Latest / Real Donald Trump Wisdom / The Art of the Deal - Chapter 3: Growing Up (1987)

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The Art of the Deal - Chapter 3: Growing Up (1987) · Real Donald Trump Wisdom

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Hey guys, back for another episode of Donald
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Trump's The Art of the Deal, Chapter 3, Growing
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Up. So in this chapter, Trump is going to tell
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the story of his upbringing with a lot of details
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on his father, siblings, and his mother. Mostly
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his father, whom he quotes a lot to this day.
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He starts like this. The most important influence
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on me growing up was my father, Fred Trump. I
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learned a lot from him. I learned about toughness
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in a very tough business. I learned about motivating
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people. And I learned about competence and efficiency.
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Get in, get it done, get it done right, and get
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out. At the same time, I learned very early on
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that I didn't want to be in the business my father
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was in. He did very well building rent -controlled
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and rent -stabilized housing in Queensland, Brooklyn.
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But it was a very tough way to make a buck. I
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wanted to try something grander, more glamorous,
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and more exciting. I also realized that if I
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ever wanted to be known as more than Fred Trump's
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son, I was eventually going to have to go out
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and make my own mark. I'm fortunate that my father
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was content to stay with what he knew and did
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so well. That left me free to make my mark in
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Manhattan. Even so, I never forgot the lessons
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I learned at my father's side. Which I was going
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to explain a bit later, the reasons why being
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in business with his dad, the drawbacks of that
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and what made him venture on his own. First,
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he's going to explain the story of his father.
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It says, his story is classic Horatio Alger.
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Fred Trump was born in New Jersey in 1905. His
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father, who came here from Sweden as a child,
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owned a moderately successful restaurant. But
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he was also a hard liver and a hard drinker.
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He died when my father was 11 years old. My father's
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mother, Elizabeth, went to work as a seamstress
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to support her three children. The oldest, also
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named Elizabeth, was 16 at the time, and the
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youngest, John, was 9. My father was the middle
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child, but the first son, and he became the man
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of the house. Almost immediately, he began taking
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odd jobs, everything from deliveries for a local
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fruit store to shining shoes to hauling lumber
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on a construction site. Construction always interested
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him, and during high school he began taking night
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classes in carpentry. plan reading, and estimating,
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figuring that if he learned a trade, he'd always
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be able to make a living. By the age of 16, he'd
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built his first structure, a two -car frame garage
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for a neighbor. Middle -class people were just
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beginning to buy cars. Few homes had attached
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garages, and my father was soon able to establish
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a very good new business, building prefabricated
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garages for $50 a piece. Here, the lesson is
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that... By having a trade, he was able to secure
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a living. He had this intuition in high school
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that going for a trade early was a smart move.
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And we see today in 2025 that there's a bit of
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a shift back to trade school. We understand most
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economies are realizing that. people who attend
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trade schools are lacking. And therefore, there's
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a great demand for people who have technical
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skills. Technical, not just in the technological
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sense or in the IT sense, but in the real world
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sense. Like J .D. Vance likes to say, innovation
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in atoms, not just in bits. But I digress. He
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graduated from high school in 1922, and with
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a family to support, he couldn't even consider
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college. Instead, he went to work as a carpenter's
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helper for a home builder in Queens. He was better
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with his hands than most, but he also had some
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other advantages. For starters, he was just a
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very smart guy. Even to this day, he can add
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five columns of numbers in his head and keep
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them all straight. Between his night courses
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and his basic common sense, he was able to show
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the other carpenters, most of whom had no education
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at all, shortcuts, such as how to frame a rafter
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with a steel square. In addition, my father was
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always very focused and very ambitious. Most
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of his co -workers were happy just to have a
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job. My father not only wanted to work, he also
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wanted to do well and to get ahead. Finally,
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my father just plain loved working, and from
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as early as I can remember, my father would say
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to me, The most important thing in life is to
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love what you're doing because that's the only
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way you'll ever be really good at it. And perhaps
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this is from where Trump gets the, he's going
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to understand that he doesn't enjoy working in
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his dad's structure, like under a shadow and
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for other reasons we'll get into a bit later.
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This is really ingrained in him. He needs to
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do what he loves to do, or he needs to love what
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he does. And that's a virtuous cycle for competence.
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One year after he got out of high school, my
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father built his first home, a one -family house
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in Woodhaven, Queens. It cost a little less than
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$5 ,000 to build, and he sold it for $7 ,500.
