enjoy giving speeches. I know some people dread the thought of having to give a presentation in a boardroom, let alone appearing before thousands of people. Not me. I get so much energy from my audiences that it is always fun.