Book review: Trump Think Like a Billionaire

Enjoyed read this amazing book. Below is a excerpt from it.


1. Don't take vacations. What's the point? If you're not enjoying your work, you're in the wrong job. Even when I'm playing golf, I'm doing business, I never stop, and I'm usually having fun. Now that my kids are joining the family business. I'm closer to them than I've ever been, and my father related to me- through a passion for work well done.

 By the way, I'm not the only one who doesn't take vacations. My NBC compatriot Jay Leno works just as mush as I do, and maybe that's one of the reasons he's stayed on top in the late-night ratings wars.

2. Have a short attention span. Most successful people have very short attention spans. It has to do with imagination. Quite often, I'll  be talking to someone and I'll know what they're going to say before they say it. After the first three words are out of their mouth, I can tell what the next forty are going to be, so I try to pick up the pace and move it along. You can get more done faster that way.

3. Don't sleep any more than you have to. I usually sleep about four hours a night. I'm in bed at 1a.m. and up to read the newspapers at 5 a.m.  That's all I need, and it gives me a competitive edge. I have friends who are successful and sleep ten hours a night, and I ask them, "How can you compete against people like me if I sleep only four hours?" It rarely can be done. No matter how brilliant you are, there's not enough time in the day.

You may be wondering: Why do you need a competitive edge? You don't, if you're happy to be an also-ran in life. In The Natural History of the Rich, Richard Conniff notes that it's common behavior for moguls to see dominance. Even such traits as who makes the most eye contact in a conversation can be an indication of who seeks to dominate. Conniff singles me out as an example of someone who achieves dominance through my appearance, by leaving my eyebrows untrimmed in order to intimidate negotiating partners. I'm pleased to note that he doesn't comment on my hair.

4. Don't depent on technology. A lot of it is unnecessary and expensive. I don't have a computer on my desk. I don't use an intercom. When I want someone in my office. I yell. It works a lot better than an intercom, and it's much faster.

I don't even have a ATM card-I've never used on in my life. That's funny thing about being rich: When I  go to restaurants. I rarely have to pay.  It's usually on the  house. The sad part is that if I needed the money, they would make me pay!

I can understand why some people would appreciated the convenience of ATM cards, but a lot of other tech devices are completely unnecessary and get in the way of human contact. If you have something important to say, look the person in the eye and say it. And if you can't get there, pick up the phone and make sure they hear the sincerity in your voice. E-mail is for wimps.

5.Think of yourself as a one-man army. You're not only the commander in chief, you're the soldier as well. You must plan an execute yoru plan alone.
  People are always comparing business to war and to sports. We do it because these are analogies we immediately understand, not  because  business is about toughness. It isn't. It's much more important to be smart than tough. I know some very bad businessmen who are brutally tough, but they're not smart people. They want to act like Vince Lombardi, but they don't know how to win. Lombardi would slap his players, even spit in their faces. He'd have three-hundred-pound men virtually crying. He could do that because he won, and you can do that only if you win.

 Billionaires like to win. The Naturaly History of the Rich is full of examples of hypercompetitive plutocrats: Larry Ellison racing his yacht form Australia to Tasmania, Steve Fossett flying a balloon around the world, and Dennis Tito paying $20 million for trip to space, on a Russina rocket. "All of them, one way or another, were showing off," Conniff writes."To put it in the biological context , they were engaging in display behavior. Animals do it all the time, and their displays, like ours, fall loosely into two categories: The show off with fine feathers, and they off with risky behavior."

I have my own theory, but it's not a scientific: We do it because it's fun. Work hard, play hard, and live to the hilt.

6. It's often to your advantage to be understimated. You never want people to think you're a loser or a schlepper, but it's not a good idea if they think your're the smartest guy in the room, either. Because I worte The Art of the Deal, everyone is always on guard whenever I negotiate with them. One of the reasons President Reagan was such a successful candidate for office was because rival politians consistently misjudged him. They assumed an actor wouldn't be able to compete. Through the years of insults about his lack of intelligence and political experience. Reagan would smile and remain genial, and in the end. he always exceeded expectations.

  Because I'm too famous to be underestimated- I know that sounds egotistical, but it's true- I'm always impresssed by ultrasuccessful people who live great lives in a low-key manner. For example, on of my neighbors in Trump Tower is a man named Joel Anderson. For years, I'd see him in the elevator and say hello, but I didn't know anything about him. One day he called my office and said, "Do you think it would possible for Mr. Trump to attend my party?" He seemed like a nice guy, with a terrific wife, so I figured I'd pop in for a few minutes. When I go to the party, I was amazed fo find myslef surrounded by some of the most influential people in New York, including S.I. Newhouse and Anna Wintour. I soon discovered that mild-mannered Joel Anderson in the chairman and CEO of Anderson News, one of the country's largest distributors of newspapers and magazines. He's one of the most powerful and generous people I  know. I'd been riding in the elevator with him for years and I never know who he was.

 In How to get Rich, I discussed how important it is to let people know about your accomplishments. I'll always believe that, but there are times when it's even more important if people discover your accomplishments without you telling them directly. A few weeks afer Joel Anderson party, I noticed a long and highly positivive profile of him in the business section of the The New York Times. So I want to ammend my advice form the previous book: It's often necessary to boast, but it's even better if others do it for you.

7.  Success breeds success. The best way to impress people is through results. It's easier for me to do deals now because I've had so many triumphs. You have to create success to impress people in the world of business. If you're young and you haven't had any success yet, then you have to create the impression of success. It doesn't  matter whether the success is a small on or a big one- you have to start with something and build on it.

8. Friends are good, family is better. It's better to trust you family than your friends. When I was young, I said to someone who had a fairly big business, "D you see your brothers and sisters?" The person looked at me and said, "Yes, I do, Donald. I see them in court." That had a big on me, and I've always tried to stay close to my brothers and sisters, my children, and my former wives.

9.  Treat each decision like a lover, Vast fortunes are accumulated through dozens of decisions a day, thousands  a month, and hundreds of thousand in a career. Yet each decision is difference and special in its own way. Sometimes you decide immediately-love at first sight. Sometimes you go slowly-the long engagement. Sometimes you gather people in a room and consider various opinions-the equivalent of asking your friends what they think of the persons you've been dating. If you treat each decision like a lover- faithfully, respectfully , appropriately-you won't be locked in a rigid system. You'll adapt to the needs of that particular decision. Sometimes you'll think with your head. Other times you'll think with other parts of your body, and that's good. Some of the best business decisions are mode out of passion.

Sometimes people are surprised by how quickly I make big decisions, but I've learned to trust my instincts and not to overthink things. I like to compare a decision to a lover because it reminds me to keep in touch with my basic impulses, the drives that excite us, attract us, give us inspiration and energy. We are all drawn to beauty, whether it's the allure of a person or the elegance of a home. Whenever I'm making a creative choice, I try to step back and remember my first shallow decision. The day I realized it can be smart to be shallow was, for mme, a deep experience.

10.  Be curious. A successful person is always going to be curious. I don't know why this is true, but it's definitely the case. You have to live your surroundings and hungry to understand your immediate world. Otherwise you'll lack the perspective to see beyond yourself. One of the great aspects of working on The Apprentice has been learning about how network TV works. I recently found out that one of the reasons Thursdays nights are so crucial to the networks is because tha't when lucrative movie advertisments for hte weekend release are aired. The higher the ratings are on Thursday night, the more the networks can charge their advertisers. And the more they can charge their adverstivers, the more they can pay me to save their network! You see? Curiousity pays!

Excerpt from Trump Think like a Billionaire. Everything you Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life.