Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education In Business and Life

by Donald J. Trump, Meredith McIver (With)

Overview

Over the years, Donald Trump has written many bestselling books, but he has also written shorter essays that encompass his philosophy about how to live life to the fullest, both personally and professionally. In these pieces, which have been personally selected by Donald Trump for this book, he gives his special perspective in what amounts to an “informal education” about success in business and in life. His insights are engaging, educational, and informative and together they provide a very clear window into the mind and heart of this extraordinary and successful man.

Topics include:
*The Shock Market
*Keep the Big Picture in Mind
*Give Your Higher Self a Chance
*Essays, Assets, and Stephen King
*Discover and Live Your Purpose
*Go Against the Tide
*Imagination: A Key to Financial Savvy
*The Good, the Bad, and the Rogue Wave
*Financial Literacy
*Think Like a Genius

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781593155711
Publisher:	Da Capo Books
Publication date:	04/06/2010
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	81,801
Product dimensions:	5.62(w) x 8.38(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Donald J. Trump is the Chairman and President of the Trump Organization. He is the preeminent developer of quality real estate around the world, making the Trump brand synonymous with the gold standard. His commitment to excellence extends from his real estate holdings to the entertainment industry. As the star and co-producer of the NBC hit series The Apprentice, to his award-winning golf courses and skyscrapers, his business acumen is unparalleled. His Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue has become one of the most famous landmark buildings in New York City, and his Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City has received the coveted Mobil Five-Star Award. He is the archetypal businessman—a deal maker without peer and an ardent philanthropist.

Table of Contents

Foreword Robert Kiyosaki xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

Barack Obama Election Ushers in a Different World 1

Essays, Assets, and Stephen King 3

Innovation 7

The Importance of Being a Team Player 11

An Early Thanksgiving 13

Learning Is a New Beginning 15

Learn to Think on Your Feet 19

Strive for Wholeness 23

Give Your Higher Self a Chance 27

Wisdom 31

The More You Learn, the More You Realize What You Don't Know 35

Think Like a Champion 39

I View My Work as an Art Form 43

Building Connected Thoughts 47

Confronting Your Fears 51

Imagination: A Key to Financial Savvy 55

Is Business Success a Natural Talent? 57

Keep It Short, Fast, and Direct 61

Have the Right Mindset for the Job 65

Momentum Is Something You Have to Work at to Maintain 69

Learn from Setbacks and Mistakes 73

Tell People About Your Success 77

Prescience 81

The Shock Market 83

Financial Literacy 85

Destiny 89

Each Success Is the Beginning of the Next One 93

There Are Times When You Should Move On 97

Keep the Big Picture in Mind 101

Get the Best People You Can 105

Winners See Problems as Just Another Way to Prove Themselves 109

Scotland: You're Hired! 113

Develop a Tempo When You're Working 117

You Can Better Your Best at Any Time 121

They Thought I Was Doing So Well 123

It's Not Personal—It's Business 127

Think Like a Genius 131

Go Against the Tide 135

Think Positively 139

People Have Different Ways of Achieving Results 143

Discover and Live Your Purpose 147

Set the Standard 151

Go with Your Gut 155

Know Your Audience 157

The Good, the Bad, and the Rogue Wave 161

Building Your Reputation 169

“The Harder I Work, the Luckier I Get” 173

How to Get Rich 177

In Addition to Business: What the Successful Person Needs to Know 185

You Can Be in Charge 189

Synergy 193

Recommended Reading Donald J. Trump's 195

Index 197

Editorial Reviews

Given Trump's larger than life—and polarizing—public persona, part of Skipp Sudduth's achievement as narrator is his creation of a buffer zone of sorts. Granted, the entrepreneur does deliver a zealous introduction, but as Sudduth takes over, it becomes possible to overlook the positive and negative caricatures of Trump the celebrity and focus on his tangible no-nonsense advice. While viewers of The Apprentice will certainly recognize “The Donald” 's bravado in the recurring litany of accomplishments related to the global Trump brand, Sudduth's presentation of the career and personal growth tips will resonate with listeners. A Vanguard hardcover. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Donald Trump is all about unlikely success. His glittering urban towers, undulating golf courses, opulently outfitted wives (two former and one current, a fashion model), and prolonged reality TV moment serve as ongoing evidence that his boundless self-confidence can turn seemingly impossible dreams into reality. In Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education in Business and Life, written with Meredith McIver, the real estate tycoon and TV star generously fills us in on the secrets of his success -- and explains how we, too, can prevail in our career endeavors.

