Customer Reviews

Trump: The Art of the Deal

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

"Trump, who believes that excess can be a virtue, is as American as Manhattan's skyline," wrote George Will in the 1980's. Regardless of whether you think Donald Trump as a symbol of American success, or you think he's an annoying, chest-pounding egomaniac with bad hair, this book will show you what it took for him to build up his empire. The book shows Trump doing what he does best -- boldly making big deals -- during the "greed is good" decade of the 1980's. I found it interesting to see how much of his current empire he had built up before his 40th birthday, and to understand how he pulled off various deals.

The majority of the book is a swashbuckling, detailed history of his biggest projects. He talks about all the details, from negotiating with landholders, arguing about zoning with city officials, lining up contractors, interviewing architects, dealing with partners in various projects, negotiating with banks to line up financing, and the like.

Trump also devotes a couple chapters to his background. He was the son of a successful developer of rent-controlled & low-income housing in Queens and Brooklyn, NY. He was a mischievous, aggressive kid (he once punched a teacher), and was sent military school during his high-school years. He started college at Fordham in the Bronx, NY, to be close to home, but then then transferred to the Wharton Business School (at the University of Pennsylvania) because he liked its entrepreneurial emphasis. Shortly after college, he worked with his father to buy a troubled apartment complex in Cincinnati, which he fixed it up and sold for a multi-million dollar profit. Hungry for bigger things, he moved to a small studio apartment in Manhattan, and progressed from small deals to bigger ones, from renovating a hotel, to building Trump tower, to building and buying casinos in Atlantic city, along with a many other projects.

Besides the stories of his deal-making, Trump gives some tips for aspiring moguls. Although he believes you need a certain innate instinct for negotiating well, he thinks there are some tips everyone can use. For example: when planning deals, one should think big, always have a plan B, keep your options open, and use your advantages as leverage in negotiations. When executing a deal, one must deliver results, control costs, and fight competitors when necessary. Also, promotion of your project is important to get the word out. And finally, of course, Trump says one has to have fun doing all this -- if it's not fun, why do it?

Overall, the book was an OK read, and it moved quickly (I read it in about a day). Some reviewers were put off by Trump's bravado (but give me a break -- it's Donald Trump!! what did you expect?). If you can get past the bluster, you can see what it took to assemble his empire. I was inspired to re-read the book because of the success of Trump's new TV show, "The Apprentice," and I don't regret the day or so it took to re-read -- it's light reading & moves very quickly. If you'd like a quick refresher on Trump's rise, as I did, then this book (and some say the best book) should be on your reading list.

This book is not a how-to book for deal making or negotiation. This book is more autobiographical. Each chapter covers a different deal, which were mostly in the 1980s. To learn from this will require some reading between the lines and some extrapolation.

With the exception of the first couple chapters, which talk about his early years, each chapter goes into some detail about a different deal, like the USFL and Trump Plaza. Trump talks about some negotiations, licensing, and construction. Reading about the steps behind each deal has some benefit if you are patient and read carefully.

Unfortunately, you need to understand the time, New York/New Jersey, and Trump to get this information. Since the information is from the 80s, it is a bit dated. Also, if you are not familiar with New York or New Jersey, many of his references (which are oftentimes just the streets involved) will mean nothing to you. Trump also does a lot of name-dropping. If you are not from the area, then most of the names will mean nothing (with the exception of some of the USFL players he mentions).

I would rate this book higher if it wasn't so dated. If you are familiar with the area and time covered in the book, then this can be helpful.

This is a must read for anyone in the real estate industry or those intending to enter the industry. Donald Trump tells how he did it - about himself, his deals, his money, the people he dealt with, his women... He tells you how the real estate industry really works and about the city he loves - New York. The stories of his deal-making strategies are absolutely captivating. I also recommend reading The Art of the Comeback.

This book was recommended to me at the start of the inaugural season of "The Apprentice" -- Trump's reality TV Show. "It's one of the most inspirational business books I've ever read," he said. Personally, I found it more entertaining than inspirational.

It is a quick read, offering glimpses into The Donald's life in the 80's. These tales included some of his most successful real estate deals told in the first person from Donald's (somewhat biased) point-of-view. I kept wishing there was an alternate account of some of these tales to get more of a balanced view. And, after finishing the book, I also found myself longing for a similarly-executed book detailing his successes (and failures) in the 90's.

