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Latest Book Offers a Primer
On Becoming More Like Him;
Rise Early, Read Socrates
By DAN ACKMAN
SPECIAL TO
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 30, 2004; Page D1
Who among us -- ex-wives, former mistresses and spurned business partners excepted -- does not love The Donald? He first entered our world, and allowed us into his, more than 20 years ago, and he has never left. Now the idea of Donald J. Trump not being around seems difficult to imagine. Mr. Trump always saves us the trouble of having to try.
Though he has declined to serve as our president -- he considered a run in 2000 but decided against it, partly because of his aversion to shaking hands -- he is now more iconic than ever, the star of his own reality television show, "The Apprentice." It's a tremendous success, as Mr. Trump will tell you. There is probably no truth to rumors that Mr. Trump will appear in a Broadway musical, "Trump!" But if it doesn't happen, it's because Mr. Trump doesn't want it to happen.
For now, Mr. Trump has returned to an earlier love, literature. His new book is called "Trump: How to Get Rich." It's not exactly the sequel to his first book, "Trump: The Art of the Deal" (1987), because there have been a couple of sequels already. His first book was an autobiography -- how Mr. Trump built the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Trump Tower. His second was about how he succeeded some more; the third was about how he briefly faltered, then succeeded even more. It was Trump, Trump and more Trump. This time Mr. Trump is focused on you: How can you be more like him?
He begins by quoting "The Art of the Deal": "I don't do it for the money. I've got enough, more than I'll ever need." It sounded good in 1987; it sounds good now. "I could have written these words yesterday," Mr. Trump says. Then why go on to write so many new words today? Mr. Trump says that he wrote "How to Get Rich" because "whenever I meet people, that's usually what they want to know from me." While how-to-get-rich books by millionaires are a dime a dozen, he notes, "billionaire authors are harder to find."
What does he advise? Command your employees like a general, he says. Stay focused, he adds. Get a great assistant. (Mr. Trump employs Norma Foederer, whom he calls "indefatigable.") Other lessons: Don't equivocate; when you present an idea, make sure it's the right idea; keep your door open; play golf (especially at one of his courses); think big and live large. Certainly Mr. Trump embodies the last lesson. "I am the creator of my own comic book, and I love living in it."
Some of Mr. Trump's advice is what you might expect: "Subtlety and modesty are appropriate for nuns and therapists, but if you're in business you'd better learn to speak up and announce your significant accomplishments to the world -- nobody else will."
But other advice is more surprising. Mr. Trump tells his readers that they should budget quiet time: For Mr. Trump it's between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m., when he reads seven newspapers and catches up on the dozen magazines he receives daily. He also says that you should read books a lot. Mr. Trump does it "in the evening, after a black tie dinner," while munching pretzels. He enjoys biographies. But "now and then I like to read about philosophers -- particularly Socrates, who emphasizes you should follow the convictions of your own conscience, which basically means thinking for yourself, a philosophy I tend to agree with."
I am not a name-dropper, but my good friend Donald Trump is. The book's longest chapter is a week in the life of the author, which he includes because his fans expect it. It's rich in references to Mr. Trump's friends and business associates, from Regis Philbin (perhaps his favorite) to Woody Allen and Arnold Schwarzenegger. But he is not above mentioning names not in his life that week. When he tells of a photo session with a photographer named Platon, it reminds him of an earlier time with Richard Avedon. He leaves the office early on Friday, reluctantly, to play golf with Bill Clinton.
The book reads as if it had been dictated in the back of a limousine on the way to a helicopter, which is exactly what you'd want from a Trump production. (Meredith McIver, one of his executive assistants, is his co-author.) And he generally delivers the goods, which he summarizes as "some good advice, some wisdom, a little bit of gossip, and a glimmer of fame." He sometimes comes up short: The chapter on gossip has sex -- but no names. And the stuff on "The Apprentice" seems tacked on.
Should you read this book? You could read Socrates instead, but he was never as rich as Mr. Trump and not as much fun.
Mr. Ackman is a senior columnist for forbes.com.