Book Review: The Art of the Deal
This is a book whose author is in need of no introduction: Donald J. Trump. It’s co-authored by Tony Schwartz if you didn’t know.
All politics aside, I really liked this book. I liked the tone, the content, the style, and the narrative.
The book starts off with a timeline and summary of his business and family dealings for a non-specific week. Events ranged from wrestling stock control with Holiday Inn, buying (or not buying) an oil field in Texas, to scheduling in quality time with his family. He revisits the outcomes of those dealings towards the end of the book. Between those he details sections of his life, from how his father Fred Trump started a construction company as a teenager, to how Donald went on his own path to financial success, all the way to the present (the 1980s at the time) with the construction of Trump Tower. In each chapter he gives off his advice on how to succeed at both business and life in general.
As I’ve learned from Ms. Kono’s Personal Finance class, and from another financial guru, Ghost of True Capitalist Radio, we can’t all rely on paychecks for the rest of our lives; we need something to generate revenue for us in the event we can’t get a steady paycheck. Quite a few people at HHS want to be producers of things, like artists, musicians, singers, programmers and so on, all of which depend on a certain talent to bring in a paycheck. The Art of the Deal can teach you how to manage your own label if you’re an artist, how to make deals, what to strive for (I’ll give you a hint, strive BIG), when to walk from a deal, and when you should listen to your instincts or gut. The best part of the book in my opinion is that he doesn’t just apply this advice to the world of real estate, it can be applied to any area where you have to make a trade or agreement with someone.
Like him or not, you certainly can’t say that Donald Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to the professional world. I highly recommend this book to anyone who’s just starting to work or who wants to advance their place in the professional world.