Rating: 
Summary: A real American success story
Review: "Art of the Deal" is a truly inspiring read. If you are interested in learning how others achieve their success, this is one of the best books to study. Although written in the late 80's, this is one book that will withstand the test of time.Written in an autobiographical style, each chapter covers a major "deal" in the life of The Donald. The beginning chapters show how he was introduced to the world of real estate by his father, and how Donald Trump went from collecting rent in dangerous neighborhoods to building New York's finest luxury accomodations. Each of the deals is unique and has its own set of interesting contractual problems that Trump works out. Some of his most interesting works are the construction of the Trump Tower, buying casinos, and saving the troubled Wollman ice skating rink. If you like big business, I definitely recommend "Art of the Deal." This book puts you in the front seat with Trump and allows you to view up close how he turns the pressures of negotiations, contracts, and local politics into an exciting game. You will also find this book interesting if you are familiar with downtown New York, as it has many references to famous areas and buildings.
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Summary: quick reading and very entertaining
Review: a very entertaining account of his life. quite interesting in how he got his empire together. no boring parts at all. a little too much self-promotion, but then trump isnt known for his modesty!
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Summary: The Art of the Deal -- Book Summary
Review: Donald Trump has become arguably the world's best-known real-estate icon. He has undoubtedly worked hard for the honor. Trump routinely wakes up at 6AM, at which time he reads the morning papers before arriving to work by 9AM. He'll make anywhere from 50 to 100 phone calls daily, and will hold a dozen or so impromptu 15-minute meetings throughout the day. But Trump's work ethic is only part of the reason why he has come to define the quintessential real estate mogul.
Donald Trump provides for our benefit his eleven Trump Cards of success. They include thinking big, protecting the downside, maximizing options, knowing your market, using leverage, enhancing your location, getting the word out through a public relations/marketing campaign, fighting back, delivering the goods, controlling costs, and having fun. Yet even these Trump Cards fail to fully illuminate what it is that makes Trump so successful.
A great deal of Trump's success can be traced back to his father who built and sold homes throughout New York City, most prominently in Jamaica Estates. Donald would learn on the job from a young age about managing costs and putting together a working symphony of various real estate professionals. After transferring from Fordham University to the University of Pennsylvania to complete his undergraduate degree in business administration, Donald and his father bought Swifton Village in 1968, a 1200-unit FHA apartment complex in Cincinnati, Ohio. While the scope of a 1200-unit apartment complex may seem unfathomable to many, for Donald it was just the beginning. These formative years convinced Trump to look beyond NYC and take the next progressive step, which for him was to develop commercial real estate in Manhattan and later casinos in Atlantic City.
Trump approaches business very straightforwardly. He believes that the art of business can be reduced to the simple formula of buy low sell high. Trump writes, "Much as I like the [Beverly Hill's Hotel] I'm interested in it only if I can get it for a much better price than they're now asking" (12). Trump will walk away from a very good property if the numbers don't match up. Trump makes a point of surrounding himself with the best talent when making these hard decisions. In fact, he attributes much of his success to surrounding himself with the best talent available. Throughout the book Trump writes:
"I'm just looking to hire the best talent, wherever I can find it (6) [and] I have a very simple rule when it comes to management: hire the best people from your competitors, pay them more than they were earning and give them bonuses and incentives based on their performance. That's how you build a first-class operation" (220).
Simply, there exists no room for second best. In this respect, much can be learned from Trump and applied to our lives. However, there exists another more intangible component of Trump's success that underscores the need for of a heightened sense of intuition.
This sense of intuition can be interpreted by many as self-confidence, the experience of feeling comfortable in one's own skin, or going with one's gut. In any event, this feeling transcends many areas of Trump's life, including a pervading sense of justice:
"I hate lawsuits and depositions, but the fact is that if you're right, you've got to take a stand, or people will walk all over you (7) [and] You have to be very rough and very tough with most contractors or they'll take the shirt right of your back" (38).
A sense of intuition cannot be underscored enough. Trump believes in it so strongly that he writes, "You can take the smartest kid at Wharton, the one who gets straight A's and has a 170 IQ, and if he doesn't have the instincts, he'll never be a successful entrepreneur. Moreover, most people who do have the instincts will never recognize that they do, because they don't have the courage or the good fortune to discover their potential (46)." Trump's remarkable history of deal making should embolden us to apply some of the very same business principles that made Trump so successful to our lives in an effort to discover our own true potential.
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Summary: Entertaining story of one of the luckiest guys around
Review: First off, let me just say that The Art of the Deal is an immensely entertaining read, especially for anyone from New York. Trump is obviously an engaging character. So, as an embodiment of Trump's persona, this book is really good.
