Below is an article published in Inc Magazine.
I found this illuminating.
Way back in 1987, Donald Trump wrote a book that was part autobiography and part extended essay on how to become a winning negotiator and business dealmaker. The Art of the Deal became a #1 bestseller, and it--and his phenomenal business deals and reality TV shows (The Apprentice, Celebrity Apprentice, Miss Universe, etc.)--put Trump in the international spotlight in a big way. Now, of course, he's running for President of the United States of America, and many think he's got the perseverance, the smarts, and the moxie to go all the way.
But before all that, there was just Donald Trump and the 11 winning negotiating tactics that are at the heart of The Art of the Deal. Each of Trump's tactics is listed below, accompanied by quotes from the book. Give them a try and see how they can turn your deals into winners, too.
1. Think big
"I like thinking big. I always have. To me it's very simple: if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big."
Obviously, this speaks to the "Scale" aspect of CENTS. I like how he places this as the number one rule.
In the opening paragraph of The Art of the Deal, Trump writes: "Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvass or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals." I found this surprisingly eloquent; it conjured up the same emotions I felt when Ayn Rand first described the work involved in the creation of Rearden Steel; it conjured up the scene in Wall Street II, when Gekko smiles and notes that a fisherman always sees another fisherman from afar...
I digress.
2. Protect the downside and the upside will take care of itself
"I always go into the deal anticipating the worst. If you plan for the worst--if you can live with the worst--the good will always take care of itself."
3. Maximize the options
"I never get too 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."
On page two of The Art of the Deal, Trump describes a usual day: "...I get on the phone. There's rarely a day with fewer than fifty calls, and often it runs 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 15 minutes."
With such a high level of activity, we can see how this would "maximize the options." I think we can apply this concept to all of the good threads on sales that @Fox @Thiago Machado @ChasingPaper @Kingmaker @Andy Black have helped create. Maximizing your activity and level of action - working in as efficient a manner as possible - Dr. HAHA Lung and Robert Greene would both note the power of this.
Robert Greene points out, for instance, that 90% of your actions come from boredom.
This is simply not the case if you are "maximizing your options," creating insane amounts of activity on the phone, filling the pipeline full of juicy deals with large potential paydays. That's what happens when you play in the commercial real estate/commercial construction game like Trump.
4. Know your market
"I like to think that I have that instinct. That's why I don't hire a lot of number-crunchers, and I don't trust fancy marketing surveys. I do my own surveys and draw my own conclusions."
Classic Sun-Tzu properly applied to business: "Know your enemy and know yourself, and in 100 battles you will never be in peril."
5. Use your leverage
"The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you're dead."
6. Enhance your location
"Perhaps the most misunderstood concept in all of real estate is that the key to success is location, location, location...First of all, you don't necessarily need the best location. What you need is the best deal."
7. Get the word out
"One thing I've learned about the press is that they're always hungry for a good story, and the more sensational the better...The point is that if you are a little different, a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you."
This year, I get to finally have fun with this little life project of mine. Now that I've figured out how to close large transactions on a consistent basis, I will gradually gain more and more public credibility, through case studies published by Fortune 1000 companies and stories about the transactions printed in local and national news publications. In a way, this byproduct of success explains why the old adage $UCCE$$ is the BE$T revenge has such a truthful ring to it.
A hustler's only real enemies are his doubters and haters, those who know him personally and those who don't know him personally (yet somehow still find reason to pronounce judgement on an almost complete and total stranger... unwise. When it comes to the Internet, you really don't know who the F*ck you're F*cking with... until those rare and glorious moments when the real confronts the fake, defeating it in glorious fashion in the way that only the truth can defeat lies exposed for what they are.)
Once a hustler "blows up," and creates serious value for the world, the scale of his success and glory are essentially a mathematical function of the degree of his intellect and his ability to think logically, strategically, exponentially and at scale. When the rewards of months and years of hard work finally pay off, the money talks, the press talks - and the doubters, and haters fall silent forever (or find new things to bitch about).
8. Fight back
"In most cases I'm very easy to get along with. I'm very good to people who are good to me. But when people treat me badly or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard."
This maxim has a ring of the 15th Law of Power to it:
Once you're pissed off enough - once it "hurts bad enough" - you're ready to fight. Anyone who has ever made any real progress in life has faced tension, friction, and challenges from the world, from jealous rivals, from ignorant yet zealous critics, etc, and has had to fight back. This doesn't have to mean physically. It can mean legally, with a team of a dozen scary attorneys. It can mean psychologically and financially, focusing all of your will and intent on accomplishing goals so important to you that your fire for them burns in the center of your soul, so much so that your heart will break into a million pieces if you fail yourself.
