How to Get Rich

How to Get Rich is a book penned by The Apprentice's Donald Trump. The book is divided into several sections:
1) The Donald J. Trump School of Business and Management
2) Your Personal Apprenticeship (Career Advice from the Donald)
3) Money, Money, Money, Money
4) The Secrets of Negotiation
5) The Trump Lifestyle
6) Inside The Apprentice

For those of you who have little time and patience for ploughing through thick academic book on management and success, this will be an ideal choice where Donald Trump summarises some of his experiences in a succinct and entertaining way.

Few will know about Trump's failure in the early nineties with a mountain of debts and his determination to ride through life's challenges. For employees and employers alike, this book will cater to your quest for success and offer you insights on how to do well in your role.

Some of the more beneficial insights which I feel I have certainly benefited from his sharing include:

1) Don't equivocate
How often do we fall into the trap of listing out the pros and cons of a situation or proposal and ending with a recommendation that whether the proposal is good or bad depends on the circumstances? At least, I am very guilty of this error. You will see my sitting on the fence in many entries in this blog. <Ashamed>

Donald's advice: If you equivocate, it shows you are unsure of yourself and what you are doing.

2) Manage the person and not the job
Some people respond to fear. There was a guy who confessed that he only started working when he was threatened to be fire. Different people have different ways of achieving results, eg fear or understanding. However, being a leader, one needs to exercise both restraint and power as well, instead of simply ordering people around.

Donald's advice: Being able to learn about your employees and to manage them is essential to a good manager. According to Abraham Lincoln, "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

3) Ask for the raise at the right time
Many of us always think we are underpaid for the work we need to do. Yet, it is often difficult to ask for a raise or we simply do not ask and use job hop as a platform for upping our pays.

Donald's advice: The best way to ask for a raise is to wait for the right time because money, like comedy, is all about timing.

4) Know what you want and keep it to yourself
By keeping certain facts, we will have a better chance of negotiation. Moreover, sometimes what we think we want at the onset of the negotiation may evolve and what we actually want is different.

Donald's advice: Know what you want, bottom line, but keep it to yourself until a strategically necessary moment.

5) Pay attention to the details
How often as leaders or managers, many have overlooked the need for details. By thinking that that have already made it, many have dropped the details and gone only for the big picture. Donald shared a story of a well-known brain surgeon who would go over the components of an upcoming surgery in his head as he jogged each morning.

Donald's advice: If you do not know every aspect of what you are doing, you are setting yourself up for some unwelcome surprises.

There was also a section devoted to describing a typical week of Donald's life. The amount of activities that he packed into a typical day will make a reader exhausted by just reading about it. He tries to contain his meeting to about 15 to 30 minutes which make me wonder if I waste too much time in meetings sometimes. I should really learn to control more of my phone conversations and meetings with colleagues so that I can get more done in a shorter span of time.

Try pick up this book the next time you are in a library or a book store, you may learn other insights from Donald Trump's experiences.