Donald Trump is certainly a skilled businessman. He offers a lot of advice that is hard to refute given that is seems to have worked quite well for him. Again, he is a real character and a surprisingly likable one at that - although the book seems heavily ghostwritten.
Trump summarizes his success as the result of hard work and a uniquely hard-driving personal style. While that may be true, his rise to success is really a story of some of the most phenomenal luck of anyone I have ever heard of. There are hundreds of real estate developers every bit as ruthless and intelligent as Trump and he fails to credit dumb luck for much of his success; he is, to use the cliche, a person who was spawned on the real estate equivalent of third base and tries to tell you that he's hit a home run every time he scores.
Although his name is still splattered everywhere, he is hardly the prophet that he portrays himself to be. As a construction manager, Trump is probably the greatest who has ever lived. The essential problem of Trump's business "empire" is that his extraordinary management skills, his social savvy, and his astute understanding of the tastes of the nouveaux riche belie a mediocre comprehension of the longer term principles of finance. Eager to build, build, build, it seems that Trump slept through a lot of business school as he seems to think the basic principle that states that a project is only as good as the terms on which it is financed does not apply to him. It is in this delusion of his own uniqueness that some of the more profoundly megalomaniacal elements of his character are visible amid the background of common swagger and bravado. It is funny that Donald Trump is considered by most people in New York as a brilliant businessman but a real jerk. In the end, he seems on a personal level to be similar to what he is on a business level: a man of considerable assets but also staggering debt.
I understand that he's got another book out called "How To Get Rich." May I humbly suggest that Donald Trump is NOT a good person on whom to model a business.
Rating:
Summary: Truly entertaining & Common-sensical !
Review: I always like to keep my review short and this is no exception !
* Truly entertaining and absolutely riveting. I literally read the book in one shot
* Contains golden pieces of advice (both for deal-making and life) strewn all over the book. So, be sure to read it from first page to the last
* Also, throws light on how in-efficient the NewYork city administration was in the mid-80's (under Mayor Ed Koch)
* MUST-READ for everyone even if you're not absolutely interested in knowing how Mr. Trump made his fortune.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat lacking, title doesn't match content
Review: I read this book many years ago. Now, of course, with the success of "The Apprentice," everyone's watching Trump. For those who wonder whether this early book is timely, I say YES. It is filled his Trump's self-promotion, indeed, and it is filled with his insight into deal- and money-making. It is well worth the time.
In fact, I unearthed an old spiral notebook that served as a journal at the time. Flipping through it, I found my notes of his advice, the salient points of the book. I also realized that it had been too long since I refreshed my memory with his recommendations, which remain valuable today:
o Think big
o Protect the downside and the upside will handle itself
o Maximize your options
o Use your leverage
o Enhance your location
o Get the word out
o Fight back (when necessary)
o Deliver the goods
o Contain costs
o Have fun
If you're interested in "The Donald," you need to read this book -- for the commentary, the biographical information, and the chance the see the world of commerce as he sees it. The fellow who wrote it for him made enough money from the project that he was able to write the book, WHAT REALLY MATTERS MOST: SEARCHING FOR WISDOM IN AMERICA, a book (non-fiction) I recommmend highly.
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Summary: inspirational
Review: I want to learn something about real estate, so I read this book. Here's what I thought:
1. This book has a clear structure. All the points are listed at the beginning of the book, then followed by case studies.
2. Trump shared with readers how to become successful, such as hard work, persistence and so on. It's very inspriational.
3. Many interesting stories about New York politics. Vivid contrasts between private firms and government in 1970s and 1980s. By the way, to learn more about NYC politics, also read LEADERSHIP by GIULIANI.
4. You get a feel of how to make deals from Trump, but this book is not an introduction course to real estate 101. To learn about how to start a real estate business, especially the technical part, I suggest you read INVESTING IN REAL ESTATE by MCLEAN.
5. This book is good for city planners because it shows you what developers are thinking about, and how planners and developers can find common grounds, such as in city revitalization.
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Summary: A good look inside the life of Trump
Review: Other reviews have summed up the book nicely. So, short and to the point, I thought the book was a nice glimpse into the life of a successful businessman. Who doesn't want to be successful? Seeing his everyday life and how he handles people, obstacles, and situations allows the reader to form their own ideas on how to acheive success. I'm not talking just about financial or business success.
Some of the stories, I thought, were a little long winded, but I'd rather have long winded good stories rather than short stories making me long for more detail. Trump's got a neat story that many will find interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy of Reading - Trump's Better Book
Review: Reading this book is like being in class with Trump. I read it for one reason because Mark Bennet said in an interview that he reconsidered his career after reading this book. And we all know how successful he's become. Worthy of reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Lousy book
Review: There is nothing to learn from Donald Trump.
He inherited his money and is a lousy businessman.
As a showman, he has no peers.
As a person, he is mediocre.
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