Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Donald J. Trump (Author), (Author)
Key Phrases: boardroom scene, The Apprentice, Trump Tower, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There’s no one better at promoting Donald Trump than the man himself. In this slim guide, which Trump says readers should consider "the second part of an ongoing conversation between you and The Donald" (the first part being his previous book, How to Get Rich), he offers his two-cents on everything from picking a mortgage broker and selling a house to dressing and grooming for work. Unfortunately, the book is packed with more clichés and glowing comments about his various properties (including his Mar-a-Lago resort, "one of the most beautiful places on earth") than practical advice. For instance, his advice on how to spot a fraud is, "If it seems too good to be true, it is," and his counsel on grooming is, "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have." Even his "Mar-a-Lago Diet" boils down to eating balanced meals. Each topic is covered in two pages or less, even big ones like How to Sell a House and How to Manage Debt, while other segments—such as A Week in the Life, which superficially covers a rather uneventful week in Trump’s life—run on far too long. The final third of the book consists of a teaser for the new season of The Apprentice. Trump provides a general overview of the first four episodes, but doesn’t give away any specifics about who gets the boot. Instead, he coyly says, "My first firing wasn’t terribly difficult, although I always feel bad for the first person to go because he or she will miss out on so much." Though Trump claims in the book’s introduction that "if you absorb only ten percent of the wisdom in this book, you’ll still have a good shot at becoming a millionaire," many a reader will likely finish this book feeling distinctly unenlightened.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

It’s not good enough to want it. You’ve got to know how to get it. Real estate titan, bestselling author, and TV star Donald J. Trump is the man to teach you the billionaire mind-set–how to think about money, career skills, and life. Here is crucial advice on investing in real estate from the expert, everything from dealing with brokers to renovating to assessing the value of property, buying and selling, and securing a mortgage. Trump will show you how to cut costs, decide how much risk to assume in your investments, and divide up your portfolio. He’ll also teach you how to impress anyone, how to correct or criticize someone effectively, and how to know if your friends are loyal–everything you need to know to get ahead.

And once you’ve earned your money, you’ve got to learn to spend it well. Trump presents his consumer guide to the best things in life, from wine to golf clubs to engagement rings. Check out the billionaire lifestyle–how they shop and what they buy. Even if you’re not superwealthy, you can afford many of these luxuries.

And what look inside the Trump world would be complete without The Apprentice? Trump will take you behind the scenes, from the end of season one and into season two, with insights into the making and the meaning of TV’s hottest show.
As Donald Trump proves, getting rich is easy. Staying rich is harder. Your chances are better, and you’ll have more fun, if you think like a billionaire. This is the book that will help you make a real difference in your life.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (September 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345481402
• ISBN-13: 978-0345481405
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #297,424 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars His publisher should FIRE HIM for this piece of crap!, October 26, 2004

By	Lynn B. "alceria" (Roseville, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life (Hardcover)

I wanted to like this book, but I'm three-quarters of the way through it and I keep thowing it down in disgust. Most "chapters" are a mere page and a half long and the information contained therein are just extremely commonsense snippets with no real insight or depth. His section on real estate gives you gems like "get a home inspection", or "if you house isn't selling, lower the price". Uh...DOH! Every topic is covered too briefly to have any real merit or make it worthy of a second thought, much less a second read. So far the most interesting part of the book has been the two sections with color photos, though most are just pictures of his girlfriend scowling. (Isn't this chick like a model or something? Why is she making these screwy faces in all the pictures?)



Some of his advice on being successful in business includes not sleeping more than 4 hours a night and similar unpractical things.



My advice is save your money....if you are really curious about this book borrow it from a friend or the library. Don't let this book take up valuable real estate on your bookshelf!

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How to think like an "Pompous Old Windbag" ..., January 31, 2006

By	Sachin Gaikwad "{ www.SachinOnline.com }" (Silicon Valley, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life (Hardcover)

This is one of the most useless books I have read in recent times. It hardly has anything to offer. Sometimes I wonder why it was really written at all ...

This book is divided into four sections ...

(1) How to buy/rent a house?
(2) How to invest in the stock market?
(3) Trump's consumer guide.
(4) Apprentice: Behind the scenes ...

The "buy/rent" and the "invest in stock market" sections just seems useless. The advice is pretty much lame ... "buy house in good locality.", "buy the best house you can", "delegate responsibility of investing to Investment Gurus", "Invest (100 minus your age) in stocks" etc. All in all, nothing new. I wonder if Donald Trump really wrote this book or just OEM'ed it?

The Trump's Consumer Guide clearly brings out the shallow, superficial nature of Donald Trump. All the "best of the world" seems to exist only inside the Trump Tower. It clearly exhibits the "Frog in the well" thinking.

The final "Apprentice: Behind the scenes" section seems like pure filler. The sole goal being to promote Apprentice and to glorify himself. Donald Trump mistakenly seems to be taking credit for Apprentice's success ... what a loser? :-)

All in all, this is an useless & worthless book. Don't waste your time reading this book!

-Sachin

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Thank goodness this was just a library borrow!, January 3, 2006

By	Consumer "cpcollege" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trump:Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life (Audio CD)

Shame on me for expecting more... I had already purchased two Trump books when they came out, "Art of the Deal" & "How to get Rich", and was well aware of how self (Trump's self!)-promoting and devoid of content they were. Just pick up any Trump book and this should be apparent by the typeface size (in order to fill the pages, the type is so big Stevie Wonder could read it!) Still most books in general have some vaule so, roaming the aisle at the library, I picked up this 5 disc "gem".

How bad and useless is this children's book of financial "wisdom"?

1.) If you removed the words "me", "I", "my", "mine" (and every other narcissistic variant of the first person pronoun ), "Trump", "Apprentice" and "Mar-Lago" the runtime of this audiobook could be cut by an easy 25%.
Cut out the superfluous "information" about the tile at Trump's home and scores of other references that have absoultely nothing to do with you or success and you kill another 40% of time. What are you left with?

2.) A host of vague and contradicting generalities that are so broad or commonsense that they are frankly insulting. My pity to anyone who actually paid for this man's self-promoting diatribe of no real value.

3.) Then Trump wants to teach you about dieting and landscaping and...stop!!!! I can't take it. It's too hard to balance laughter and disgust!!

I borrowed this to listen to in the car, but the amount of noxious fumes and carbon dioxide spewed from the speakers actually made it impossible to listen to all the way through. I actually started carrying a caged canary in the car to warn me of the CO2 levels until I could get the oxygen masks that drop from the ceiling installed. Ugh!

Seriously, I've read a lot of finance and success books and while a few have been very valuable, most tend to be 80% fluff that must be endured to find 5-10 valuable gems. After a while, most just become helpful reinforcement of what you already know. While it is not uncommon for these types of books to have obvious, contradicting or useless information, this book has little else. And the amount of crap you have to sit through to get one or two things of value is inexcusable. This is just Trump doing what he does best: Not real estate, but branding and self-promoting. If anyone becomes a billionaire via this program, it is the guy who ignores everything said and just realizes: Hey, I can make more money talking about making money than actually making it...

And, another very surprising thing: The cover of the CD as well as the intro says the book is read by the author. A LIE! OUTRIGHT LIE! The book is read by Barry Bostwick. And what's worse, he reads it like he's doing an impersonation of Trump. Nice job further screwing the Trump credibility already damaged by the content of this audiobook (and other Trump "tomes").

Why doesn't Trump ever clarify or elaborate on his true great achievement? Clawing and negotiating his way out of his massive failure in the 90's. THAT would be interesting and useful.

Bottom line: There are a billion better "books" than this waste.