9. Deliver the goods
"You can't con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don't deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on."
In other words, talk the talk and walk the walk. Back up your words with real action. Put your money (time is money) where your mouth is; put in the hours in the day. Enjoy the process. At the start of the book, Trump writes that "it's not about the money." He has plenty of money. He's rich. He doesn't need the money. He does deals purely for the love of the game.
10. Contain the costs
"I believe in spending what you have to. But I also believe in not spending more than you should."
Containing costs is literally a business in and of itself. Really, ever business that has ever paid me real money has involved helping businesses and/or consumers contain costs, without charging them upfront capital. Whether this entails negotiating cost savings through electricity and natural gas contract management, or using financing programs like PACE to fund energy-saving (ergot cost-cutting) projects, containing costs always remains at the center of my focus. With such a business model, you can entertain global scale. Not to mention that consulting in this manner allows for 100% location independent income.
11. Have fun
"Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game."
On page three of The Art of the Deal, Trump writes: "If it can't be fun, then what's the point?"
What a great attitude to have, one that would eradicate such silly salesperson shortcomings like "call reluctance." If you have fun making calls, making new relationships (or repeatedly capitalizing on existing relationships), having high-level conversations with, quite literally, the True Illuminati, then you've attained a new level of mastery.
A true master finds joy in creativity and finds "work" to be play.
Do what you love, and you'll never be bored. Instead, every day will offer excitement. For me, that means getting involved in and helping put together large commercial transactions for facilities, properties and buildings that people will see in real life - hotels, schools, hospitals, office buildings, industrial warehouses, manufacturing plants, etc. The larger the deal in dollar size, the more it impacts the community and the environment, the better and cooler.
Not the shadow organization - a group of individuals, a cabal of sorts, nefariously and surreptitiously pulling the strings of society, as if we're all a bunch of mind-controlled puppets - cooked up in the minds of conspiracy theorists. Rather, the True Illuminati, the entrepreneurs of power creating real change in the world, the general contractor building the $3,000,000 strip mall, the individuals that create and build what all of us in society enjoy - yet remain anonymous and unknown to 99% of us. If having conversations with such people, and helping them bring real positive change to the world doesn't excite you, then what will?
In the 50th Law, 50 Cent states that he does not need to do drugs, because the reality of success is his drug.
Shout out to all of the real-world hustlers out there who share my current mood: High As F*ck.
I found this illuminating.
Way back in 1987, Donald Trump wrote a book that was part autobiography and part extended essay on how to become a winning negotiator and business dealmaker. The Art of the Deal became a #1 bestseller, and it--and his phenomenal business deals and reality TV shows (The Apprentice, Celebrity Apprentice, Miss Universe, etc.)--put Trump in the international spotlight in a big way. Now, of course, he's running for President of the United States of America, and many think he's got the perseverance, the smarts, and the moxie to go all the way.
But before all that, there was just Donald Trump and the 11 winning negotiating tactics that are at the heart of The Art of the Deal. Each of Trump's tactics is listed below, accompanied by quotes from the book. Give them a try and see how they can turn your deals into winners, too.
1. Think big
"I like thinking big. I always have. To me it's very simple: if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big."
Obviously, this speaks to the "Scale" aspect of CENTS. I like how he places this as the number one rule.
In the opening paragraph of The Art of the Deal, Trump writes: "Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvass or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals." I found this surprisingly eloquent; it conjured up the same emotions I felt when Ayn Rand first described the work involved in the creation of Rearden Steel; it conjured up the scene in Wall Street II, when Gekko smiles and notes that a fisherman always sees another fisherman from afar...
I digress.
2. Protect the downside and the upside will take care of itself
"I always go into the deal anticipating the worst. If you plan for the worst--if you can live with the worst--the good will always take care of itself."
3. Maximize the options
"I never get too 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."
On page two of The Art of the Deal, Trump describes a usual day: "...I get on the phone. There's rarely a day with fewer than fifty calls, and often it runs 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 15 minutes."
With such a high level of activity, we can see how this would "maximize the options." I think we can apply this concept to all of the good threads on sales that @Fox @Thiago Machado @ChasingPaper @Kingmaker @Andy Black have helped create. Maximizing your activity and level of action - working in as efficient a manner as possible - Dr. HAHA Lung and Robert Greene would both note the power of this.
Robert Greene points out, for instance, that 90% of your actions come from boredom.
This is simply not the case if you are "maximizing your options," creating insane amounts of activity on the phone, filling the pipeline full of juicy deals with large potential paydays. That's what happens when you play in the commercial real estate/commercial construction game like Trump.
4. Know your market
"I like to think that I have that instinct. That's why I don't hire a lot of number-crunchers, and I don't trust fancy marketing surveys. I do my own surveys and draw my own conclusions."
