Think Big

Counting down the lessons that could be learnt... Articles about Donald Trump

Lesson #3: Think Big

“I like thinking big. I always have,” says Trump. “If you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.”

Lofty goals with a lofty ego to boot, Trump is not afraid of taking risks. His philosophy of thinking big typifies the strategy behind every single business deal Trump has ever made. From building the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Toronto, which will be the tallest residential tower in Canada when completed, to installing a seven-story waterfall in the lavish marble atrium of the Trump Tower, Trump either does it big or goes home.

Recalling the criticism he got when he first unveiled his waterfall design, Trump says, “Most of my people at first favoured putting paintings on the wall. To me that was old-fashioned, unoriginal, and just not very exciting. As it turned out, the waterfall proved to be an art form in itself, almost a sculptured wall. And it attracts far more attention than we’d have gotten if we’d put up even some very wonderful art.”

Trump considers his ability to think in larger than life terms one of his greatest strengths and a major reason for his significant success. “Most people think small because most people are afraid of success, afraid of making decisions, afraid of winning,” he says. “And that gives people like me a great advantage.” Trump is not afraid to go after what he wants, nor is he afraid of the consequences of his decisions.

Trump has gotten to the top of his game today not by following his competitors and going with the flow, but by daring to do things differently. “Sometimes it pays to be a little wild,” he says. When other developers were lowering their prices during the real estate slump, Trump was raising his. When others were focused on building medium-income housing, Trump was designing million dollar condominiums. And, when others were losing faith in the market’s comeback, Trump saw only possibilities.

Anything that Trump touches seems to take on a mystical aura. This is because Trump sells fantasies and dreams and things that most people don’t dare to imagine. “We took our strengths and promoted them to the skies,” Trump says of Trump Tower. “From day one, we set out to sell Trump Tower not just as a beautiful building in a great location but as an event.” Indeed, Trump’s ‘events’ are beyond what most will ever attend in their lifetime.

But, Trump cautions that thinking big does not necessarily mean seizing every opportunity that comes your way. Often times, rather, less is more. “If you go for a home run on every pitch, you’re also going to strike out a lot,” he says. “I try never to leave myself too exposed, even if it means sometimes settling for a triple, a double, or even, on rare occasions, a single.” Trump has only managed to stay in the game so long by maximizing his options and diversifying his portfolio. From hotels to casinos to books to beauty pageants, Trump has branched out into different areas of business, not only minimizing his risk but also making a name for across a wider audience. By thinking big, Trump has turned himself into one of the biggest names in America.

Play On Perception

Counting down the lessons that could be learnt... Articles about Donald Trump

Lesson #4: Play On Perception

“If you want to sell a car and you spend five dollars to wash and polish it and then apply a little extra elbow grease, suddenly you find you can charge an extra four hundred dollars,” says Trump, “and get it.”

In the fine art of deal making that Trump has mastered, perception is often one of the most important factors that stands in the way of success. As a good salesman, Trump found it crucial to control the perceptions he was giving off to the other side. Aside from his all-important self-grooming in order to look as professional as possible, Trump became an expert in keeping up appearances when it came to his deals.

Trump’s success came from the fact that he was always able to maintain the upper hand in making a deal. While he was often in an inferior position to be making demands, Trump managed to convince property owners that his terms were the only ones worth meeting. “If you want to buy something, it’s obviously in your best interest to convince the seller that what he’s got isn’t worth very much,” he says. By over-selling himself and resorting to tactics of fear and guilt, Trump would always make himself appear as if he were the only man for the job.

Trump had an ability to make people see things the way he wanted them to and knowing this, used it to his advantage in making his multi-million dollar business deals. “When I build something for somebody, I always add $50 million or $60 million onto the price,” he says. “My guys come in, they say it's going to cost $75 million. I say it's going to cost $125 million, and I build it for $100 million. Basically, I did a lousy job. But they think I did a great job.”

When Trump was first starting out in the business, he had little experience building the types of projects he was envisioning and no experience whatsoever in a prime real estate market such as Manhattan. Thus, he encountered a lot of resistance when proposing his plans. But, being a master of persuasion, Trump did not let that stand in his way. In one of his very first negotiations to get the rail yard property along the Hudson River, Trump recalls that when speaking to the owner, “I couldn’t sell him on my experience or my accomplishment, so instead I sold him on my energy and my enthusiasm.”

In a similar situation when Trump was working on transforming The Commodore into the Grand Hotel, he instructed the architect to, “Make it appear that we’d spent a huge sum on the drawings. A good-looking presentation goes a long way.” Trump believed that a presentation that looked as if it were put together by an established firm with a large budget would be more credible than a few sketches done in Trump’s little, dingy apartment.

By making sellers believe that Trump was the best and only person to lead a redevelopment project, he was able to manipulate and manufacture the terms of his own success.