Trump: How to Get Rich

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.

Regard your company as a living, breathing organism, because that’s what it is. Those figures you see on your spreadsheets will reflect the health of that organism. Watch out for bad cells while allowing good cells to flourish.

Growth is an indication of life, so keep your organization moving forward at all times. 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. We don’t have chat-fests, but whatever needs to be done gets accomplished, and quickly.

Remember that your organization is your organization. That sounds simplistic, but, bottom line, it’s your ball game. The strategy is up to you, and so are the results. Remember Harry Truman’s famous words, which he kept on his desk in the Oval Office? THE BUCK STOPS HERE. I keep a similar quote on my desk. It reads: THE BUCK STARTS HERE.

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.

I try not to do it. Fortunately, I don’t have to try too hard at this one, because I’ve been known to be on the blunt (and fast) side at times, which is good.

I once asked an executive in my organization to give me a synopsis of a new development we were considering. He’d been to the city in question, had spent some time there, and had done some careful investigating. He went on to describe the merits of the site, the pitfalls, the good things, the bad things, the pros, the cons—on and on in great detail. He must’ve talked for ten minutes straight. Judging from what he was telling me, there were just as many reasons to drop the project as there were reasons to jump right in and get going. It was like a tied game with no overtime.

I asked him more questions, and we ended up exactly where we were before. He was on both sides of the fence at once and didn’t seem to want to take a stand either way. This guy had a lot of experience and a good track record, so finally I asked him what he thought of the project in ten words or less.

It stinks, he said.

He had eight words left, but he didn’t need them.

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

I think it’s funny that the phrase most closely associated with me these days is You’re fired, because, the truth is, although I’ve had to fire people from time to time, it’s not a big part of my job. I much prefer keeping loyal and hardworking people around for as long as they’d like to be here. There’s a wonderful lady in her nineties, Amy Luerssen, who worked for my father and still reports to work every day at our Brooklyn office. Here at The Trump Organization, Helen Rakotz has worked for me from the day I moved to Manhattan, and she still puts in long hours every week. She is eighty-two.

Once I delayed firing someone for two years because this guy always had such a great line of bullshit every time I came close to the topic. No matter what was going on, he had some huge deal lined up that was just about to come through.

He managed to string me along for two solid years, and I believed him every time—or wanted to. Finally, I was forced to realize that his claims were bogus, but I gave him every chance before finally axing him.

Unless your boss is a total sadist, he (or she) doesn’t want to fire you or cause hardship to your family. 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.