Oh my ... this is not a book you should try to read. If you want to know how this guy got elected president, just read the second chapter "elements of the deal". It's all in there: think big, maximize your noptions, use your leverage, get the word out, deliver the goods (well, we'll see about that last one). It's clear why he won - it's all there.
All the other chapters are superfluous, full of his egotistic boasting how he fooled everyone without committing himself to anything - and then squeezing everyone until he gets his will done. Not the kind of ideal society for me - but then again he is honest about it.

I laud the ghostwriter that it at least looks decently written. But, if you need to know more about this guy, read the two playboy interviews. These are much more interesting to learn about this egotistical maniac than his own "writings".

After reading The Art of the Deal, I found it to be much less business-oriented than I initially figured it to be. After all, with a title like The Art of the Deal, I expected to be bombarded with advice and anecdotes that only the most adept business people could interpret. Much to the contrary, this book acted more like Trump's memoirs about his personal life and earliest business ventures, only occasionally divulging in the oh-so coveted art of deal making. This was just up my alley; I am as inept at all things business as they come, and having to read a whole book on nothing but inapplicable business advice would have been quite off-putting to me. Throughout The Art of the Deal, Trump outlines his business dealings in a manner that is easy to comprehend so as not to alienate anyone unfamiliar with the world of business. Although I knew almost nothing about the world of business, I was able to keep up with the business aspects of the book thanks to this style of writing.

Interlaced with the logistics of his business deals were Trump's droll means of opining. Many of the Trump-tropes we all know and love (or hate) are clear and present in this book, but in a noticeably more primitive stage than that to which we have become accustomed upon his being elected as President. For one, he frequently criticizes politicians and their ineffectiveness, not unlike the Trump of 2017. In many of his dealings, Trump experienced some form of difficulty from the government due to the inept, and often corrupt, politicians that ran it. Trump, always the fighter, reveled in his victories over the corrupt bureaucracy that sought to hinder his success and made it abundantly clear that he was no fan of an incompetent government – though, unlike modern day Trump, he hardly uttered the term "loser" to describe his adversaries back then. Another recurring Trump-trope was his love for the extravagant. In detailing his desires in real estate, he made it known that he wanted everything he did to make a lasting impression, even if it was barely realistic. Whether it was building the lavish Trump Tower as a New York City landmark or proposing to construct the world's largest skyscraper, Trump always went into a project with the highest expectations and standards. Needless to say, he was wont to display his knowledge of the many synonyms of the words "huge," "great," and "best" when discussing his buildings and projects. These Trump-tropes made The Art of the Deal quite entertaining to read, and had the book been written more conservatively, devoid of his personal commentary, I do not think I would have enjoyed it all that much.

Whilst reading The Art of the Deal, I constantly found myself thinking about how different America would be today had some of his deals turned out slightly different. What if, for example, Trump's foray into the United States Football League had actually been successful? What if he merged with the National Football League and went on to own a successful New Jersey Generals team? Would he still have run for President, or would he have been content being a wealthy NFL team owner? What if one of his riskier deals ended up backfiring on him? If he lost his fortune and company, would he still have become a politician in some capacity? Would he have run for mayor or governor of New York instead? In retrospect, it was interesting thinking about how everything he has done in his life led him from his office in Trump Tower to the highest office in the United States, and how just a single minuscule misstep along the way could have changed everything so drastically.

To put it simply, if you are not a fan of Donald Trump, I do not think that The Art of the Deal is likely to change your opinions on the guy. However, if you do like Donald Trump and are interested in learning about how the President started out, then this is the book for you. Not only are you getting his greatest-hits of business deals up until 1987, but you are getting vintage Trump unabated. The Art of the Deal is a culmination of everything that made Donald Trump the person he is today, whether that be for better or for worse is up to you to decide.

I realize this review will fall on deaf ears to people who have a deep loathing of Trump. I'm taking politics completely out of this, in hopes that people who hate, love, or are neutral on Trump absorb the massive business lessons this book provides.

If you are into negotiation, strategy, playing the man across from you (popularized in the movie Rounders), and persuading people to act, this book is for you. If you've followed the election in any capacity, you'll see Trump's entire playbook listed here, in plain English for people to read.

Things for you to learn:
The power of negotiation and moving your enemies to your side of the table. Trump does this masterfully in battling with the city and government officials for zoning rights and permits.

