With a chapter title of “Revenge” it pretty much told me that this was going to be a fairly aggressive read. Trump essentially expresses that when people “screw you” getting even will make it less likely that others will try to do the same to you again.

He used examples such as helping a lady to become successful and when it came time where he needed help she looked the other way. Evidently, she lost almost everything one day and Trump took pleasure in refusing to give her things such as a good reference.

There was one story that was kind of intriguing where he mentions that he knew a famous basketball player who got robbed blindly by his agent. Afterwards, he discovered a lot of proof of some sort that would convict the person in question and Trump was adamant that he should go after him and even offered to do everything such as giving him a lawyer. However, the person didn’t want to go through with it and Trump labels people like that as a “schmuck”.

That just kind of surprises me on why a person wouldn’t take action in that case. For myself, I recognize that sometimes people do stupid things such as if there is a lot of money involved they get deceitful as they think they can get away with it. It’s like all those times where you see a good person stealing because they were tempted as the opportunity presented itself.

I usually give people the benefit of the doubt personally while throwing small signals about their actions which they know is wrong. If even after that it is clear that they made a conscious decision to not be truthful while attempting to steal from others that’s when I am personally fully willing to expose them as I think they should have to pay back and be held accountable for what they did. From what I learned, you can still be a nice person and succeed, but being naive is usually what ends up costing you at the end as a result of not taking action.

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When I read the title of this chapter “Fear Factor” I thought it was going to deal with the typical you can’t let fear stop you from doing things. Instead, it dealt more with the fact that when you are successful everyone wants to take you down. Trump used some very interesting examples such as another realtor who he was treating very well only to see him turn around to try and take money from him. He also mentioned that he was debating whether or not to fight back as it would be an expensive matter to pursue and eventually he did so as it was the principles of the whole situation.

Trump then talked a lot about managing and hiring employees with an emphasis that loyalty was one of the most important traits that he values in a person not just in business but life in general. I have a very interesting story on how I developed a personality of being loyal which I may write about in a later date.

The rest of it kind of dived into how you have to earn respect from others and forgive people over honest mistakes and used that Tara Conner event as an example. At the same time, you should not forgive a crook. This chapter was a little confusing I thought in terms of the theme. An interesting line was used in this chapter to say how you have to watch your back in life which stated “Lions kill for food, humans kill for sport”.

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“Creating Luck” was the subject this time around. Trump basically just divulged into how some people believe you are born lucky while others say you create it. He then quoted a phrase that I have heard before where a famous golf player named Gary Player once had a spectacular finish on a golf course and when he was told that he was so lucky he replied with the phrase “The harder I work, the luckier I get”.

He then talked about the power of positive thinking and how it can create a lot of success for you. At the same time, he mentions the importance of factoring in negative thinking as well because like most things in life you need balance. Overall though, the message seemed to be more about not dwelling on circumstances and to guide your way through life and all its unexpected challenges.

Bill Zanker had an interesting story where he had a marketing stunt to throw $10,000 worth of money off the Empire State Building which caught the attention of the media and sure enough loads of people went to surround the building during the day of the event. The funny thing was there were two people who were oblivious to this and decided to rob the bank in the building that same day.

As you may have presumed, they ran out of the bank with bags of money and were immediately greeted by a load of media and bystanders. He never did get to throw the money apparently, but there was a big enough spectacle that he got a lot of publicity over it which still accomplished the original goal. That sure is an example of good luck and bad luck huh?

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This chapter is titled “Basic Instincts” and revolved around how you have to learn to use your intuition when making decisions. Trump used a lot of examples during his real estate career such as buying properties in areas that everyone told him that he would fail in, yet he still did it anyways as he had a gut feeling that it would be big. At the same time, he talks about how your intuition can tell you if someone is say being deceitful or genuine.

He then used an example with how he agreed to create the show The Apprentice with Mark Burnett. Without much fuss, he agreed to do it as he had a gut feeling that Mark Burnett was genuine and they simply shook hands in one day to get the deal going. In turn, that led into the topic on how if you shake someone’s hand, that means you have just made a deal and that dishonoring your word will create distrust to everyone.

He titled that part as “Your Word Is Golden” and talked about how his then agent told him not to do the show as business shows have never done exceedingly well apparently which Trump was oblivious to along with a statistic that 98 percent of the shows that get on TV fail. As a result, the agent was persistent that the deal not go through despite their handshake and even phoned Burnett to tell him that the deal was off. However, he went with his intuition along with the fact that he already agreed to do it and so he did. We all know how that turned out.

I couldn’t help but snicker at the next part where Trump mentioned that his agent then started congratulating Trump and asked for a commission payment. Guess you know what happened there. Overall in the end, he mentions that you have to factor other things as well such as timing your action as well as gathering the facts along with your analytical skills. With that, you then go with your gut.

Overall, I thought it was interesting about how it mentions that you have to train yourself when it comes to trusting your gut. I often do that where if I have a hunch about something, in situations where I can I always do small things to see if the reaction would be what my instincts told me would happen. It’s almost like building an encyclopedia for yourself to reference as every situation usually has some kind of predictable pattern. As mentioned though, you have to use logic and other factors too.

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I managed to read another chapter earlier before I start doing all the new years eve stuff today. This chapter was titled “Passion, Passion, Passion!” As the title implies, it was mostly about doing the things that you love to do in life first and foremost as the money will come afterwards. There was also a lengthy part about being able to handle pressure where Trump talks about how he owed banks billions of dollars in debt during the real estate crash in the 90’s which was one of his ways to prove that he could perform under pressure.

He then dived a bit into relationship building and how even though he owed the banks a lot of money, he treated them well before and as a result they weren’t as hard on him as they were to others. He used an example of a person who was the opposite and had a very pompous attitude towards others including the banks. When the person was in trouble and needed a favor from the bank, they were more than motivated to not help him.

Trump used an interesting quote that I haven’t heard of before stating “Be careful who you step on going up because you meet the same people coming down”. How true is that I thought as even from my experiences it’s just funny how the people you have met in your past often play a role in your future as well. Trump also talks about learning from other people’s mistakes as it is a lot faster than going through it yourself as well as having that never giving up mentality.

It was interesting afterwards as he talked about that Apprentice candidate Michelle who decided to quit the show as it was evident that she performed poorly on a task and was more than likely to be the one who was going to get fired. This made him talk about quitters and if young people today have what it takes. He references a psychologists study on how young people nowadays are more narcissistic and self-centered as a result of being fed with too many compliments and in his view this is a big reason why many people grow up with an entitlement mentality and that they always quit when they don’t get something right away.

The whole message in the chapter I thought was basically do what you love to do and learn to respect and appreciate things in life.

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