Donald Trump: 9 Trump Rules To Rise Above Mediocrity


Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

I saw Donald Trump in 2007 when he came to Toronto for the Learning Annex show. He professed,"NO DRINKING, NO SMOKING and NO DRUGS" as he believes these are signs of weakness and to be successful one must have control over themselves and conquer bad habits. One of the quotes he used was, "To Be a Winner, Think Like a Winner". He mentioned that his favourite deal making book is "The Art of the Deal". During the speech he gave away the 9 golden nuggets that allowed him to succeed and are responsible for his continued success.

1. Love What You Do
If you love what you do, you will work harder. You will enjoy your business and your life. You will spend the time to know your business inside out. You can brag about what you are going to do but if you do not bring the goods to the table, you will be knocked down.

2. Never Quit or Give Up
Some of the smartest people never made it because they quit. (The look in Trump's eyes was conveying the message that become hungry for what you want)

3. Luck and Hunger
The harder you work, the luckier you will get. So never get carried away by the hype. FOCUS and work your ass off. He mentioned that in 1991 he owed the banks $9.1 billion, but he decided to face his bankers and workout deals rather than running away. The toughest people are not the smartest and its better to be smart than tough. Fight for yourself rather than begging. Work hard and be careful.

4. Follow Your Gut
If you are smart and really know your business, follow your gut. It might require you to go against the tide sometimes but if you really know what you are doing, go with your gut and have the confidence to follow it yourself.

5. Get the Best People and Do Not Trust Them
The thing with smart people working for you is they will try to screw you if they think they can do better without you. Make sure people who work for you, respect you. If they respect you they will not screw you, but if they think you do not know the business and lose respect for you they will screw you.

6. Get Even
Hit people hard when they take advantage of you. When people know you fight back, other people are watching and will think twice before messing with you as they know that you fight for your right. It will earn you respect from people.

7. Keep Your Momentum 
Don't allow bad things to take away your momentum. Donald told a story about William Levitt. Mr. Levitt died broke but he was one of the greatest builder to have shaped New York and surrounding areas. Mr. Lewitt made a big fortune and retired to South of France, but he missed what he loved, Real Estate. So he came back to New York and bought back his company which was going under. He worked really hard but could not turn the company around and went bankrupt. Donald met him a few year before he died and asked him, "Mr Levitt, what exactly went wrong?". He replied, "Donald, I just lost my momentum". So never let anything that happens to you make you lose your momentum. Don't quit!

8) Market Yourself
Be controversial and get free marketing. Anyone can pay for marketing, but the art is to get it free.

9) Be happy, It really does not matter
Personally I think this is the most important. Sometimes people ask him, Donald how do you do it? How do you give speech to 50,000 people without any stage fear ? His reply was it does not matter. One Tsunami and 300,000 people are dead. Life is soo fragile, it really does not matter. Just do it!! Don' even think about it. Take the pressure off by saying it does not matter.


Image Courtesy: Wikipedia