Archive View (July 2006)

Negotiating wisdom from Negotiate to Win, Trump University's new bootcamp course on negotiating While you were growing up, you probably negotiated with your parents about your chores, your allowance and your curfew. If you were like me in school, you negotiated for homework extensions with your teachers. In your family today, you negotiate about vacations, budget and other issues. And I'd be willing to bet that that you negotiate pretty hard when you're buying a car or a house. You and I are already seasoned negotiators. In one way or another, we have been negotiating every day of our lives and we have more...

I've never been a big fan of cell phones. I know it's hard to exist without them anymore. But there are so many people who are so addicted to them that they forget about manners and general civility when they use them. Cell phones have become such an irritation in the office that many companies are actually starting to place restrictions on them in the workplace. Some employers are just limiting cell phone use. Others are banning the phones entirely. There are few things more irritating than hearing someone's cell phone start ringing in the office. You're in the middle of a meeting more...

"Success is good. Success with significance is even better." - Donald J. Trump Sometimes we are so zealous to become successful that we forget about what is significant. The background for success should include some intrinsic values as well as monetary values. We should be aware of our culture and other cultures, our history and their history, and not live in what has been termed "a cultural vacuum." Someone once said that not knowing history was like being a leaf that didn't know it was part of a tree. That's an interesting visual and it applies to many people. We are individually responsible more...

I used to think that business in the nineteenth century moved at a slower pace than it does today. But then I spent some time with a great new book, The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy. I want to tell you, the tycoons described in that book moved as fast as anybody does today, maybe faster. Take a look at what Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was up to during just two random years: In 1865, he merged two steel companies into Union Iron Mills. He also founded the Keystone Bridge Company more...

My Candidates to Replace the MBAIn his post on this blog on June 22, 2006, business guru Tom Peters predicted the end of the MBA. Today he takes his predictions one level higher by suggesting some new degrees that should replace it. I'm going to scrap the MBA. In an age of creativity-design-innovaiton, who wants to be a "Master" of "Administration"? Master of "Paper Pushing"? Computers do that. Here are my substitutes:MFA (Master of Fine Arts) - As my friend Dan Pink writes, "The MFA is the new MBA." (Hooray, Dan! I wish I'd gotten there first with that one!)MMM/MM (Master more...

Seek the company of fellow travelers on your road to success There is a mistaken belief that if you are starting a business, you have to go it alone. The fact is, success will come a lot faster if you share the journey with other people. Some of those other people will be the attorneys, accountants and other professionals who will join your "kitchen cabinet" of advisors. But you should include fellow entrepreneurs too - some farther along than you, some less so - to provide advice and encouragement. Above all, avoid the common misconception that asking questions makes you look stupid. Of course, more...

I get all sorts of interesting questions on my various Websites and from regular letters in the mail. A lot of people ask me for business advice. A lot of people flat-out ask me for money. And a lot of people ask the strangest personal questions. Believe it or not, a couple of people have even asked me if I have any tattoos. The fact is I don't like tattoos. I don't like seeing people destroying their bodies and I hate to see people putting people's names on their bodies only to have them removed at a later date when they more...

Sixty percent of all Americans are dreaming about starting their own businesses. Why? What's their motivation to become entrepreneurs? I recently heard some fascinating answers to that question while I was listening to recorded transcripts from The Entrepreneur's Success Codes, a Trump University course that's taught by Jeff Burrows. In those transcripts, a group of Trump University students - all successful entrepreneurs - answered Jeff's question, "Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur?" Let's take a closer look at the reasons they gave: Motivation #1: An unstoppable passion for the work itself. It could be making real estate investments, restoring old cars more...

Advice you need today from Trump University's newest bootcamp course, Negotiate to Win: How to get what you want - - every time Positive thinking is essential to success, yet so many people just don't have the persistence required to make it work for them. The reality is, most overnight success stories are no such thing. Just because you've heard of someone for the first time doesn't mean they haven't been working for 20 or 30 years or more to get where they are. For example, The Apprentice became a big hit when it first aired, but I had over 30 years of more...

Shake-it-up thinking for success in marketing, entrepreneurship and lifeThis is an essay about what it takes to create and sell something remarkable. It is a plea for originality, passion, guts, and daring. You can't be remarkable by following someone else who's remarkable. One way to figure out a great theory is to look at what's working in the real world and determine what the successes have in common. But what could the Four Seasons and Motel 6 possibly have in common? Or Nieman Marcus and Wal-Mart? Or Nokia (bringing out new hardware every 30 days or so) and Nintendo (marketing the more...

Advice you need today from Trump University Real Estate 101 Because no one makes it alone in real estate, you need a network of professionals that includes: lenders' reps, real estate agents, title companies, property inspectors, lawyers, zoning/building regulators, handymen and handywomen, contractors and, of course, sellers, tenants and buyers. When should you begin to start to get to know these people and have them start to get to know you? Now! As Harvey Mackay puts it in his book Pushing the Envelope, "Dig your well before you're thirsty." Join your local real estate investment club. Go out and call on a variety more...