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He called his company Elizabeth Trump and Son
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because at the time he wasn't of age and his
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mother had to sign all his legal documents and
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checks. As soon as he sold his first house, he
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used the profit to build another and then another
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and another. In working class communities like
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Woodhaven, Hollis and Queens Village. So we see
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he's extremely entrepreneurial, very young, even
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before being of age. He says, instinctively,
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my father began to think bigger. By 1929, aiming
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at a more affluent market, he started building
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much larger homes. Instead of tiny brick houses,
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he put up three -story colonials, Tudors, and
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Victorians in a section of Queens that ultimately
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became known as Jamaica Estates, and where eventually
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he built a home for our family. When the Depression
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hit and the housing market fell off, my father
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turned his attention to other businesses. He
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had a knack for making money in general. And
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what he did during the depression, he bought
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a bankrupt mortgage servicing company. And he
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sold a year later for profit. And then he built
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a self -service supermarket where he had a butcher,
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tailor, shoemaker, and many services in one area.
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And it was successful. But within a year, however,
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year two. Returned to building, my father sold
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out to King Kulin for a large profit. So his
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venture outside of Bill, the construction space
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was short -lived, even though it was successful.
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By 1934, the depression was finally beginning
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to ease, but money was still tight. And so my
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father decided to go back to building lower -priced
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homes. And this time he chose the depressed flashbush
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area of Brooklyn, where land was cheap and he
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sensed there was a lot of room for growth. Once
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again, his instincts were right. In three weeks,
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he sold 78 homes and during the next dozen years,
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he built 2 ,500 more throughout Queens and Brooklyn.
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He was becoming very successful. Okay, now Trump
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is going to tell a story of how, of the marriage
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between his father and his mother. In 1936, my
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father married my wonderful mother, Mary McLeod,
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and they began a family. My father's success
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also made it possible for him to give his younger
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brother something he'd missed himself, a college
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education. With my father's help, my uncle, John
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Trump, went to college, got his PhD from MIT,
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and eventually became a full professor of physics,
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one of the country's greatest scientists. Perhaps
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because my father never got a college degree
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himself, he continued to view people who had
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one with a respect that bordered on awe. In most
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cases, they didn't deserve it. My father could
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run circles around most academics, and he would
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have done very well in college if he'd been able
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to go. There's going to be more on the topic
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of college a bit later in Trump's own experience.
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We had a very traditional family. He explains
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the dynamics inside. My father was the power
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and the breadwinner, and my mother was the perfect
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housewife. That didn't mean she sat around playing
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bridge and talking on the phone. There were five
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children in all, and besides taking care of us,
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she cooked and cleaned and darned socks and did
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charity work at the local hospital. We lived
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in a large house, but we never thought of ourselves
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as rich kids. We were brought up to know the
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value of a dollar and to appreciate the importance
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of hard work. Our family was always very close,
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and to this day, they are my closest friends.
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My parents had no pretensions. My father still
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works out of a small modest back office on Avenue
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Z in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn,
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in a building he put up in 1948. It simply never
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occurred to him to move. Now Trump's going to
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tell us a bit more about his siblings. My sister
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Marianne was the firstborn, and when she graduated
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from Mount Holyoke, College, she followed my
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mother's path at first, marrying and staying
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at home while her son grew up. But she also inherited
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a lot of my father's drive and ambition. And
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when her son, David, became a teenager, she went
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back to school to study law. She graduated with
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honors, began with a private firm, worked for
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five years as a federal prosecutor in a U .S.
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attorney's office, and four years ago became
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a federal judge. Marianne is really something.
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One of Trump's oldest sister became a federal
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judge in the early 1980s. Trump has been extremely
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acquainted with the court system and the law
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and how it's tried for a very, very long time.
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So he comes from a family of diverse backgrounds
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and one of which is an attorney who became a
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judge, right? So this is his eldest sister. My
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younger sister, Elizabeth, is kind and bright,
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but less ambitious. And she works at Chase Manhattan
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Bank in Manhattan. Now he's going to tell a story
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about his older brother, Freddie. And this is
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a bit of a sad story, and it's going to echo,
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Trump's going to mention this a lot in his different
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speeches. This is going to echo a deep pain that
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Trump has. in relating to alcohol or alcohol
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abuse. Okay. My older brother, Freddie, the first
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son, had perhaps the hardest time in our family.
