川普奋斗史

川普奋斗史

At the same time, I learned very early on that I didn't want to be in the business my father was in. He did very well building rent-controlled and rent-stabilized housing in Queens and Brooklyn, but it was a very tough way to make a buck. I wanted to try something grander, more glamorous, and more exciting. I also realized that if I ever wanted to be known as more than Fred Trump's son, I was eventually going to have to go out and make my own mark. I'm fortunate that my father was content to stay with what he knew and did so well. That left me free to make my mark in Manhattan. Even so, I never forgot the lessons I learned at my father's side.Harvard Business School may produce a lot of CEOs — guys who manage public companies— but the real entrepreneurs all seemed to go to Wharton: Saul Steinberg, Leonard Lauder, Ron Perelman — the list goes on and on.Perhaps the most important thing I learned at Wharton was not to be overly impressed by academic credentials. It didn't take me long to realize that there was nothing particularly awesome or exceptional about my classmates, and that I could compete with them just fine. The other important thing I got from Wharton was a Wharton degree. In my opinion, that degree doesn't prove very much, but a lot of people I do business with take it very seriously, and it's considered very prestigious. So all things considered, I'm glad I went to Wharton.I was also very glad to get finished. I immediately moved back home and went to work full-time with my father. I continued to learn a lot, but it was during this period that I began to think about alternatives.For starters, my father's scene was a little rough for my tastes — and by that I mean physically rough. I remember, for example, going around with the men we called rent collectors. To do this job you had to be physically imposing, because when it came to collecting rent from people who didn't want to pay, size mattered a lot more than brains.One of the first tricks I learned was that you never stand in front of someone's door when you knock. Instead you stand by the wall and reach over to knock. The first time a collector explained that to me, I couldn't imagine what he was talking about. "What's the point?" I said. He looked at me like I was crazy. "The point," he said, "is that if you stand to the side, the only thing exposed to danger is your hand." I still wasn't sure what he meant. "In this business," he said, "if you knock on the wrong apartment at the wrong time, you're liable to get shot."My father had never sheltered me, but even so, this was not a world I found very attractive. I'd just graduated from Wharton, and suddenly here I was in a scene that was violent at worst and unpleasant at best. For example, there were tenants who'd throw their garbage out the window, because it was easier than putting it in the incinerator. At one point, I instituted a program to teach people about using the incinerators. The vast majority of tenants were just fine, but the bad element required attention, and to me it just wasn't worth it.The second thing I didn't find appealing was that the profit margins were so low. You had no choice but to pinch pennies, and there was no room for any luxuries. Design was beside the point because every building had to be pretty much the same: four walls, common brick facades, and straight up. You used red brick, not necessarily because you liked it but because it was a penny a brick cheaper than tan brick.I still remember a time when my father visited the Trump Tower site, midway through construction. Our facade was a glass curtain wall, which is far more expensive than brick. In addition, we were using the most expensive glass you can buy — bronze solar. My father took one look, and he said to me, "Why don't you forget about the damn glass? Give them four or five stories of it and then use common brick for the rest. Nobody is going to look up anyway." It was a classic, Fred Trump standing there on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue trying to save a few bucks. I was touched, and of course I understood where he was coming from — but also exactly why I'd decided to leave.The real reason I wanted out of my father's business — more important than the fact that it was physically rough and financially tough — was that I had loftier dreams and visions. And there was no way to implement them building housing in the outer boroughs.

川普奋斗史