If the officials cannot be moved to act in his favor, Trump employs the press and public opinion to move them.

Business lessons as chess moves. While chess is not discussed in this book, you'll see more than a few examples of it in the book. Thinking 4-5 moves ahead, making sure no matter what move your opponent makes, you profit and benefit from it.

One of the best lines from this book paraphrased is, "I try to find people at my competitors who are very bright and motivated. I pay them more and offer incentives. This almost guarantees a successful venture."

Again, if you take whatever political feelings you have out of the equation and read this book with an open mind, the Playbook he established in the 80's is as useful now as it was then.

Read this book when it first came out because a friend read it, said it was good, and gave it to me. It was better than good.

Most autobiographies of real people suck.

Biographies usually suck just as bad - and I'd know, I've read bios of every president and wealthy family in the U.S., the founding fathers, and on and on. They hire people to tell a gilded view of a selective history.

Trump's book is part autobiography, part bragging (come on, it's Donald Trump), but 100% interesting. Who wouldn't want to be young, rich, and good looking? But he's also smart and a shrewd businessman. Reading this book taught me business lessons that are so simple but so essential. He learned how to negotiate at his father's knee in the toughest business - construction - in the toughest city - New York. He went to military school and was an athlete, including being a boxer, which is not an easy sport.

I have an MBA taught to me by eggheads who'd never spent much time in the real world, and this was one of the best business books I ever read. I was just as incredulous as Trump over a million dollar deal done initially with a handshake that, when it came time to do the paperwork and the economy had changed so the deal was now a bad one for the other party, they honored it because they gave their word. Yeah, there are still people like that. I learned about having several irons in the fire because not every deal comes through, a tactic I still use today when negotiating a business deal or an editor or a vacation or a water softener for my house.

I'd check the politics of anybody who bashes a guy who started with a lot (estimates are $12 million to $100 million) but turned it into a fortune worth several billion dollars. Most children from wealthy families are wealthy bums. Most big lottery winners are broke 3 years later. Most NFL players have ZERO cash to leave to their grandkids. Trump has build his father's company into an international brand and turned his father's name into one of the wealthiest in U.S history, and say what you want, but his kids obviously love him or they wouldn't work for him.

He's probably gonna be president because he outworks everybody else. He's a lot of talk but he's also a lot of action. So was Muhammad Ali back in the day. America could do a lot worse.

You'll learn a lot about the man and business and people, and if you're reading it with an open mind, you'll be glad you picked it up. I proudly display it in my bookshelf with all those other bios I mentioned.

This is the strangest book. I would have been more than happy to have gone throughout my life without ever knowing who Trump was. I don’t watch TV and had never seen his show, which I believe truly was one of the greatest shows of all time, but I still don’t watch television, so I guess I’ll just have to take his word for that. And I’ve never been all that interested in business, and although he is the hotel and real estate visionary of the century (at least, according to the blurb at the back of this book) I would have remained unlikely to have read a book with this title. And even though he is clearly a fabulous deal maker, deal making has never really struck me as something I would particularly like to spend time reading about. So, if it wasn’t for his political career – one, I can only assume this book helped along, I would never have read this book at all.

This book is a hagiography, rather than an autobiography – the fact Trump himself didn’t write this book (the journalist and publisher say he played no part at all in writing it), he merely paid for it to be written, shifts it from one category into the other. Even with this being a hagiography, he doesn’t come out of it terribly well. He is singularly unlikeable, which is clearly his tragic flaw, since he is obviously dying to be loved. The problem is that he seems unable to quite understand that other people have feelings too.

This book is a series of triumphs that are almost invariably due to Trump’s very own ‘instinct’ for a ‘deal’. He doesn’t seem to notice that withholding information from people you are dealing with is effectively lying. That getting people to come see a building site where worker are being paid to ‘look busy’ is also lying. He presents himself as a constant winner, and this image is, unfortunately, undermined by our being told very early in this book that he believes he must think big and bullshit big to present an image – because exaggeration and excess play well in people’s dreams and that the only real promotion is self-promotion – again, even when based on lies. And so, given all that, it isn’t unreasonable to assume that just about everything we are going to be told in this book is, well, a lie. Even if it is called ‘marketing’ or ‘advertising’ or whatever else.

