Tell people you're successful or they won't know it

A lot has happened to us all since 1987. That's the year The Art of the Deal became the bestselling business book of the decade. Business Rule #1: If you don't tell people about your success, they probably won't know about it.

Business Rule #2: Keep it short, fast, and direct. The following pages will be straightforward and succinct, but don't let the brevity of these passages prevent you from savoring the profundity of the advice you are about to receive.

The Mother of All Advice: "Trust in God and be true to yourself." -Mary Trump, My Mother. When I look back, that was great advice, concise and wise at once. I didn't really get it at first, later I realized how comprehensive this is- how to keep your bases covered while thinking about the big picture.

Good management requires hiring good people

Good people equals good management and good management equals good people. They have to work together or they won't work together for very long. I've seen excellent people get stuck in the mires of bad management. The good managers will eventually leave, followed by the good workers, & you will be left with a team that gets along because they're all mediocre. Save yourself time by getting the best people you can. Sometimes this can mean choosing attitude over experience and credentials. Use your creativity to come up with a good mix.

Creative people rarely need to be motivated-they have their own inner drive that refuses to be bored. They refuse to be complacent. They live on the edge, which is precisely what is needed to be successful and remain successful.

Lessons: stay focused on big picture

In the 1980s, I was riding high. I'd become a major player in Manhattan, with many top-tier properties. I had a yacht, a plane, a bestselling book. In the late eighties, I lost focus. I'd fly off to Europe to attend fashion shows, and I wasn't looking at the clothing. My lack of attention was killing my business.

That was a low point. Of the $9.2 billion I owed, I'd personally guaranteed a billion dollars. I was a schmuck, but I was a lucky schmuck, and I wound up dealing with some understanding bankers who worked out a fair deal. After being the king of the eighties, I survived the early nineties, and by the mid-to-late nineties, I was thriving again. But I learned my lesson. I work as hard today as I did when I was a young developer in the 1970s. Don't make the mistake I did. Stay focused.

Surround yourself with people you can trust

My phones are so busy that I require two executive assistants, and they never stop. They alone handle, on the average, more than 1,250 calls a week. They are not only efficient and fast, but also very pleasant and beautiful young women. You don't have to be beautiful to work for me-just be good at your job. I've been accused of admiring beautiful women. I plead guilty. But when it comes to the workplace, anyone who is beautiful had better have brains, too. You need competent people with an inherent work ethic. I'm not a complacent person and I can't have a complacent staff. I move forward quickly and so must they.

3 principles: One term, two-fisted policies, zero excuses

Non-politicians are the wave of the future

In business & politics, stands for getting things done

Burned by press too often to be available any more

Rules for surviving the perils of success

It’s great to have good natural instincts, but even if you do, you may find that’s not enough. Over the years I’ve come up with certain rules for myself that are important for surviving the perils of success.
1. Be disciplined. This is the first and most important rule. Long vacations, drinking, drugs-all of those things are bad for discipline because they interrupt your momentum.
2. Be honest. Despite a brash and occasionally arrogant approach, I go by the book.
3. Don’t think you’re so smart that you can go it alone. I surround myself with good people, and then I give myself the luxury of trusting them.
4. Be reachable. Although you run the risk of wasting a lot of time, the vast majority of people [writing] are nice people, and they deserve a response.
5. Stay close to home. What got you to the top is usually what will keep you there.
6. Be flexible. I keep white space on my calendar to allow myself to come up with ideas.

Separated from Ivana after long less-than-perfect marriage

[The breakup] is by no means a snap judgment. I’ve discussed the situation with many people. I even thought, briefly, about approaching Ivana with the idea of an “open marriage.” But I realized there was something hypocritical and tawdry about such an arrangement that neither of us could live with-especially Ivana. She’s too much of a lady.

It didn’t matter that there was never a lot of yelling in the house-it was time to make the tough decisions and get on with the rest of our lives.

Toughness is equally strength, intelligence, & self-respect

The opposite of toughness-weakness-makes me mad and sometimes turns my stomach. I’m not referring here to the kind of weakness that comes from being poor, sick, or disadvantaged. I’m talking about those people who can take a strong stand but just don’t.

Toughness is pride, drive, commitment, and the courage to follow through on things you believe in, even when they are under attack. It is solving problems instead of letting them fester. It is being who you really are, even when society wants you to be somebody else. Toughness is walking away from things you want because, for one reason or another, acquiring them doesn’t make sense. In business, toughness means playing by the rules but also putting those rules to work for you. It is looking at an adversary across the desk and saying, simply, No.

Appealing to middle Americans leery of political elite