This was a very enjoyable read (or listen). Hearing about the way Trump thinks and the risks he was willing to take was kind of inspiring, actually. The writing was very much in his style of speaking, which (however you feel about him personally or politically) is highly entertaining to me. The Audible narrator did an exceptional job of capturing Trump’s unique personality without being a cheesy caricature.
Highly recommend.

I read this mainly because I was asking myself the question of how did we get here. I still don't have a great understanding of the ascent of Trump other than it has to be bad writing and we're in a simulation. The reality is that over sixty million people still voted for the man in spite of a long career of being an obviously trash person. There are a couple of things that stick to me from this book. The first thing you have to think about is that this book was basically the first national advertisement for the Trump Brand in that it was what he was putting forward to the world because there is nothing the man cares so much about than the image. His decorations show it, as does the book, talking about the decorations of the Trump Tower and how he thinks they relate to classy but are more on the dictator / nouveau riche line. No, what really got me was his needless cruelty. Trump talks about the time he hit his teacher, which got a lot of coverage in the press when he campaigned. He also talks about taking his brother's blocks and gluing them together because his brother liked those blocks and Trump for some reason didn't like to see his brother enjoy anything. And then we move from the past to the future where in the course of the book he talks about how one day he blows his wife off for lunch because he's "Too Busy" but still has time the same day to welcome the David Letterman crew up to his office on an impromptu visit. He's shallow and cruel and capricious - and this is his book! We shouldn't have been surprised. It's worth a read if you're the type of person who slows down and looks at flaming wreckage in your journey.

You will find hints of just about everything you see in Trump now in this book. Too bad people mostly did not read it at all, read it closely or heed its warnings.

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".

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.

Initially when i started reading this book, it felt like to goody-goody commercial stuff. I put it aside while trying to comprehend what made me buy this book.

I returned to this book much later and as I started reading beyond the first 2 chapters, I could help but be captivated as I turned page after page after page.

I think the beauty of this books doesn't lies in the overly positive stories that Trump has sketched to make the book reader friendly (perhaps?). However, if you read between the lines, you will see that the reason to his success at that time was his unreal drive to achieve extraordinary goals. It becomes apparent that Trump has a penchant for going many extra miles to make his achievements truly stand out.

I found the book to a good read but maybe not in the way it was intended.

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."


.

Surprisingly candid and good read about the early career of Donald Trump and the nitty gritty of the New York real estate scene.
He comes across as a shrewd businessman, showman and politician.

I have not read the book.

But then hey, Trump did not write it.

DONALD TRUMP’S GHOSTWRITER TELLS ALL

27/03/2017

Well, I guess he's not such a great deal-maker after all. The first chance he had to make one in the White House, he failed miserably.

Or maybe he's just a dealer?

04/08/2017

I am interested in what kind of "deal" he's going to make with North Korea.

25/01/2019

Opposing bills to end US shutdown fail in Senate, with no clear path forward

What's the deal now, Donny?

I read this when I was thirteenish? I found it in a used bookstore and read it. The only thing I remember many, many years later is that it recommended washing your used car before selling it to get the best price, which seemed pretty obvious to me. Best summed up as forgettable.

I am using this Labor Day weekend which the Democratic Party gave me to promote a Republican’s nonfiction work.

If I wanted to read a life of a saint, I would read about St. Rose of Lima. If I wanted to read great literature, I would pull one of the Hawthorne volumes off my shelves. This time, I wanted to read something from the most important statesman in the world. Pope Francis isn’t it (certainly not!). UN Secretary General? Nah. Donald Trump? President Donald Trump? There you go.

This classic autobiography, co-written with Tony Schwartz in 1987, is as insightful now as it was then. Specifically, I have culled the following ideas which would not only help entrepreneurs now as it did in 1987, but also those of us who want to understand the philosophy of the current president. Besides business-minded persons, understanding Trump’s key ideas can inspire readers to examine their own lives.

Trump firmly believes in the “think big” principle (46). Questions we can ask ourselves: how big are our own plans in life? If we are young, are the goals we have set for ourselves big? Middle age: are they just as big? Older: are the plans for our lives still just as big?

Trump writes, “In fact, I believe in the power of negative thinking. […] If you plan for the worst—if you can live with the worst—the good will always take care of itself” (48). This quote approximates an idea circulating in my own family which particularly resonated with me. The idea is that, if one prepares for the worst to happen, then one is at least prepared; if good occurs instead, then one can be delighted. I always thought it was an Italian cultural principle. Trump is not Italian (too bad!), so the idea of preparing for the worst must be either European American or cross-cultural. Do we live by this principle?

“The point is that if you are a little different, or a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you” (56). How true! The question for ourselves should be: how outrageous are we in our respective fields? If we are not, then why? Why be afraid of being outrageous in academia, business, law, medicine, etc.?

“I’m very good to people who are good to me. But when people treat me badly or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard” (58-9). Great principle! Turning the other cheek may be symbolic or a metaphor for Jewish and Christian kindliness, but few realize that the Jewish and Christian imperative demands that we respect ourselves. Self-defense applies not only to war situations, but also to daily life. President Trump knows this principle and applies it admirably where he must defend himself constantly against the aggressive social media oligarchs Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube.

“Have fun” (63). The moment that President Trump no longer has fun doing magnificent work to help the country is the day he will quit. I don’t see any sign of quitting, nor should we quit in doing the jobs, the work, the vocations, or the avocations that we love.

“It irritates me that critics, who’ve neither designed nor built anything themselves, are given carte blanche to express their views in the pages of major publications, whereas the targets of their criticism are almost never offered space to respond” (342). Proof positive that Twitter was made for President Trump. Jack Dorsey doesn’t realize how helpful he has been to the president’s election in 2016 and will be to the president’s re-election in 2020.

“But what I admire most are people who put themselves directly on the line” (367). It’s about time that the highest elected official in the country recognizes those who do the hard work of life yet remain unacknowledged: the coal worker, struggling to put food on his family’s table; the faculty member, checking online papers late at night; or the pro-life counselor, working to help not only the mother faced with an untimely pregnancy, but also the unborn child and the father.

One can read pious platitudes from many sources on Facebook or Twitter. Why read those when one can read trenchant commentary from the world’s greatest statesman? Besides that, reading this autobiography of President Trump is much more palatable than, for example, the self-centered works by the has-been Hillary or that other has-been Obama, both of whom arguably did more to destroy the country than make it great (again).

Summary recommendation: read Trump’s work; think big; be positive; don’t just stand up, but fight for your values; and enjoy life. What more life-affirming, positive message in a nonfiction work could there be?

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.