And so, there are things that are said repeatedly throughout this book, but I’ve no way to know if they are true. For instance, he invariably says that he finishes his projects on time and on budget, or ahead of time and under budget and so on, while everyone else finishes them over time and over budget. And perhaps this was always true, but I don’t know and I don’t feel I can trust this book to have not been anything other than a series of cherrypicked best examples.

He also comes across as a remarkable hater. I mean, this guy knows how to hold a grudge and it is clear that one of the reasons he had this book written was to put some of his enemies in their place. The Mayor of New York, Ed Koch, gets an extended hatchet job done on him, for instance. The thing is that even people he says nice things about are presented mostly by their flaws. For example, lawyers are often described as brilliant, but that they put off the jury by their excessively showy clothes. Or someone rich doesn’t have showy enough clothes. Or someone he doesn’t like is criticised for being overweight. He is a man who sees the fault in others and this could well be his defining characteristic – it is a repeated theme throughout this book, and like I said, true for friend and enemy alike.

I want to focus on his instincts. This is another repeated theme. Often, when he is about to make a deal, everyone on his side is telling him not to do it, but he just has a feeling about the deal that means he has to ignore everyone else’s ‘head’ and go with his ‘gut’. Naturally, this inevitably and invariably pays off. This works both ways, of course, so when he pulls out of deals too, it is because of his gut. As he says at one point when he missed a bullet, “That experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you’re generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make”. Now, what is particularly odd about him saying stuff like this is that other than the gut lesson, he doesn’t particularly seem to follow any of the other bits of this advice. I mean, he is a real estate agent and building developer who gets into hotels, television shows, casinos, and American rules football.

So much of this book is based on his ‘instincts’ or ‘gut’, and that makes this book almost entirely useless for what I’d just assumed it was intended for. I sort of thought this was a kind of ‘I got rich – you can get rich too – let me show you how’ book. But repeatedly we are shown how other people stuff up because their instincts are just not up to the task of divining the right path in the same way Trump’s gut proves to be.

Trump has a clear and ongoing problem with democracy throughout this book too, something the US is learning nearly daily now. For instance, ‘committees are what insecure people create in order to put off making hard decisions’. Or later, ‘I like consultants even less that I like committees. When it comes to making a smart decision, the most distinguished planning committee working with the highest-priced consultants doesn’t hold a candle to a group of guys with a reasonable amount of common sense and their own money on the line.’ Repeatedly throughout this book Trump makes clear his disgust at the regulations that stop him from doing whatever it is he wants to do. Invariably, these regulations are presented as counter-productive, in that he is able to ‘prove’ they achieve the exact opposite of what they sought to achieve – but given he is clearly the one who was going to benefit from these regulations not existing, he can hardly be considered the most objective judge of that. This book is an exercise in explaining why he is a great man of history – and to do that everyone else is presented either as fools, flawed, obstacles or there to be manipulated so as to achieve the great man’s vision.

There is a long discussion here on the building of an ice-skating park. The short version is that the city had been trying to build this, and they constantly stuffed up. It was years behind schedule and massively over budget, and so Trump offered to build it on time and on budget basically as a gift to the city. Anyway, after a lot of toing and froing eventually he did build it. Not that the city was particularly grateful, still, he did. He then explains that this story is basically proof that a single capitalist working alone and with his own money on the line is much better at getting stuff done that horrible public servants who don’t understand the value of money because it isn’t theirs’ in the first place. You know the song well enough to hum along, I’m sure. But almost immediately after telling this story he then talks about some other businessman who stuffs up a project and causes, it seems, just as much trouble. Trump comes to the rescue, but, naturally enough, this time the other businessman’s mistakes aren’t presented as proof that individual capitalists can be just as stupid as evil bureaucracies. The question of why everyone should just have to live with the preferences of rich guys – even when they occasionally destroy art works (as he admits to doing himself on one of his buildings – it was ugly anyway) or build ugly buildings (as just about every developer other than Trump is accused of doing in this book) is something everyone else in the city has to put up with, because, well, capitalism…

This book is a bit like the Bible. It is clearly written for you to come away liking God (or Trump in this case) but somehow you never quite can. There is just something fundamentally unlikeable about them both. All the same, this was a best-selling book and was presented, in part at least, as a business advice book. As I’ve already said, this has virtually no advice anyone could actually use in running their own business – other than somehow acquiring Trump’s gut. You might think that would have been a problem in an advice book, but it seems not.

