My Keys to Personal and Business Success

I’m known as the “Buy a Business Guy” at Trump University. And with good reason. I’m the professor who developed Trump U’s premier course, The Art of Buying a Business. I’ve also bought and sold many businesses over the years. 

But between the purchase and the sale of the businesses I've owned, I’ve also run those enterprises - and I have run them well, too. I’ve also cultivated the habit of writing down my thoughts over the years - thoughts that I believe can help you run your business better and maybe even grasp that golden ring known as “success.” 

I’d like to share some of these ideas with you this morning because I believe they will make a difference in your ability to achieve success, whether you buy or start a business of your own.  

•  No matter how much work must get done, always focus on one task at a time. Give it your full attention, do it right and move on to the next thing.
• Never get down! There will be good times and bad times. You will make good decisions and bad decisions. Don't let fear overtake your ability to make a decision. Better a bad one than none at all!
• The business must always come first. Do right by the business and it will do right by you.
• No matter how rough the waters are, keep swimming! You only need one nostril above the water.
• Develop a helping attitude. Approach your business as a way to help others, whether they are customers, employees, or suppliers. If you constantly strive to help others, the profit will surely follow.
• In baseball, someone who hits the ball safely three times out of ten will get into the Hall of Fame. You don't have to be right all the time, but as long as you succeed even once more than you fail, you win!
• Always look to build the business through increasing revenues and profits. Do not count on cutting expenses as a way to grow the business. You, too, should remember the best piece of marketing advice I ever heard: "You can save your way to solvency, but you must market your way to success."
• Get a mentor. Find people you can bounce ideas off of and get their input. A retired executive from a competitor might make a marvelous choice, or an individual from the local chamber of commerce, or a family friend. You can't do it alone. There are plenty of people who want to help and all it takes is for you to ask them.
• Become goal-oriented. List all of the things you want to accomplish in business and in your personal life. Reduce these to monthly accomplishments. Write up a personal mission statement for your business and your life. Read it every day.
• If you are not proud of your company, its products, and personnel, you cannot be successful.
• Hire employees who are better, faster, and smarter than you.
• Being right is not important, but doing the right thing always is.
• Do not let your loyalty to customers, suppliers, or employees bankrupt the business. There may be times when you have to terminate a relationship. 
• Let passion and commitment be your most dominant characteristics: they are infectious traits.

And finally, my big three . . .  

•  Dream big.
•  Stay focused.
• If you never give up, you can’t fail.

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