[poconopundit]

Thanks again.

Hearing what you say about "giving away the game plan" makes me think: that's probably a Trump strategy too!

Imagine the brutally competitive New York real estate market of the late 80s, when out comes this book written by Trump, one of the most successful of all New York developers.  And in that book Trump reveals the details and principles behind his business.

How could a Trump competitor not buy his book!

But why did Trump give away his trade secrets like that?

The answer, I think, is that Trump planned to compete on a higher plane.  The Art of the Deal would create terrific name recognition and a halo of success that would attract new business like bees to honey.

And Deliver the Goods he did.  A book doesn't become one of the best-selling business books of all time unless the quality is there — and readers feel they got good value.

And then there's the Trump Card that is not mentioned in the book:

You Need to. . . Give to Get

Trump knew if The Art of the Deal took off, it would bring opportunity from places he could never imagine.

Perhaps the biggest opportunity of all came from a certain reader named Mark Burnett, the creator and producer of The Apprentice.  Here's what Burnett wrote in the foreword of another Trump book, The Midas Touch.

"Years ago, long before meeting Donald, I read his first book, The Art of the Deal.  At the time, I was selling T-shirts on the beach in Los Angeles. In between customers, I was constantly reading The Art of the Deal.

I especially appreciated that it was written for someone like me — someone who had never been to business school.

I was in total awe of this real estate mogul, Donald Trump, and never believed I would set eyes on the man himself, let alone meet him. 

I certainly never imagined that I would be in business with him."

[MayflowerMadam]

Competitors could buy and read the book, but it wouldn’t help much. As the earlier poster said, Trump has been doing this for years. Even with knowledge in their heads, competitors would have to get up to speed and it would take time. With Trump, I think a great deal (no pun) of it is instinct.

[Yaelle]

Omg. Thanks for sharing that. Mark Burnett, whatever you want to say about his often more scripted than natural “reality shows,” I’ve been glued to several of them for years and they are ubiquitous. They shared a lot of human nature, both good and bad, and they are compelling to watch. My favorites have been Shark Tank and Celebrity Apprentice but there are so many. Amazing that he read the Art of the Deal and it took him from selling to T-shirts on the beach to where he is today.

Do not underestimate Donald Trump. He is powerful and he is good (even if he doesn’t agree with you on all the issues).