Putting all political beliefs aside, I see this as quite an interesting read (even if he had a ghostwriter write it). One must take away all contemporary political beliefs and read this book in the original context that it was written: Trump at his height. This was the book that defined Trump as a character and gives insight into his style of thinking.

One must also understand that to make a career out of real estate is a miraculous feat. To make a career out of NEW YORK real estate is an even larger miraculous feat. Even if Trump inherited several millions dollars, he could have easily been the "trust fund kid" that spent it all away. Trump somehow survived in this vicious market and learned how to thrive in it. He made his name into an international, multi-billion dollar brand. That is not something that comes easy.

Trump's way of business is briefly summarized: Trump found ways to reduce all risks for himself while finding ways to have others take on the risk. This happens while Trump gains a chunk of the profits with no personal liability. Extremely clever political, legal, and business maneuvering is what's needed. And that extremely clever maneuvering that Trump describes in this book shows how it's all done. Finding loopholes in legal codes, making friends with the "right" people, and cashing in on other's failures are his chief strategies. Sounds simple? Think again. In New York, everybody is scrambling to find their own ways around while Trump has already found his.

Of course, I found some contents in the book slightly comical, if not foreshadowing. Trump's given rationalization on why he accepted few black residents (leading to a lawsuit against Trump for discrimination), moving in homeless persons into his property as a guise to get residents to move out (which Trump describes in this book as good-natured), and his constant bashing of Ed Koch shows how even his narrative at the time can be greatly twisted. Trump constantly makes himself out as a do-gooder in this book, which begs the question: What could Trump be lying to us or exaggerating in this book? That is a question that scholars will have scrambling around for years to come.

Overall. I cannot say this book was on either extremes of a 1/5 or 5/5. This book was quite an interesting read that I felt at times could have been more honest. I rate this book a 3/5 or a low 4/5 for the insight, lessons, and readability that this book provides.

If you don't agree with my rating, I suggest you to read the book on your own and form your own opinion. Who knows? Perhaps you may end up liking/hating the book much more than you originally thought.

I didn't expect to like this book, but I was amazed how boring it was!

Tremendous book! I didn’t expect much but I was very much positively surprised. Some really good insights into the world of business and dealmaking. I also found Trump’s unique vocabulary and way of simplifying things hilarious. He seemed like a much nicer person in the book than in the world of politics. I liked how he always first highlighted the positive characteristics of his enemies and competitors and started them bashing and pointing out the mistakes they made only afterwards. Worth a read!

Terribly uninteresting. Filled with mind numbing details of every deal he has ever done. Please don't read.

Good God ! The 1987 tell-all book overflows with complex business deals in Trump’s sledge-hammer style. Salted with hyperbole, Trump spills the beans on entering a privileged, difficult world he himself was new to in the 70’s. Skating rinks, railroads, luxe buildings, television, football… Trump’s calculated risks are so vast, learning from his hits/misses is as rewarding as it is emotionally rattling. Make no mistake: this is one sharp, gutsy guy. Also, circa 30% of the book concerns financial contracts and legalities, so prepare to parse thru some more nuanced fiscal landscapes.


TIDBITS :
—————-

“I tend not to give up on something I started.”

“I also earn more than $10 million in commissions as a sales agent from apartments in Trump Tower."

“When you set the highest possible standards, they’re expected to maintain.”

“A friend of mine is a highly successful and well known painter … A few months back he invited me to come to his studio. We were standing around talking when all of a sudden he said to me, 'You wanna see me earn $25,000 before lunch?' Sure, I said, having no idea what he meant. He picked up a large open bucket of paint, and splashed some on a piece of canvas… When he was done, he turned to me and said 'Well, that’s it. I’ve just earned $25,000. Let’s go to lunch.' He was smiling, but he was also absolutely serious. His point was that plenty of collectors wouldn’t know the difference between his two-minute art and the paintings he really cares about. They were just interested in buying his name. I've always felt that a lot of modern art is a con, and that the most successful painters are often better salesmen and promoters than they are artists.”

“My style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing to get what I’m after.”

“Protect the downside and the upside will take care of itself. If you can plan for the worst, if you can live for the worst, the good will always take care of itself.”

“Maximize your options.”

“Use your leverage. The worst thing you could possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood and then your dead. The best thing you can do is deal from strength, and leverage is the biggest strength you can have. Leverage is having what the other guy wants, or better yet needs, or best of all simply can't do without.”