I really want to have sympathy for Britney Spears. And I hate to give the impression that I'm picking on her. But not long ago Britney went on television with Matt Lauer on NBC's "Dateline," pleading for her privacy. She admitted that she was an emotional wreck but the interview ended up being an incredible train wreck. First, Britney looked terrible. Her skirt was too short. Her makeup was messy. When she opened her mouth, it only got worse. She blamed the paparazzi for her bad image. She didn't admit that she made a mistake by driving with her baby on her more...

If you take a look at the Forbes 400 List of Wealthiest Americans,you will see that virtually every person on the list got there by being an entrepreneur. From Bill Gates to Warren Buffet to Michael Dell to our own Donald J. Trump, the truth is self-evident. People get rich by starting their own businesses. Some of the people on the list started companies when they were young, some started them when they were a little older. But nearly all of them took that first step toward monumental wealth by starting a company.More and more people today know that they can't more...

Bedrock marketing insights from the author of Trump University Marketing 101 When I was growing up, my family had a business installing water systems for country clubs, farms and housing developments. Whenever I went and worked alongside my father at those places, I could see how much people respected him for his honesty and integrity. He delivered what he promised. If a system failed at any time of the day or night, his customers knew they could call him and he would arrive promptly to fix the problem. At that time, I had no idea what marketing was. I certainly had no idea more...

If you are thinking of starting your own business, your success strongly depends on choosing a field of business you will love. Without a strong passion for your work, your efforts will suffer and so will your new business. Holidays, 9 - 5 workdays and weekends off are for the employed, not for the entrepreneur, so be ready for the initial and continuing work required to make your new business a success.Research demands more than looking into new products or innovation. You must also determine if it is possible to provide a better product or service than your competitors do. This more...

Let The Entrepreneurship Mastery Program make your start-up a success. How many people start new companies every month? Who are they? Just yesterday I was reviewing some data from The Kauffman Foundation that answers those questions, and more: 550,000 Americans start new businesses every month. Men are two times more likely to start businesses than women are. I know so many successful women entrepreneurs, that's a shocker to me. Hispanic Americans continue to start new businesses at a rate that outpaces all other groups. They are the heart and soul of American entrepreneurship. African-Americans lag behind when it comes to starting new businesses. That's disturbing. But growth more...

Chairman, Trump UniversityIf given the choice, would you rather get fired or get fat? It looks like most Americans would prefer to take their chances in my boardroom.According to a recent fitness survey, 58 percent of women and 54 percent of men say they'd rather be unemployed than gain an extra 75 pounds. An even higher percentage of the people say they'd rather be poor and at an ideal weight than be rich and substantially overweight. Obviously people think it's easier to find a job than to lose significant amounts of weight. They'd rather go job-hunting than have to make lifestyle more...

You've worked hard to get where you are in life. You've studied, labored, gone the extra mile, taken on additional responsibility, continued your education, honed your instincts, developed sound judgment, retained your integrity, generated positive energy and assembled a top-notch staff. You have learned to sense and set direction, plan, budget, master problem-solving (both yours and everyone else's), dress for success, achieve brilliance and multitask out the kazoo. Yet, despite all of that effort, is something still missing? Maybe you still haven't received the significant success, the level of accountability, impact, or influence that you want. The line on the wall more...

Radical learning from The Wealth Builder's Blueprint Finance has its own vocabulary. The more you understand it, the more you control your financial future. This story illustrates the point. Early in my career as a CPA, I had two clients who were pretty similar. They both owned construction companies. They each earned about $50,000 a year, and when they came to me so I could do their taxes, they both brought shoeboxes stuffed with financial records. After I was done sorting through the first guy's financial records (let's call him John), he only got mad. He was angry about my fee. He was angry more...

Chairman, Trump UniversityHere's a story I can guarantee you would NEVER fly at the Trump Organization.A Dutch insurance company is offering employers a policy that would pay off if workers call in sick on days surrounding the soccer World Cup.Apparently, tens of thousands of Dutch workers called in sick during soccer championship matches several years ago. In some cases, companies were missing as many as 20 percent of their workers on the day of -- or the day after -- big matches and there was nothing they could do about it.Under Dutch law, companies have to pay employees who say they're more...

A week ago I heard the comedian Tim Allen say something that has been on my mind ever since. He said that he uses three lists to organize his life: List one contains the greatest goals he wants to achieve in his life. List two contains the things he needs to do this year in order to reach his life goals. List three contains the things he needs to do today in order to reach his life goals. Of course, Allen's three-list system offers only one way to set goals for your life. If you visit a bookstore, you will find dozens of books that more...