Trump: The Art of the Deal

DEALING
 
A Week in the Life
 
IDON T do it for the money. I ve got enough, much more than I ll ever need. I do it to do it. Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That s how I get my kicks.
 
Most people are surprised by the way I work. I play it very loose. I don t carry a briefcase. I try not to schedule too many meetings. I leave my door open. You can t be imaginative or entrepreneurial if you ve got too much structure. I prefer to come to work each day and just see what develops.
 
There is no typical week in my life. I wake up most mornings very early, around six, and spend the first hour or so of each day reading the morning newspapers. I usually arrive at my office by nine, and I get on the phone. There s rarely a day with fewer than fifty calls, and often it runs to over a hundred. In between, I have at least a dozen meetings. The majority occur on the spur of the moment, and few of them last longer than fifteen minutes. I rarely stop for lunch. I leave my office by six-thirty, but I frequently make calls from home until midnight, and all weekend long.
 
It never stops, and I wouldn t have it any other way. I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That s where the fun is. And if it can t be fun, what s the point?
 
MONDAY
 
9:00 A.M.   My first call is to Alan ( Ace ) Greenberg, on the trading floor of Bear Sterns, a major Wall Street investment banking firm. Alan is the CEO of Bear Sterns, he s been my investment banker for the past five years, and he s the best there is. Two weeks ago, we began buying stock in Holiday Inns. It was selling in the 50s. As of this morning, Alan tells me, I own just over one million shares, or slightly more than 4 percent of the company. The stock closed Friday at $65 a share, mostly, Alan says,

Donald J. Trump with Tony Schwartz

Trump makes one believe for a moment in the American dream again. The New York Times
 
Donald Trump is a deal maker. He is a deal maker the way lions are carnivores and water is wet. Chicago Tribune
 
Fascinating . . . wholly absorbing . . . conveys Trump s larger-than-life demeanor so vibrantly that the reader s attention is instantly and fully claimed. Boston Herald
 
A chatty, generous, chutzpa-filled autobiography. New York Post