Five Billion Reasons Why You Should Read This BookA lot has happened to us all since 1987. That’s the year The Art of the Dealwas published and became the bestselling business book of the decade,with over three million copies in print.(Business Rule #1: If you don’t tell people about your success, theyprobably won’t know about it.)A few months ago, I picked up The Art of the Deal, skimmed a bit, andthen read the first and last paragraphs. I realized that after seventeen yearsthey still rang true. I could have written these words yesterday:First paragraph: I don’t do it for the money. I’ve got enough, much morethan I’ll ever need. I do it to do it. Deals are my art form. Other people paintbeautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferablybig deals. That’s how I get my kicks.Last paragraph: Don’t get me wrong. I also plan to keep making deals, bigdeals, and right around the clock.It’s now 2004, I’m still making deals around the clock, and I still don’tdo it for the money.I don’t think you should do it for the money, either. Money is not anend in itself, but it’s sometimes the most effective way to help us realizeour dreams. So if you’ve got big dreams and you’re looking for a way tomake them happen, this book is for you.◄ 8 ►▼How to Get RichHow to Get Rich. That’s what I decided to call it, because whenever Imeet people, that’s usually what they want to know from me. You ask abaker how he makes bread. You ask a billionaire how he makes money.Sure, there have been countless how-to-get-rich books written bymillionaires. Billionaire authors are harder to find. Billionaire authors withinterests in real estate, gaming, sports, and entertainment are rarer still.And billionaire authors with their own Manhattan skyscrapers and hitprime-time TV series are the rarest of all. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one,though Oprah could give me a run for the money if she ever decides towrite another book and get into real estate.Business Rule #2: Keep it short, fast, and direct. The following pageswill be straightforward and succinct, but don’t let the brevity of thesepassages prevent you from savoring the profundity of the advice you areabout to receive. These stories and words of wisdom have been distilledfrom almost thirty years at the top.So here it comes: The Scoop from The Donald. After you make yourfirst billion, don’t forget to send me a thank-you note. You know theaddress.
Be Patient I like to move quickly, but if a situation requires patience, I will be patient. The speed depends on the circumstances, and I keep my objective in mind at all times. This alone can be a patience pill. Ive spent from five minutes to fifteen years waiting for a deal. One good tactic for speeding up a deal is to show a lack of interest in it. This will often make the other side rekindle their efforts to get something going. I was very interested in a deal once, but I had a hunch that it wasnt a good idea to look too eager to these people. I would put off their calls and do my best to appear aloof. Then I said Id be traveling for a couple of weeks and would get back to them after that. While I was traveling, they used the time to modify their position and present to me almost precisely what Id been hoping to get. It saved us all a lot of negotiating time.
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A good tactic for slowing down a deal is to distract the other side. One way is to drop hints about whether a certain aspect of the deal should be looked into further, or to mention other deals and properties as examples. That will set them off in a direction that consumes their time and focus. While theyre off on a tangent, youll still be on target. One time, I was in the middle of a negotiation that seemed to be speeding out of my control. I suddenly asked the other side if they knew the history of a particular development, implying that their understanding of it might be crucial. They figured the development must have had some 137 How to Get Rich bearing on what we were trying to accomplish together, so they backed up a bit, took some time to investigate it, and gave me control of the negotiations with enough time to assess everything at my leisure. I got the upper hand. Life at the top means the phone calls never stop. 138 How to Get Rich
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Be Strategically Dramatic In 1999, I began construction on the tallest residential tower in the world, Trump World Tower at the United Nations Plaza. The location was terrificthe East Side of Manhattan, close to the United Nations, with both river views and city views. It was hot stuff, but not everyone was happy about it, especially some diplomats at the United Nations, who didnt want their thirty-eight-story building to be outclassed by our ninety-story tower. According to CNN, UN secretary general Kofi Annan acknowledged talking with New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani about the project and how to stop it. It will not fit here, the Ukrainian ambassador, Volodymyr Yelchenko, told CNN, because it overshadows the United Nations complex. When the protests became vocal, I used my own brand of diplomacy and refused to say anything critical of the United Nations. I predicted that many ambassadors and UN officials would end up buying apartments in the building. Sure enough, they have.
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But as soon as we were in business, the city hit us with an enormous tax assessment, costing us over $100 million more than we thought we should pay. We decided to take the only action possible. We sued the city for $500 million. For four years, we fought this case. The city lawyers held their ground, and we held ours. We could have given up. Its not easy to take on the 139 How to Get Rich government and win, especially when the issue is taxes, but I knew we had a case. Finally, after many conversations, we reached a settlement. The city agreed to cut our taxes seventeen percent and give us the ten-year tax abatement that we sought if we would agree to withdraw our lawsuit and subsidize two hundred units of affordable housing in the Bronx. The lawsuit saved us approximately $97 million. We never would have gotten any of it if we hadnt taken dramatic action. 140 How to Get Rich
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