More sigh.

One of the early Trump books... It was OK, but nothing spectacular. I'd read Art of the Deal 1st

Cada vez mais admiro o espírito desse herói.

I decided to continue my journey through Trump's memoirs with the next book in his portfolio. This time around, Tony Schwartz has been replaced by Charles Leerhsen as his ghostwriter. It's been a while since I read The Art of the Deal, so I can't say for sure whether the style has changed considerably. It felt like the book jumped back and forth between years a lot more, making it a bit hard to follow the chronology of events. Overall though, it is more or less an extension of his first book; to quote my review back then, it's “A bit braggy at times, but an entertaining read nonetheless.”

I loved this book. He talks about all the deals he makes. I think the best chapter was the last one called “On Toughness”. He talks about foreign policies and How America should be first. This book was published in 1990 and he still believes the same today. He talked about putting a 20% import tax on foreign imports. And he wants that on China today. This is what makes Donald Trump the greatest President in history. He believes in America and he fights for American. He can’t be bought! And most of all he is a man of his word. MAGA 100% and forever!

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/02/boo...

- Life is about series of set backs. What separate loser and winners is how a person reacts to the twist of fate

- We need to plan life long: that we can't just think once we achieve something, we'll be made (we won't be). Lots of people aim for a lofty goal, but once achieving it feeling more empty than before

- On marriage: Trump believes his marriage failed because he has different thought on life than Ivana. First, he married Ivana because he thought a person can't possibly have both brain and beauty (and jump the gun with seeing someone possess both). Second, he and Ivana have completely different goals in life. Ivana wants a glamorous life whereas Trump doesn't

- Always constantly checking in to avoid more fire down the road

- Just because a rule is conventional, doesn't mean it's an actual rule

- Treat people with presents: it would cost way less and accomplish way more

Interesting read. The guy hasn't changed a bit.

"My main purpose in life is to keep winning. And the reason for that is simple: If I don't win, I don't get to fight the next battle. (Donald J. Trump, Trump: Surviving at the Top, Page 13)

Written at a time when Trump was going through a divorce with Ivanka Trump. He discusses this and more. He shares the business dealings he currently has worked on at this time and some business deals that he closed. He also speaks about his adversaries and how to win in business and life. "Kick ass" as he is famously quoted.

I think he was in his 40's when he wrote this book and even then he had ideas on politics and shares them. He had good ideas then and now. Especially, concerning other countries raping the system.

The best part of the book in my opinion is his definition of "Toughness" he starts on page 228, which I share in closing:

"Toughness is pride, drive, commitment, and the courage to follow through on things you believe in, even when they are under attack. It is solving problems instead of letting them fester. It is being who you really are, even when society wants you to be somebody else. Toughness is walking away from things you want because, for one reason or another, acquiring them doesn't make sense.
Toughness is knowing how to be a gracious winner-and rebounding quickly when you lose.
For a nation, toughness means avoiding complacency, meeting and solving problems head-on, and being willing to use power for goals you know are honorable.
In business, toughness means playing by the rules but also putting those rules to work for you. It is looking at an adversary across the desk and saying, simply, No.
Sometimes, if you hang in there long enough and, as the boxing trainers always say, "keeping punching till the bell," people take notice and give you a boost."

I enjoyed Art of the Deal so much, I thought I'd like this one, too. And I did. This book starts about three years after the end of AotD (thus, circa 1990) when the overheated New York real estate scene goes south.Hence the "survival" aspect. Trump is never humble, but he blames nobody but himself for getting caught behind the eight ball with banks and creditors. And his account of the disintegration of his first marriage sounds truly heartfelt. Short, entertaining, and not a whole lot of new insights.

Surviving at the Top is the fourth book by Donald Trump that I have read so far, and it was definitely one of the better reads. It was interesting, entertaining, and pretty informative as it relates to the President's past life as a private citizen. As with many business-oriented memoirs, this, too, was nothing revolutionary in the realm of literature, but that's not why I read Trump's books, but rather for pure entertainment which this book has in spades.

Though a successor to The Art of the Deal, and written during his more business-oriented days, Surviving at the Top was not that much of a business book, which I found to be great. I have no business acumen and share no interest in anything business related, so I was relieved when I found this book to be more about Trump's personal take on things rather than a dry retelling of business transactions. Though he touches upon a lot of his dealings and acquisitions in this book, they never felt beyond my realm of comprehension, nor did these instances bore me with any analytics or legal details. At the end, there is a section on toughness, which Trump credits as being one of the most important aspects to success in business and in life. He talks about the tough people he has met and the instances where he displayed toughness to get a job done. If you were looking for a business lesson, this would be as close to that as you would get from this book. Yet, the majority of Surviving at the Top was basically Trump bragging about his victories or nonchalantly brushing off the deals that got away from him. This may not appeal to some people, but I found it to be entertaining.