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My father is a wonderful man, but he is also
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very much a business guy and strong and tough
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as hell. My brother was just the opposite, handsome
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as could be. He loved parties and had a great,
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warm personality and a real zest for life. He
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didn't have an enemy in the world. Naturally,
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my father very much wanted his oldest son in
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the business. But unfortunately, business just
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wasn't for Freddie. He wanted to work with my
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father reluctantly. And he never had a feel for
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real estate. He wasn't the kind of guy who could
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stand up to a killer contractor or negotiate
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with a rough supplier. Because my father was
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so strong, there were inevitably confrontations
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between the two of them. In most cases, Freddie
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came out on the shorthand. Eventually, it became
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clear to all of us that it wasn't working, and
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Freddie went off to pursue what he loved most,
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flying airplanes. He moved to Florida, became
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a professional pilot, and flew for TWA. He also
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loved fishing and boating. Freddie was probably
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happiest during that period in his life, and
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yet I can remember saying to him, even though
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I was eight years younger, come on, Freddie,
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what are you doing? You're wasting your time.
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I regret now that I ever said that. Perhaps I
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was just too young to realize that it was irrelevant
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what my father or I thought about what Freddie
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was doing. What mattered was that he enjoyed
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it. Along the way, I think Freddie became discouraged
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and he started to drink. And that led to a downward
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spiral. At the age of 43, he died. It's very
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sad because he was a wonderful guy who never
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quite found himself. In many ways, he had it
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all. But the pressures of our particular family
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were not for him. I only wish I had realized
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this sooner. This is going to mark Trump. He
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was sober all his life, but this was a particular
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point at which he understood the negative consequences
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of alcohol or dependency to any addiction. He
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regrets not having been softer with his brother
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or more understanding. for different life choices,
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right? As he says, the fact that it wasn't for
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him to be in a family business should have been
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just fine. And they should have encouraged him
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to pursue what he liked best. But so Trump does
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reflect on that with a tinge of regret. He goes
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on in the story and now Brings the story back
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to him. Fortunately for me, I was drawn to business
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very early. I was never intimidated by my father,
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the way most people were. I stood up to him and
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he respected that. We had a relationship that
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was almost businesslike. I sometimes wonder if
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we'd have gotten along so well if I hadn't been
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as business -oriented as I am. Even in elementary
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school, I was a very assertive, aggressive kid.
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In the second year grade, I actually gave a teacher
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a black eye. I punched my music teacher because
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I didn't think anything about music and I almost
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got expelled. I'm not a part of that, but it's
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clear evidence that even early on, I had a tendency
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to stand up and make my opinions known in a very
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forceful way. The difference now is that I like
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to use my brain instead of my fists. I was always
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something of a leader in my neighborhood, much
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of the way it is today. People either like me
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a lot or they didn't like me at all. In my own
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crowd, I was very well liked and I tended to
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be the kid that others followed. Then he goes
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on to tell a story about his, with his brother
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Robert and they played blocks together and how
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he basically built a building out of it and glued
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it together and didn't return the blocks. Essentially,
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he had a way to kind of He had a stronger will
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in most situations. And that kind of aggression,
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that untamed aggression, if you will, probably
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irked his parents a little bit. And they decided
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to send him to military school. When I turned
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13, my father decided to send me to a military
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school, assuming that a little military training
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might be good for me. I wasn't thrilled about
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the idea, but it turned out he was right. Beginning
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in the eighth grade, I went to the New York Military
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Academy in upstate New York. I stayed through
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my senior year, and along the way, I learned
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a lot about discipline and about challenging
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my aggression into achievement. In my senior
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year, I was appointed a captain of the cadets.
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And perhaps, and we know this by now, that this
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inspired Trump's deep reverence for all things
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military. So Trump has a profound respect for
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the hierarchy and the discipline and the bravery
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of servicemen and servicewomen and for the military
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institutions of the United States. And we know
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where that comes from. He's going to talk about
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a teacher in particular who had an effect on
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him. in that setting. There was one teacher in
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particular who had a big impact on me. Theodore
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Dobias was a former drill sergeant in the Marines
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and physically he was very tough and very rough.