But despite some of its biases and lack of business or even "deal-making" tips (as its title might suggest), I think it would make a terrific gift for fans of Donald Trump and "The Apprentice" as well as for the entrepreneurially-minded. And I would strongly recommend it -- just not as part of a business course curriculum!

I've been reading the reviews for this book from people who are either upset that trump actually talks about HIMSELF (duh), or upset that this book doesn't just hand them billions of dollars and some skyscrapers. This book should not be construed as a "how to" book, but as an inspiration for anyone who - idunno - wants to be successful in a capitalist society? Maybe you should go back to school and get a degree if you can instead of sitting on your rump watching "The Apprentice" every week TWICE. Think that might work? How about night school. How about learning a little more about whatever it is that interests you. I have a problem with seeing people talk about what they love doing and then they go and do it halfway. I'm into music, and I get tired of seeing people who love to sing or rap or what have you, but they only make music in their rooms with lackluster equipment to post on the web.

The value of this book is that it teaches you to think big. It does that in the excerpts on the cover. Think a little bit beyond what you think is "reasonable" and you will get out of the corner you painted yourself into. Remember: we can't all be worth 5 billion dollars, but there should be nothing stopping you from being worth at least 3 quarters of a million by doing what you love. If it's music, aspire to be more than a musician and actually learn how to own your craft/label/copyrights/name/likeness, etc. If it's real estate, learn about "ground leases" and the like, pick up a book that teaches you about the ins and outs if you like reading so much. If it's medicine, try and figure out how to get into that profession, maybe you need to go back to school. I myself was in grad school with people on their second career: forty year olds in business or law school is not uncommon, for example. That's a quick way to a six figure salary, and if you have that, then you are where trump was when he graduated college (worth 200,000.00 only. I don't see where he so-called "inherited" all this money you naysayers say he did.) If you find a way to make a six figure income (and i've seen non-college graduaters do it), then you can live off of half of that after taxes and use the rest to create a market and a business enterprise to set you up for some of the good life. Donald trump is worth 5 billion. Personally, I don't WANT all of that. But I would like to know what kind of mentality it takes to be a "deal maker".

It's the deal makers that make the money, not the people that go into work day after day doing the same thing on the clock, that's not going to lead you to wealth. Making a deal - whether it's negotiating the price for your home or your car (which he talks about and we can ALL learn from) or negotiating the cost for services from contractors or subcontractors on your project (in his case a building, or in my case an album) or what have you, learning the "art of the deal" IS DEFINITELY what will make you money in this deal-driven world.

Also, pay attention to how he managed to make a ton of loot DURING FINANCIAL DOWNTURNS IN THE U.S. ECONOMY! That is VERY important.

Did you people MISS ALL OF THAT??!?

Donald Trump has become arguably the world's best-known real-estate icon. He has undoubtedly worked hard for the honor. Trump routinely wakes up at 6AM, at which time he reads the morning papers before arriving to work by 9AM. He'll make anywhere from 50 to 100 phone calls daily, and will hold a dozen or so impromptu 15-minute meetings throughout the day. But Trump's work ethic is only part of the reason why he has come to define the quintessential real estate mogul.

Donald Trump provides for our benefit his eleven Trump Cards of success. They include thinking big, protecting the downside, maximizing options, knowing your market, using leverage, enhancing your location, getting the word out through a public relations/marketing campaign, fighting back, delivering the goods, controlling costs, and having fun. Yet even these Trump Cards fail to fully illuminate what it is that makes Trump so successful.

A great deal of Trump's success can be traced back to his father who built and sold homes throughout New York City, most prominently in Jamaica Estates. Donald would learn on the job from a young age about managing costs and putting together a working symphony of various real estate professionals. After transferring from Fordham University to the University of Pennsylvania to complete his undergraduate degree in business administration, Donald and his father bought Swifton Village in 1968, a 1200-unit FHA apartment complex in Cincinnati, Ohio. While the scope of a 1200-unit apartment complex may seem unfathomable to many, for Donald it was just the beginning. These formative years convinced Trump to look beyond NYC and take the next progressive step, which for him was to develop commercial real estate in Manhattan and later casinos in Atlantic City.

