The Trump Blog

If you’re smart, you’ve learned what not to say in a romantic relationship. You’d never tell a woman she looked fat in a dress or tell a man he was losing his hair. But have you learned what not to say in a business relationship?

Recently, CareerBuilder.com put together a list of some of most inappropriate things you could say in the workplace. You’d think a lot of this was common sense, but I admit I’ve heard so many of these lines before.

For example, if you say "That's not my job," There’s pretty much no better way to advertise that you’re not a team player. It shows you’re only out to do the minimum and you better hope later on you don’t need somebody else’s help, because you won’t get it.

It’s also not very smart to say something like, "Don't tell anyone I said this, but ... " and then proceed to blab someone’s secret.If someone told you something in confidence, then keep it to yourself. You don’t want to get a reputation as a blabbermouth and someone who gossips.

At evaluation time, don’t complain by saying, "I haven't had a raise in four years." Very few bosses think longevity alone merits a raise. Asking for a raise just because it’s been a long time since your last one just tells your boss that you want more money, not that you deserve it.

Other things you shouldn’t say at work are things like..."It's not my fault"..."I got so trashed last night "...and "I just didn't have enough time for that." I think it’s pretty self-explanatory why these are bad things to say: they make you seem like a loser. You’re ready to pass the blame or share too much (bad) personal information or just show you’re not as good at your job as you should be.

If you say those things, your boss might say, “You’re fired!”

"What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I receive a lot of mail every day -- piles of it. Not too long ago I received a letter from my kindergarten teacher. It was a big surprise for me to come across that in one of those piles of letters. She mentioned that what she remembered most clearly about me is that I never stopped asking questions. I was the most inquisitive student she had ever had. I wrote back to her that some things never change - I still ask a lot of questions - but that my curiosity and sense of discovery have served me well for all these years. I also thanked her, belatedly, for her patience many years ago, listening to all my questions.

I started thinking back to those early days. Every one of my questions was the beginning of a new discovery back then, and that's how it is with me today. I hope it's the same with you.

Emerson's quote, "What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us" is a good thought to keep in mind. It allows your mind to think big because there are big reservoirs of ideas inside all of us. It's a way to open the channels of creative thought, which leads to discovery and achievement. It's also a reminder that no matter how much you've accomplished already, there's still more waiting for you to get done.

Give yourself a chance - cultivate a sense of discovery.

Today’s blog post is adapted from: Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Opportunity, the newest book by our Chairman, Donald J. Trump.

So far, the New Year has been shaping up very well. The Celebrity Apprentice season started off as the #1 show on Thursday night, and word has it that it’s sharp, funny and insightful. I thought so when I saw it earlier, and realized it must be good if the hour zipped by as quickly as it did, but it’s nice to have back-up opinions that are similar. We’re looking forward to a great season, and we hope you are too. Don Jr., Ivanka and George Ross are back as Mr. Trump’s advisors.

Later this month, Mr. Trump’s new book, Never Give Up, will be released. We worked on this book over an eight-month period, compiling stories of the challenges he’s met with just about everything he’s done. We thought people would like to know about some of the obstacles he’s faced in the course of his career, which includes relocating tortoises in Florida, finding a skeleton at a development site in New York, getting stuck on a boat circling Manhattan all night, and rebuilding a golf course after a landslide in California. It helps if your name is Trump, but that doesn’t mean everything is easy, and this book will inspire you to keep going and to never give up. We will be giving you some previews on the Trump U site soon.

One thing that revs up when The Apprentice is on the air is the amount of media appearances by Mr. Trump. His schedule has been OTT - over-the-top - but he hasn’t missed a beat of his regular schedule. Next to your never give up attitude should be discipline - the discipline of keeping your focus no matter what is going on around you. That’s one thing I’ve learned from watching Mr. Trump in action - he keeps his focus intact and doesn’t neglect anything that needs his attention. That in itself is inspiring. Sometimes I think I’m busy until I look at the piles on his desk and see him sitting there patiently and intently reading everything while I slip out when my day is over. He often stays past 8:00 p.m. to catch up and every time he travels, he takes several boxes full of work with him.

