THE ART OF THE DEAL by Donald J. Trump
A Week in the Life
I DON’T do it for the money. I’ve got enough, much more
than I’ll ever need. I do it to do it. Deals are my art form.
Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write
wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals.
That’s how I get my kicks.
Most people are surprised by the way I work. I play it very
loose. I don’t carry a briefcase. I try not to schedule too many
meetings. I leave my door open. You can’t be imaginative or
entrepreneurial if you’ve got too much structure. I prefer to
come to work each day and just see what develops.
There is no typical week in my life. I wake up most
mornings very early, around six, and spend the first hour or
so of each day reading the morning newspapers. I usually
arrive at my office by nine, and I get on the phone. There’s
rarely a day with fewer than fifty calls, and often it runs to
over a hundred. In between, I have at least a dozen meetings.
The majority occur on the spur of the moment, and few of
them last longer than fifteen minutes. I rarely stop for lunch. I
leave my office by six-thirty, but I frequently make calls from
home until midnight, and all weekend long.
It never stops, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I try to
learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing
exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is. And if it
can’t be fun, what’s the point