Classic Sun-Tzu properly applied to business: "Know your enemy and know yourself, and in 100 battles you will never be in peril."
5. Use your leverage
"The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you're dead."
6. Enhance your location
"Perhaps the most misunderstood concept in all of real estate is that the key to success is location, location, location...First of all, you don't necessarily need the best location. What you need is the best deal."
7. Get the word out
"One thing I've learned about the press is that they're always hungry for a good story, and the more sensational the better...The point is that if you are a little different, a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you."
This year, I get to finally have fun with this little life project of mine. Now that I've figured out how to close large transactions on a consistent basis, I will gradually gain more and more public credibility, through case studies published by Fortune 1000 companies and stories about the transactions printed in local and national news publications. In a way, this byproduct of success explains why the old adage $UCCE$$ is the BE$T revenge has such a truthful ring to it.
A hustler's only real enemies are his doubters and haters, those who know him personally and those who don't know him personally (yet somehow still find reason to pronounce judgement on an almost complete and total stranger... unwise. When it comes to the Internet, you really don't know who the F*ck you're F*cking with... until those rare and glorious moments when the real confronts the fake, defeating it in glorious fashion in the way that only the truth can defeat lies exposed for what they are.)
Once a hustler "blows up," and creates serious value for the world, the scale of his success and glory are essentially a mathematical function of the degree of his intellect and his ability to think logically, strategically, exponentially and at scale. When the rewards of months and years of hard work finally pay off, the money talks, the press talks - and the doubters, and haters fall silent forever (or find new things to bitch about).
8. Fight back
"In most cases I'm very easy to get along with. I'm very good to people who are good to me. But when people treat me badly or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard."
This maxim has a ring of the 15th Law of Power to it:
Once you're pissed off enough - once it "hurts bad enough" - you're ready to fight. Anyone who has ever made any real progress in life has faced tension, friction, and challenges from the world, from jealous rivals, from ignorant yet zealous critics, etc, and has had to fight back. This doesn't have to mean physically. It can mean legally, with a team of a dozen scary attorneys. It can mean psychologically and financially, focusing all of your will and intent on accomplishing goals so important to you that your fire for them burns in the center of your soul, so much so that your heart will break into a million pieces if you fail yourself.
9. Deliver the goods
"You can't con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don't deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on."
In other words, talk the talk and walk the walk. Back up your words with real action. Put your money (time is money) where your mouth is; put in the hours in the day. Enjoy the process. At the start of the book, Trump writes that "it's not about the money." He has plenty of money. He's rich. He doesn't need the money. He does deals purely for the love of the game.
10. Contain the costs
"I believe in spending what you have to. But I also believe in not spending more than you should."
Containing costs is literally a business in and of itself. Really, ever business that has ever paid me real money has involved helping businesses and/or consumers contain costs, without charging them upfront capital. Whether this entails negotiating cost savings through electricity and natural gas contract management, or using financing programs like PACE to fund energy-saving (ergot cost-cutting) projects, containing costs always remains at the center of my focus. With such a business model, you can entertain global scale. Not to mention that consulting in this manner allows for 100% location independent income.
11. Have fun
"Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game."
On page three of The Art of the Deal, Trump writes: "If it can't be fun, then what's the point?"
What a great attitude to have, one that would eradicate such silly salesperson shortcomings like "call reluctance." If you have fun making calls, making new relationships (or repeatedly capitalizing on existing relationships), having high-level conversations with, quite literally, the True Illuminati, then you've attained a new level of mastery.
A true master finds joy in creativity and finds "work" to be play.
Do what you love, and you'll never be bored. Instead, every day will offer excitement. For me, that means getting involved in and helping put together large commercial transactions for facilities, properties and buildings that people will see in real life - hotels, schools, hospitals, office buildings, industrial warehouses, manufacturing plants, etc. The larger the deal in dollar size, the more it impacts the community and the environment, the better and cooler.
Not the shadow organization - a group of individuals, a cabal of sorts, nefariously and surreptitiously pulling the strings of society, as if we're all a bunch of mind-controlled puppets - cooked up in the minds of conspiracy theorists. Rather, the True Illuminati, the entrepreneurs of power creating real change in the world, the general contractor building the $3,000,000 strip mall, the individuals that create and build what all of us in society enjoy - yet remain anonymous and unknown to 99% of us. If having conversations with such people, and helping them bring real positive change to the world doesn't excite you, then what will?
In the 50th Law, 50 Cent states that he does not need to do drugs, because the reality of success is his drug.
Shout out to all of the real-world hustlers out there who share my current mood: High As F*ck.
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