Maybe you’ve seen the new ads for the Trump Hotel Collection: The Next Generation. The ads emphasize the architecture which is a good choice - every hotel is distinctive as well as spectacular. The development team, with principals Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump, has been tremendously busy and their efforts are being seen globally. The locations and hotels are fantastic and it’s exciting to watch this collection move forward in such an elegant and dynamic way.

That’s the early January report from the front office, and we hope your New Year will prove to be a great one. Keeping up with the doings at Trump University will definitely point you in the right direction for that to happen. Happy New Year!

To make 2008 your most successful year ever . . . Think big!

When you were a child, would you have liked to keep crawling, when everyone else was walking? I don’t think so.

We all have to start with small steps, but the point is:

Get to the biggest steps you’re capable of taking.

Thinking small will limit your potential. Thinking big will take you places. Thinking big can get you to the top, and I can tell you, it’s not lonely up here.

Successful people like challenges. It’s our nature. Keep in sync with this basic premise, and you’ll begin moving forward with the momentum necessary for great achievement.

Striving from an early age is one secret to success. I learned to work hard from an early age, trying to catch up with my father who was a very successful developer. But you can keep striving no matter what your age or accomplishments.

These three concepts will guide you:  

1. Ask yourself why your plans are so small. Then begin to expand your horizons.
2. Concentrate on managing your future, not your past. Learn from the past, but don’t stay there.
3. Look at the solution. Don’t focus on the problem.

The faculty and staff of Trump University join Donald J. Trump in wishing you the most successful year ever.

Do you work nights? It may be harmful to your health. Like UV rays and diesel exhaust fumes, working the graveyard shift will soon be listed as a "probable" cause of cancer.

Scientists suspect that overnight work is dangerous because it disrupts the body’s biological clock. In addition, a hormone which can suppress tumor development is normally produced at night. People who work nights also tend to sleep less. Not getting enough sleep makes your immune system vulnerable to attack, and less able to fight off cancerous cells.

If this theory is correct, millions of people worldwide could be affected. Experts estimate that nearly 20 percent of the workers in developed countries work nightshifts.

But don’t get too worried. There are still plenty of skeptics. Maybe the only side effect to working the night shift is that you end up going to bed alone.

A wealth-building secret from the pages of Trump Wealth Building 101

What do wealthy people have in common?

You might be surprised to learn that one of the most powerful habits of wealthy people is their ability to visualize a better financial future. They develop a clear mental picture of where they want to be financially, and then describe their financial vision in a simple and concise statement that serves as a constant reminder of where they are headed. This picture becomes a powerful motivator in their quest to produce and acquire wealth.

If you can get a clear picture of the way you want your life to look, that glimpse, quite often, may be enough to keep you moving ahead in pursuit of your personal dream of wealth.

What is a financial vision statement? Let’s take a closer look.

Let’s say that you have a plan to pay $900 a month to service your debt so that, in 18 months, you will your goal of becoming debt-free.

That is your goal, to get out of debt. But your vision statement is something much bigger. It tells you what life will be like once you reach your goal. When you are debt-free, for example, you can invest some of the money that you will be able to save. Or you can enjoy the feeling of having the burden of debt lifted off your shoulders. Those are great motivators.

Do you see the difference between a financial goal and a financial vision? A goal is a measurable step, while a vision is a picture of the brighter future you can achieve once the goal is reached.

So start thinking about your financial vision statement. Get in touch with what you truly want out of life.

Remember, wise and wealthy King Solomon wrote, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

He understood that once people lose their vision of a better future, they lose their hope--and even their desire--to persevere through life’s challenges.

I never send emails. If I need to communicate with someone, I ask them to come to my office or I just pick up the phone.

But there are people I know who are always sending emails. They’re always on their computers or their Blackberrys or their iPhones. They send and receive hundreds of messages a day.

Thirty-five million emails are sent daily. White-collar workers spend more than two hours of their paid time each day at a total loss for all employers of 28 billion hours a year and $650 billion dollars! So they waste time and productivity as well as lots of money for employers.

Sure, in many cases business gets done through email but you have to wade through a lot of junk to get through the messages that are actually important.

Try using the phone or actually meeting with someone instead of spending hours and hours on email. Don’t waste your time and your employer’s money.