Trump

Yes, he lives in New York City. But what special report on Deals of the Year would be complete without some words of wisdom from perhaps the most famous dealmaker of all, Donald Trump?

In “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” The Donald revealed the secret to his 1980s real estate success a success that was almost obliterated by recession in the early 1990s.

But as the turn of the century beckons, Trump is once again on top and is out with a new tome, “Trump: The Art of the Comeback,” filled with new aphorisms for aspiring dealmakers.

Here are some excerpts:

– Work in the present. “The future is very tough to predict. So I stay in the present and concentrate on current events. Luckily, I do every deal because I enjoy it. I don’t do it for the money the money just seems to flow in. People don’t believe that they laugh when I say I’m not money-oriented. I’m not.”

– Stay loose and open-minded. “I never get attached to one deal or one approach. I keep a lot of balls in the air because most deals fall out no matter how promising they seem at first.”

– Work hard. “While there’s nothing fancy or pretty about it, plain old hard work is, with very few exceptions, a primary ingredient for success, or coming back from adversity. Toward the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, I was truly not working at the pace I had worked at before. I wasn’t really focused and really thought that life and success just came hand in hand. I thought I was just better than the rest. When I began to relax and take it easy, things began to fall apart.”

– Don’t underestimate luck. “Another element of success, which I hate to mention here because it truly can’t be acquired, is luck. You can be born lucky. Maybe your parents are smart and you inherited great intelligence. Perhaps you’re born into wealth, and you have access to the best schools and privileges a friend flew into a rage when I explained my theory of luck I was amazed. Here was a guy who was born to a prominent family a family of some wealth, but great genes and he got the genes in spades.”

– Work with people you like. “If you go to the office and don’t find the energy in the people you are with, it is highly unlikely that you will be energized toward success.”

– Play golf. “It helped me relax and concentrate. It took my mind off my problems; I only thought about putting the ball in the hole. And, the irony is, I made lots of money on the golf course making contacts and deals and coming up with ideas.”