WITH PARAGRAPHS:
I had recently gotten the audiobook version of “The Art of the Deal” as part of an Audible promotion. I had heard other freepers suggesting the book, and I had figured that it was going to be similar to the genre of business “self-help” books that make their mark (“Who Moved My Cheese”, “Good to Great”, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, etc.). The big difference is that the man who wrote the book is now president, and one who is governing as a populist president who is on board with essential conservative values and a genuine love of country.
The book was a lot more than that. It was also less than that.
You can read or hear “The Art of the Deal”, and come out of it no better prepared to actually make deals, though you might well be more inclined to want think about opportunities as they present themselves.
The Donald Trump we see and hear and retweet and applaud today is an extension of the Donald Trump who was all over the place in 1987. I remember when Trump started his campaign, his co-author Tony Schwartz came out and belittled him. Having heard the audiobook, I now know that Schwartz was not a “ghost” writer. First, he is credited. Real ghost writers are invisible, like the guys who write William Shatner’s books, or created Bud Fisher’s Mutt & Jeff comic strips for decades. Second, a ghost writer creates much out of his own ideas, taking only the framework suggested by the credited author (if that) but often inserting his own ideas and sometimes imaginary anecdotes in the case of memoirs or autobiographies (The Obama books come to mind). Schwartz did little more than organize Trump’s words, adding an occasional historical or literary reference, and probably invented the idea of building the book around “a week in the life of Donald Trump”. The content of the book, largely historical, are Trump’s and told from his perspective. Even if it was based on interviews with Trump, no one else could have written it, as the other players weren’t there.
Trump himself does not read the audiobook version, though they did find someone with a bit of a Queens accent (pronounced “or” sounds as “au”, though not as much as the Bronx version of same.) This only made it easier to hear Trump’s voice in the stories that only he could tell.
Yes, he says nice things about and Barbara Walters. He makes up for it by dumping all over Koch, who was still Mayor and could (and did) interfere with his development plans.
I strongly recommend reading this book to get insight into a man who asks for what he wants, and adapts his plans to fluid situations. It is utterly relevant today. Regarding thee Donald Trump I heard in “The Art of the Deal”, I only regret that he wasn’t able to build the “World’s Tallest Building” or even do a full release of the Trump series Cadillac with the built in FAX machine.
Did the co-author use paragraphs?
Good for you.
I expected a book on how to negotiate.
How to negotiate is only a peripheral part of the book.
The major part is how to navigate in the swampy waters of the politics of big cities, dominated by Democrats.
I found it easy to see why Donald Trump is doing so well as President. His whole life prepared him for this job.
He has always said, you've got to be able to walk, and it's tougher than you might think.
Back in 2015 after he came down the escalator {with the beautiful Melania} I bought another copy and re-read it.
The second reading was better than the first.
It was selling for $7 on Amazon in paperback in 2015, I don't know the price today, but it is a good read.
Coolest. I am going to order the audio version right now.
listened to audio version, maybe it was on youtube? made notes, but not sure where I put them. Guess I should go look for them to see what I liked.
In the mean time, I knew ehough about Trump that when I heard he was running that he would bring a lot of good and needed qualities and abilities to DC if he won. I’m glad he did. I should probably read more of his books and implement some of his ideas.
I think that’s a huge reason God allowed him to be President at this time - to teach/show anyone willing to see his life examples (work hard, play relatively fair, take care of family, help others in ways you can, dream big and don’t give up, etc) and use them for a better USofA (likely world, for a while) and in our personal and work lives to better achieve our goals and some we didn’t even know we had.
i recommend it too, but you have to read between the lines to get any understanding about the man from it.
seeking insight i read it after the election. it didn’t disappoint. most everything he does now, what he believes, how he works problems, works the gov’t, people, how he grew up, what he values, his basic character, etc., can be derived from a deep meditation on that book.
i find that many here don’t have a clue about how he works and what he believes. i again give credit to Bannon and Jeff Sessions for turning my around about the man. in fact, i had a completely wrong idea about what made him tick (based on the public persona, his businesses, tv shows, fake news, etc.) until i read that book. i mean. he’s flawed just like all of us, but he’s honest about his successes and mistakes in that book.
I read the book two months ago. I wish that I had read it three years ago. It wasn’t heavy on practical deal-making advice (but you could glean lessons). But it was a great window to reveal the mind of the POTUS.
 "Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America" (Amazon Link) |
Put it to use - convince all the FReeloaders here to start donating....I have a signed copy on my bookshelf ... haven’t cracked it yet, but your review just made it likely I’ll get to it before the year is out.