Look, Donald Trump on Donald Trump was never going to get a rave review from me. We all know this. But my gosh, this was probably one of the deadliest dull books I have ever read in my entire life. It's predictably boring in a way that defies even Fifty Shades of Grey to out-beige. I bet Trump thinks this is The Art of War for aspiring yuppies like Patrick Bateman, but it's really Mein Kampf for lazy, entitled trust fund babies.

The good news is that I have *plenty* of material on Trump as yuppie icon for the article on which I'm working. ( )

I commend the ghostwriter. ( )

Summary:

The Art of the Deal is a book about Trump's experience as a business man. It starts off with an average week in the life of Trump. Trump then talks about his childhood and family. Biggie T moves on to his work in Brooklyn and move to Manhattan. The Donald talks about some of his projects like developing the Grand Hotel and Trump Tower. He also talks about various other projects that he worked on during that time. Orange Man then talks about his experience renovating the Wollman Rink, a public ice rink in Manhattan. Trump ends the book book with a recount of how the projects he did turned out.

Thoughts:

This book was definitely a book that exists. I got much more ironic value out of this than anything. If this was a review on how funny I thought this was, it would be a 5/5. I just get kick from all the little things of this book, as it is unlike any biography I have ever read. The smallest things like how the font size is so unnecessarily large and the thickness of the text were what made me enjoy this book the most. The absolute casualness of Trump's writing is what really gets me. The hilarity of this book does wear off after a while when the entire joke of "haha funny orange man makes book" gets old. If anyone just wants to read a biography that isn't too serious and want to have a few chuckles at it, I'd definitely go for Art of the Deal. ( )

I want to understand Donald Trump better, so I thought I should read his first book, written before he was a national figure. Although it's written with many anecdotes that presumably you can use in your own life, it's more of an autobiography and less of a 'how-to' book. Disappointingly, it wasn't until after reading it that I realized it has a co-author, and I suspect that Trump himself merely approved the final copy without truly taking the time for reflection and introspection that a good autobiography requires. ( )

The art of the deal is about management, leadership mentality. It’s a kind of biography presenting the life of Donald Trump until the ’90s – way before he thought about the American presidency. If you’ve ever tried to figure out how were people making money in the United States, you will find out that the real estate market was a great place to do that. Then, sooner or later, Donald Trump’s name comes up inevitably because he did many great deals and he, eventually, made a lot of money.

Now, this is not a political message, don’t interpret it like that and be rational. You can like the man or be totally opposite, that’s not the point here. Nevertheless, I have to say that this is a brilliant book. If you’ve ever wondered how does someone at that level of working with hundreds of millions of dollars operate and make deals or what kind of deals they make? How were those deals structured and what was his thinking behind this decision-process, this is the book for you as Donald Trump reveals all of this. Simply saying, he walks you through a few of his transactions and presents the people and his strategy behind these deals. Most importantly he keeps the story really interesting.

Anyway, Donald Trump comes from a real estate family. His father, Fred Trump, was a renowned real estate developer on the outskirts of New York. He became a wealthy business person for building row properties in South Brooklyn. This way Donald Trump was already introduced into the real estate market as a child and when he came of age he decided to pursue a career in the real estate business. On the other hand, he didn’t want to stay in some niche and had his eyes set on Manhattan, the property capital of the world. However, the book doesn’t concentrate only on New York. You will find other deals in Atlanta and other cities where he was developing his other projects.

There are a few key points from the book which I’d like to mention below. Treat them as principles followed by Trump in his business and political (my assumption) career:

1. Think big, be obsessive and driven
2. Protect the downside and the upside will take care of itself which means to be very conservative in business. It’s better to pay a higher price for a sure thing rather than putting your business at risk
3. Maximise your options – be flexible and never be attached to one option, deal or approach. Keep as many options open as possible. Furthermore, if you took one way still hold other options at hand in order to deliver your goal
4. Know your market – don’t waste too much money on market research and surveys. Get there on your own and talk to real people until you know the market by instinct. Next, trust your gut feeling. Honestly, I’m not so sure about this point. Maybe in the ’80s market surveys weren’t so reliable, nowadays when we have AI, big data etc. I would rather go for it
5. Enhance your location – this rule is specific to the property business. Keep your property spotless and tidy and keep an eye on their surrounding as it’s one of the major price factors... (if you like to read my full review please visit my blog https://leadersarereaders.blog/the-art-of-the-deal/) ( )