Speaking of Trump's braggadocio, you will find it here in spades. This is classic Trump, once again. You will notice that he has not changed too much since his first literary outing in The Art of the Deal (and, to be honest, does not seem to have changed all that much since becoming President). In fact, it seems like he had been emboldened by his successes in business since his first book and has somehow become even more confident about himself and his organization. For a guy who is already as in love with himself as much as Donald Trump is, that is truly a lot of confidence to speak of. He also tries to humbly brag about himself on several occasions in Surviving at the Top, where he will talk himself up one way but play it off as though it were merely a fact that he was relaying to his readers, making it seem like no big deal in the first place. This can come off as highly arrogant to many people, and I have to concur. However, since this is something I notice about the President even to this day, I found these instances to be quite humorous and enjoyable. In short, this is the same Donald Trump as always, and if you happen not to like him all that much for any reason, you probably should skip this book entirely.

Like I have previously mentioned, since his writing of The Art of the Deal, Trump had been on a roll in real estate and had become braver as a result. Because of this newfound success, Trump did not feel the need to pull his punches when referencing his business adversaries. Though never one to hold his tongue with such matters as disparaging a rival, he seems to have taken things a step further in Surviving at the Top by appearing to be quite ruthless at times. He really lets loose when trash talking somebody who had wronged him or crossed him along the way, and I loved it. I may not seem like a good person for enjoying these moments of discourteous conflict so much, but I primarily read to be entertained, and that desire was fully satiated by Trump's anecdotes. Again, if you are of a more passive disposition, do not generally like conflict, or have a strong aversion to uncivilized conduct, Trump's book (and Trump in general) may not be for you.

One specific conflict worth mentioning for this review was Donald Trump's divorce from his first wife Ivana, which he touches upon early in the book. I have always heard of a lot of malice existing between the two parties whilst in the midst of their high profile separation, but Donald Trump downplayed any such notions in his book. He made it seem as though things were okay between he and Ivana, but I find that hard to believe, especially since the media had been covering it so fervently as to rile up both he and his wife to a boiling point. I think he just did not want to make things seem worse for him than they were in reality, which is typical Trump behavior. He came out of the divorce looking heartless, so he opted to paint himself in a totally different light for his book, which is understandable, but I wish he was more candid about his separation. To his credit, though, he did refrain from badmouthing Ivana as harshly as he had his business adversaries, which was uncharacteristically lenient of him to do so. I figured he would have taken this opportunity to really go after her and rip her to shreds, but he did no such thing. I am glad he did not put anything in print that he would have later regretted because, after all, she was still his first wife and the mother to his three children, so to speak ill of her would have been in poor taste.

Perhaps the most insight I learned about Donald Trump was how he conducted high-end negotiations. As stated earlier, these stories never divulged too deeply into the logistics of the business world, but were simply discussed with that signature Trumpian style. As such, we got to read about how he handled certain negotiations in his own unique way. What Trump would do was, he would start a negotiation at such a ludicrously unfair, unmanageable position that he would have no choice but to bargain himself down to a more reasonable place in the deal. Beginning talks at these ridiculous heights (demanding the impossible, asking for too much, giving very little) only to talk himself down somewhere within reason gave him the appearance of being flexible and willing to cooperate. In reality, however, this tactic would often land him at or above his intended asking price for whatever it was he was dealing in, knowing that, had he begun his talks somewhere in the ballpark of where he wanted to buy/sell for, the other party would naturally negotiate themselves in a more favorable position, thus resulting in Trump having to settle for a higher buying price or lower selling price. His method of negotiating, while perhaps unconventional and highly risky, often yielded him great success, at least up until this point in his career. I have yet to read The Art of the Comeback, but I have a suspicion that this tactic may not have always worked in his favor. Nevertheless, these bits were really informative and helped me to understand why Trump does or says a lot of unbelievable things before engaging in negotiations. Simply put: if you are going for 50, start at 100 and negotiate down to 70; you will look flexible while getting more than you set out for.

All in all, I was satisfied with Surviving at the Top, for it provided me with nearly everything I was looking for in a Trump book. He may not be the most popular man in America right now, but he is undeniably one of the most interesting, and this book helps to solidify that fact. If you have an interest in learning about the past lives of world leaders – American Presidents in particular – then I think any of Trump's books will satisfy that need for an unconventional history lesson. In Donald Trump's case, you will be getting some of the most irreverent contributions to Presidential literature in all of our country's history, which makes everything so much more entertaining.

Donald Trump now, Donald Trump then very much the same.