Turns out Trump's power is not in his hair (if that is his hair) but in his mind. "Champions are born and champions are made," he writes. "Champions think big. Champions work in a big-time way. Champions are focused. Champions are disciplined. Come to think of it, champions think like champions."

Yes, the book is filled with circular head-scratchers like that. But as anyone who has tuned into The Apprentice week after week to watch Trump preen and pontificate before his assembled eager acolytes can tell you, there's something strangely compelling about the Donald's business platitudes. And Think Like a Champion provides ample opportunity to take them in and mull them over.

Each pithy chapter begins with a quote from a famous thinker (Eleanor Roosevelt, Oscar Wilde, Henry Ford, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Alberts Schweitzer and Einstein: Trump's Bartlett's must be in tatters!), which the author briefly explores -- summoning examples from his own life -- before wrapping things up with a chunk of "go out there and get 'em" advice. The result is one part Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey, one part self-help book, and one part Trump infomercial.

For instance,Trump begins an essay entitled "Confronting Your Fears" with a double epigraph: one from Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world," and one from Carl Jung, "To ask the right question is already half the solution of a problem." These he follows up with a personal anecdote: "Recently, an interviewer asked me what my greatest fears were. I said I didn't have any. He seemed surprised, but this is how I see it: If you label something a fear, then it creates fear when sometimes it's not a fear but a concern.... The same applies to business."

The experience Trump draws on to illustrate the principle is to the point -- and distinctly his own.

When I began to construct Trump Tower, for example, I had several things in mind that I knew I wanted. I wanted a certain kind of marble called Breccia Perniche, which was expensive, beautiful, and rare. It was also irregular and had white spots and white veins, which bothered me, so I went to the quarry itself and marked off the best slabs with black tape. Action turned this concern into a problem solved. I got exactly the marble pieces I wanted, and sitting around worrying about whether those pieces would be right or wrong was getting me nowhere. As a result of deciding to go to the quarry myself, the pieces of this puzzle fell into place and the finished product was perfect.

Perfect! To be sure, no one's ever accused Donald J. Trump of being a shrinking violet or of hiding his light -- no matter how strong or dim you consider it to be -- under a bushel. Trump encourages us all to be just as self-confident and self-promoting as he. "It's very important to be your own best friend," he maintains, citing Mark Twain's advice to "be comfortable with your own approval." "Think about it: If you can't say great things about yourself, who do you think will? So don't be afraid to toot your own horn when you've done something worth tooting about."

It is with just such brass-band subtlety that Trump fills us in on the impressiveness of his TV success, the groundbreaking nature of his buildings, the astounding superiority of his golf courses, his fantastic ability to surround himself with only the best people, his business prescience. And while he considers himself a genius ("Someone asked me if I thought I was a genius. I decided to say yes. Why not?"), he'd also like us to know that "the surprising thing is that I'm more humble than people might think."

But here's the thing. Even as we roll our eyes and smirk, somehow, in his blustery way, Trump manages to charm us. Maybe it's because his belief in himself seems to bleed into a belief in us, we who are smart enough to read his book, to recognize his genius, to sit at his knee -- or, better image, across the boardroom table -- and listen to him hold forth on all he's learned. Because we believe in him (he assumes), Trump is willing to believe in us. And if his rather pallid advice is not exactly inspiring, cumulatively, it is unexpectedly...comforting.

A question I would ask you to ask yourself to give you a jump-start in thinking big is this: What is your creative capital? What do you have to offer? What have you acquired in your experience and in your studies that makes you valuable? Are you aware of your own potential? Will you be equipped to make a difference when the time comes for you to step forward? Start thinking along those lines and your worth will have already been multiplied.

I think big, and you can do the same. Just focus on your own standards, your own potential, and tenaciously stay with them. You will be defining yourself and your future success in the process.

Yes, it's generic. Yes, it's hokey. Yes, it's oh so Norman Vincent Peale. (Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking is on Trump's "Recommended Reading" list.) But, so what? Look what completely outsized self-confidence and self-promotion have done for Trump, who is no great intellect and certainly no great beauty. And these days, when the business news is one big bummer, with careers and companies careening off the tracks (including Trump Entertainment Resorts, which has for the third time filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a fact not mentioned in the book), and the global recession beckoning us all toward personal depression, maybe we could all use a little of the power of Trumpative thinking. --Amy Reiter

Amy Reiter, a former editor and senior writer for Salon, has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Glamour, Marie Claire, Wine Spectator, and American Journalism Review, among other publications.

Amy Reiter