Trump approaches business very straightforwardly. He believes that the art of business can be reduced to the simple formula of buy low sell high. Trump writes, "Much as I like the [Beverly Hill's Hotel] I'm interested in it only if I can get it for a much better price than they're now asking" (12). Trump will walk away from a very good property if the numbers don't match up. Trump makes a point of surrounding himself with the best talent when making these hard decisions. In fact, he attributes much of his success to surrounding himself with the best talent available. Throughout the book Trump writes:

"I'm just looking to hire the best talent, wherever I can find it (6) [and] I have a very simple rule when it comes to management: hire the best people from your competitors, pay them more than they were earning and give them bonuses and incentives based on their performance. That's how you build a first-class operation" (220).

Simply, there exists no room for second best. In this respect, much can be learned from Trump and applied to our lives. However, there exists another more intangible component of Trump's success that underscores the need for of a heightened sense of intuition.

This sense of intuition can be interpreted by many as self-confidence, the experience of feeling comfortable in one's own skin, or going with one's gut. In any event, this feeling transcends many areas of Trump's life, including a pervading sense of justice:

"I hate lawsuits and depositions, but the fact is that if you're right, you've got to take a stand, or people will walk all over you (7) [and] You have to be very rough and very tough with most contractors or they'll take the shirt right of your back" (38).

A sense of intuition cannot be underscored enough. Trump believes in it so strongly that he writes, "You can take the smartest kid at Wharton, the one who gets straight A's and has a 170 IQ, and if he doesn't have the instincts, he'll never be a successful entrepreneur. Moreover, most people who do have the instincts will never recognize that they do, because they don't have the courage or the good fortune to discover their potential (46)." Trump's remarkable history of deal making should embolden us to apply some of the very same business principles that made Trump so successful to our lives in an effort to discover our own true potential.

This novel begins with the reader getting inside of Donald Trump's mind and daily routine that has made him such a successful mogul in the real estate business. The reader feels as if Donald is talking to them while giving pointers on how to close deals. The chapters are divided amoungst the most important deals that made Trump the billionaire that he is today.
What I loved about this book is that Donald Trump shows various techniques in which to make deals and how to approach potential buyers and sellers. Much on how Mr. Trump goes about learning and knowing "The Art of the Deal" is through the many personal experiences that he has gone through the past 3 decades.
Donald is shown to be a down to earth guy but can be very demanding when it comes to getting what he wants. Another great accolade about the novel is the fact that it shows people on how things work in the real world. This novel focuses on bettering bad habit of doing business to a great way of accomplishing what one wants in a deal. I would recommend this novel to anyone who looks to invest in real estate as well as learning the ropes of what it takes to finalize the deal.

I first read this book in 1989, and have since read it at least50 times. I wondered, then, if Mr. Trump had any concept of theimmense thoughts his book had let loose in my mind- a hungry mind that was looking for an experience with a power-packed and successful spirit to emulate. This book provided that spirit and has helped make me money. This is a book which has a wealth of "risk management" style strategies and tactics executed with military precision. If you are willing to look intently between the lines you will find the heart and soul of "The Winner" and "The Mogul" that lies deep within you.

This book is as smooth as its namesake author. Long before "You're fired!" entered the popular lexicon, "The Donald" was piecing together deals that changed Manhattan's skyline. The book includes a diary of Trump's typical week. He flirts with a hostile takeover of Holiday Inn (which nets him tens of millions of dollars), has a friendly conversation with radio personality Don Imus, selects Christmas decorations for the Trump Tower atrium, chats with NBC executives, talks with Ivan Boesky just two weeks before Boesky pleads guilty to insider trading, meets with a top New York banker who begs him for his business, has a conversation with Missouri senator John Danforth and speaks with international designer Calvin Klein - all by Tuesday. If you conclude that Trump is a self-promoting, silver-spooned name-dropper, take your shirt off now and hand it to him - before he tears it off your back. Trump plays for keeps. Tony Schwarz has done his usual masterful job of co-authoring this book. (If nicely spun anecdotes could be used as collateral, Schwarz could be a real estate magnate himself.) Of course, some of the less rosy chapters in Trump's career are downplayed, and his major bankruptcy problems (and bounce back) happened after this book's initial publication. We strongly recommend it to anyone who wants an entertaining look at some of the actual reality show behind Donald Trump's towering success.

I loved this book. It was interesting to hear how some big real estate deals are made and I began realizing that a lot of Donald Trump's successes came from common sense decisions. While we won't all be able to participate on such a grand scale, I think we can all learn something from his experiences. Sure, he may be a bit egotistical and that always turns me off but do yourself a favor and ignore that to see how you can benefit from this information.