“Perhaps the most misunderstood concept in all of real estate is that the key to success is ‘Location, location, location’. Usually that’s said by people who don't know what they're talking about.”

“What you should never do is pay too much, even if that means walking away…”

“I play to people’s vanity.”

“After he lost the election to Ronald Reagan, Carter came to see me in my office. He told me he was seeking contributions to the Jimmy Carter Library. I asked how much he had in mind, and he said “Donald, I would be very appreciative if you contributed $50 million."…. Until then I had never understood how Jimmy Carter became president… Jimmy Carter had the nerve, the guts, the balls to ask for something extraordinary. That ability above all helped him get elected...”

“I don't kid myself. Life is very fragile, and success makes it more fragile. Anything can change without warning.”

“Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game. I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what I should have done differently, or what’s going to happen next. If you ask me what the deal is going to add up to, I don't think I have a very good answer, except that I had a very good time.”

“I learned from my father that every penny counts because before too long, pennies turn into dollars.”

“You can’t be scared. You do your thing, you hold your ground, you stand up tall, and whatever happens, happens.”

“My father had done very well for himself, but he didn’t believe in giving his children huge trust funds. When I graduated from college, I had a net worth of perhaps $200K, and most of it was tied up in buildings in Brooklyn and Queens.”

“I don’t drink, and I’m not very big on sitting around… I remember wondering if every successful person in Manhattan was a big drinker. I figured if that was the case, I was going to have a big advantage.”

“If you’re going to make a deal of any significance, you have to go to the top… Everyone underneath the top guy is just an employee. An employee isn’t going to fight for your deal… he’s fighting for his salary increase… the last thing he wants to do is upset his boss. So he’ll present your case with no real opinion.”

“I was relentless.”

“Skyscrapers are machines for making money.” - Arthur Drexler

“…Which he said translated into a 20-story building with 10,000 square feet of usable space per floor. Immediately I told him to transform it to a 40-story building with 5,000 square feet per floor."

“I leased 50,000 square feet … for an annual rent of $3 million, plus a percentage of their profits… My carrying costs were approximately $2.5 million a year. In other words I was paying out $2.5 million to own the site, and getting $3 million back… a profit of $500,000 a year, and owned the land for nothing, all guaranteed, before I even began construction.”

“I’ve hired a lot of women for top jobs, and they’ve been among my best people. Often, in fact, they are far more effective than the men around them.”

“When we went to the quarry, we discovered that much of the marble contained large white spots… That was jarring to me… So we ended up going to the quarry with black tape, and marking off the slabs that were the best. The rest we just scrapped, maybe 50% of the total. By the time we were finished, we had taken the whole top of the mountain…”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the rich, it’s that they have a very low threshold for even the most mildest discomfort.”

“The cycles of buyers at Trump Tower became something of a barometer of what was going on in the international economy. At first the big buyers were the Arabs, when oil prices were going through the roof… After the Europeans, we got the South Americans and the Mexicans…”

“I have a very simple rule when it comes to management. Hire the best people from your competitors. Pay them more than what they were earning…That’s how you build a first class operation.”


BONUS : NO-HOLDS-BARRED BEAN-SPILL :
-------------------------------------

“Unfortunately, rent control is a disaster for all but the privileged minority who are protected by it."

"Mia Farrow, for example, has ten rooms overlooking the park. She pays about $2,000 a month for an apartment that might rent for upward of $10,000 a month on the open market."

"William vanden Heuvel, a very prominent attorney who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Jimmy Carter, pays less than $650 a month for his six-room apartment in a terrific building on E. 72nd Street."

"Suzanne Farrell of the New York City Ballet has a fourteen-room duplex near Lincoln Center, for which she pays under $1,000 a month."

"Alistair Cooke, the TV personality, pays about $1,100 for an eight-room apartment on Fifth Avenue."

"Fashion designer Arnold Scaasi, for example, has a six-room duplex facing the park, for which he is paying $985 a month."

"The most notorious example of all may be Ed Koch… He pays $350 a month… The worst thing, though, is that Koch doesn’t even live in his rent-controlled apartment. He lives in Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the mayor."


.

i've been told by english teachers at universities and schools all over the world that THIS BOOK is the NUMBER 1 TOP BOOK IN ALL THE BOOK RATINGS. this novel has been translated into more languages than that LOSER Gatsby was. A big "DEAL!!"