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The kind of guy who could slam into a goal post
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with wearing a football helmet and break the
17:03
post rather than his head. He didn't take any
17:06
back talk from anyone, least of all from kids
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who came from privileged backgrounds. If you
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stepped out of line, Dobias smacked you and he
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smacked you hard. Very quickly, I realized that
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I wasn't going to make it with this guy by trying
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to take him on physically. A few less fortunate
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kids chose that route. They ended up getting
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stomped. Most of my classmates took the opposite
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approach and became nebbishes. They never challenged
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Dobious about anything. Now Trump says, I took
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a third route, which was to use my head to get
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around the guy. I figured out what it would take
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to get Dobious on my side. In a way, I finessed
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him. It helped that I was a good athlete. since
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he was the baseball coach and I was the captain
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of the team. But I also learned how to play him.
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What I did basically was to convey that I respected
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his authority, but that he didn't intimidate
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me. And we're going to notice this is how Trump
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also behaves around other world leaders, right?
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Or around other institutions. He can respect
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the authority, but he doesn't get intimidated.
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Even though, regardless of the stature. of the
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country or the leader that is on the other side
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of the table. It was a delicate balance. Like
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so many strong guys, Tobias had a tendency to
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go for the juggler if he smelled weakness. On
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the other hand, if he sat strength, but you didn't
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try to undermine him, he treated you like a man.
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From the time I figured that out, and it was
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more an instinct than a conscious thought, we
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got along great. So this is worth repeating because
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this is essentially Trump's philosophy until
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today. It was a delicate balance. Like so many
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strong guys, he had a tendency to go for the
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jugular if he smelled weakness. On the other
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hand, if he saw strength, but you didn't try
18:56
to undermine him, he treated you like a man.
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So strength, but without trying to undermine.
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He treated you like a man. From the time I figured
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that out, and it was more an instinct than a
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conscious thought, we got along great. Now we're
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going to go more into the academics of it. I
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was a good enough student at the academy, although
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I can't say I ever worked very hard. I was lucky
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that it came relatively easy to me because I
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was never all that interested in schoolwork.
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I understood early on that the whole academic
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thing was only a preliminary to the main event,
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which was going to be whatever I did after I
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graduated from college. So Trump is lucid enough
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to understand the relative unimportance of the...
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school work itself in the grander scheme of things
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of his achievements in his career and in his
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life. So that it was just a stepping stone, but
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that the real game was going to be played after
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college, not during. It was part of the journey,
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but definitely not the destination. All right,
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so this is going to come back. There's a few
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lessons that he's going to drop from his father's
20:16
business before we go to his college years. You
20:23
made it in my father's business, rent control
20:25
and rent stabilized buildings by being very tough
20:28
and very relentless. To turn a profit, you had
20:31
to keep your costs down. And my father was always
20:33
very price conscious. Negotiate just as hard
20:36
with a supplier. bumps and floor wax as he would
20:38
with the general contractor for the larger items
20:41
on a project. One advantage my father had was
20:44
that he knew what everything costs. No one could
20:46
put anything over on him. If you know, for example,
20:50
that a plumbing job is going to cost a contractor
20:52
$400 ,000, then you know how far you can push
20:55
the guy. You're not going to try to negotiate
20:57
him down to $300 ,000 because that's just going
21:00
to put him out of business. But you're also not
21:02
going to let him talk you into $600 ,000. The
21:06
other way my father got contractors to work for
21:08
a good price was by selling them on his reliability.
21:11
He'd offer a low price for a job, but then he'd
21:14
say, look, with me, you get paid. And you get
21:17
paid on time. And with someone else, who knows
21:19
if you ever see your money. He'd also point out
21:22
that with him, they get in and out quickly and
21:24
onto the next job. And finally, because he was
21:27
always building, he could hold out on the promise
21:30
of plenty of future work. His arguments were
21:34
usually compelling. So a quick recap here is
21:37
that the way his father got better prices was
21:43
not only he knew what things cost, so he was
21:48
able to get closer to the actual truth in a negotiation.
21:54
He knew basically he couldn't be played because...
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He knew what were the inputs and the outputs.
22:02
He understands the person has to make a profit,
22:04
but he wasn't easily duped at all. On the other
22:13
side, he was also telling his contractors that
22:17
they were going to get paid and on time and that
22:21
the job would be managed quickly and that there
22:24
would be more future work. So it's kind of a
22:27
trifecta. of a win -win relationship. It's really
22:32
a positive sign. He knows that the concerns that
22:37
contractors have is that maybe the developer
22:40
doesn't pay them, maybe the developer goes bankrupt,
22:44
or that it's a one -off, or that the project
22:48
takes forever. It eats at their livelihood. They're
22:52
in one project and not doing other projects.
