Trump: The Art of the Deal

Donald Trump is a pretty topical character right now, so this week we’ve reviewed his book The Art of the Deal from 1987. We loved the insight into a life in the week of Donald Trump, and love, love, loved the ‘Elements of the Deal’ chapter. There’s no denying it – Trump is a serious deal maker and has achieved some serious success in his life. His ‘Trump Cards’ can be applied to any negotiation and even have broader applications to life more generally.

Trump: The Art of the Deal (dot point) Summary

Synopsis

Makes deals out of distressed property most of the time. When the owner needs to sell he comes in and gets a great deal.

Chapter 1 – A Day in the Life

“You can’t be imaginative or entrepreneurial if you’ve got too much structure”

“Sometimes it pays to be a little wild”

“If your right, you have to make a stand”

“Always listen to your gut no matter how good it sounds on paper”

Chapter 2: Trump Cards the element of the deal

“Most people who do have the instincts will never recognize they do because they don’t have the courage or good fortune to discover their potential. Instead, they will be content to sit and watch the stars perform on television”

1. Think Big – I will be thinking anyway, might as well think big. Most people think small because most people are afraid of success”

“I wasn’t satisfied just to earn a good living. I was looking to make a statement, I was out to build something monumental

2. Protect the Downside and the upside will take care of itself

“I believe in the power of negative thinking. I always go into the deal anticipating the worst”

3. Maximize your options – “I always protect myself by being flexible”
4. Know your market – “I ask and ask until I begin to get a gut feeling about something. And that’s when I make a decision”
5. Use Your Leverage – “The worst thing you can do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, your dead…. You have to convince the other guy it’s in his interest to make the deal”
6. Enhance your location. “Location location location”
7. Get the word out – “The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to peoples fantasies”
8. Fight back – “When people treat me badly or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general attitude has been to fight back very hard. If your fighting for something you believe in, even if it means alienating some people along the way – things usually work out for the best in the end”

“Life’s losers – who get their accomplishment from trying to stop others”

9. Deliver the goods
10. Contain the costs
11. Have fun

Chapter 3 – Growing up

“Very aggressive. In second grade he gave his music teacher a black eye. I punched my music teacher in the face because I didn’t think he knew anything about music and I almost got expelled… The difference now is I like to use my brain instead of my fists”

Chapter 5 – The Move to Manhattan Convention Center Development

“I always assumed the market would cool off because everything runs in cycles real estate is no different. The government stopped giving out housing subsidies and interest rates began to rise after being stable for many years, it was easy to forget that they could move at all”

Big troubles “I saw the cities troubles as a great opportunity for me”

Got a convention center approved, he had a lot riding on those first projects. If he hadn’t gotten this first one he would be back in Brooklyn collecting rents.

“Sometimes, part of making the deal is denigrating your competition”

Chapter 6 – Grand Hotel

He always deals with the top. Everyone underneath the top guy is just an employee. An employee isn’t going to fight for your deal. He is fighting for his salary increase or his Christmas bonus”

Be careful of dealing with an ‘institutional man’, the type who has no emotion. It is purely a job and all he wants to do is go at five”

Chapter 7 Trump Tower Tiffany Location –

Showed two towers to city planning. One that met their guidelines. A horrible empty disgusting box. Then the one he wanted, they chose the good one. He earned a profit of $500,000 a year and owned it for nothing, all guaranteed before he began construction.

• With so much demand his marketing strategy was to play hard to get. The competitor down the road made a mistake by putting the apartments at a competitive cheap price. Trump put his at 3x the amount.

“I have a perverse attraction for difficult deals. Because it is more likely you can get a good price on a difficult deal”

“The worst of times create the opportunities to make a good deal”

Chapter 8 – Gaming Building on the Boardwalk

When he had investors in, he got as many dump trucks on site as humanly possible. They made it the wildest looking construction site ever. Pick up dirt and dump it to the other side for no reason. “That guy over there is filling up a hole he just dug”

“I have a simple rule when it comes to management. Hire the best from the competitor, pay them more than they were earning and give them bonuses.”

Chapter 9 Battle for Hilton

Chapter 10 – Showdown on Central Park South

Chapter 11 – Spring and Fall of the USFL

Chapter 12 – Rebuilding Wollman Rink

“What you have to understand about Ed Koch, is that he’s a bully pure and simple. He acts tough but their really closet cowards”

Chapter 14 – The Week that Was

“I do it to do it. But in the end, you’re measured not by how much you undertake, but what you finally accomplish.”

What’s next?

I don’t know the answer because if I did, that would take half the fun out of it. This much I do know, it won’t be the same