The New Year in Trump Tower

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!