[Cboldt]

-- I didn't know the role he played in building the Javits Center. --

Neither did I. I thought it was a good speech. People who know him and what he's done probably didn't learn anything new, but from an outsider's perspective, he touched on

• risk taking (Manhattan!)
• paying attention (somebody steals the copper, they are on perpetual lunch break)
• caring enough to want to fix it, even though it's not his personal problem
• wanting to preserve what is valuable and can't be replaced (the ceiling)
• seeking outside assistance (using brine instead of freon to make ice), and
• doing the job right even if that is difficult or unconventional (a contiguous pour, cement trucks lined up all the way to New Jersey!)
• confronts barriers (meetings to overcome unreasonable regulatory roadblocks)
• on schedule, in budget

He has initiative, drive, ambition that isn't all for personal gain, he adapts - and in complex endeavors. I know it isn't directly evident from what he talked about, but he also seems to have an eye out for opportunity. I also appreciated that he attributed some of the success to luck, or factors that are mostly outside of his control. "Bad" neighborhood, low rent, becomes fashionable. And we know that he makes mistakes (or runs into bad luck, however you prefer to look at it), Atlantic City, and he deals with those, too.

I thought it was a really good speech. It held my attention much better than his usual stump speech. The country doesn't deserve him, and it is a shame that he's denigrated for giving a damn.

[Nervous Tick]

I’m not a Trump supporter, but my hat’s off to you for that post.

Good job of persuasively touting your guy’s strengths.

[ELS]

re: contiguous pour, there is an interesting case study (PDF) of the construction of a Trump building in Chicago.