22:56
If they're paid a lump sum for it, we can see
22:59
quickly how that is not in their favor. So he
23:04
emphasizes the kind of the pain points that he
23:06
knows they have in getting paid and in finding
23:09
work by saying that they get paid with him. They'll
23:13
get paid on time. The job will get done quickly.
23:16
And there's a promise for plenty of future work.
23:19
It's true. Fred Trump had a reputation for building
23:22
many houses, right? put him as building over
23:26
2 ,500 individual homes. And then also there
23:31
were low -cost apartment buildings over in New
23:38
York City's outer boroughs. So this is kind of
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the negotiation lessons from his father that
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are intertwined. What can we take from it is
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to know the costs of the inputs and to know the
24:00
pain points of the people that you're dealing
24:02
with. That's on the knowledge front. And then
24:06
you apply that by using elements of language
24:11
that appeal to these pain points. And you keep
24:17
in mind what are the input -output costs. on
24:23
the negotiation. Now we're going to go back to
24:27
Trump's academics. After I graduated from New
24:35
York Military Academy in 1964, I flirted briefly
24:38
with the idea of attending film school at the
24:40
University of Southern California, USC. I was
24:43
attracted to the glamour of the movies, and I
24:45
admired guys like Sam Goldwyn, Daryl Zanuck,
24:48
and most of all, Louis B. Mayer. Mayor Goldwyn.
24:52
If you guys see the reference, you know, before
24:54
the movies with the lion, right? That's the Mayor
24:59
Goldwyn franchise, who I considered great showman.
25:02
But in the end, I decided real estate was a much
25:04
better business. And look, so we see half of
25:08
Trump is attracted to the showbiz. We see it
25:11
here. And he's going to give credit to his mom
25:13
for that. And the other side is attracted to
25:17
business. And of course, he gives credit to his
25:19
dad for that. I began by attending Fordham University
25:21
in the Bronx, mostly because I wanted to be close
25:24
to home. I got along very well with the Jesuits
25:26
who were around the school. But after two years,
25:28
I decided that as long as I had to be in college,
25:30
I might as well test myself against the best.
25:33
I applied to the Wharton School of Finance at
25:35
the University of Pennsylvania, and I got in.
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At the time, if you were going to make a career
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in business, Wharton was the place to go. Harvard
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Business School may produce a lot of CEOs, guys
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who manage public companies, but the real entrepreneurs
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all seem to go to Wharton. Saul Steinberg, Leonard
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Lauder, Ron Perelman, the list goes on and on.
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Here, it's useful to take note of the people
26:00
that Trump admires. In entertainment, we said
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Sam Goldwyn, Daryl Zaynuk, Louis B. Mayer. On
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the business side, Saul Steinberg, Leonard Lauder,
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Ron Perelman. Perhaps the most important thing
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I learned at Wharton, that's pretty funny, was
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not to be overly impressed by academic credentials.
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It didn't take me long to realize that there
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was nothing particularly awesome or exceptional
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about my classmates and that I could compete
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with them just fine. The other important thing
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I got from Wharton was a Wharton degree. In my
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opinion, that degree doesn't prove very much,
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but a lot of people I do business with take it
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very seriously and it's considered very prestigious.
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So all things considered, I'm glad I went to
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Wharton. Right. So Trump is showing again his
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unconventional thing or basically how much he
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relies on his own assessment for appreciating
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things or making decisions. He understands that
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the value for Wharton degree, yes, among the
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degrees available, it is the best business school
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for entrepreneurship, for people who are driven,
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right? He says that unlike the Harvard Business
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School is mostly for to train like professional
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managers who are going to be professional CEOs,
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but he says people that have like the rarer entrepreneurial
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spark usually go to Wharton. And usually that's
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probably because Wharton offers a bachelor's
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degree, whereas Harvard, Business school doesn't.
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And usually the entrepreneurial drive is in you
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younger. It's either there or not, but it's a
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better moment in life to get things started.
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And so Trump gives credence to Wharton, but he
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also doesn't overblow it. He feels that his classmates
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aren't all that special and that the degree itself
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for him is Isn't all that special. So he says,
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I was very glad to get finished. I immediately
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moved back home and went to work full time with
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my father. I continued to learn a lot, but it
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was during this period that I began to think
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about alternatives. For starters, my father's
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scene was a little rough for my taste. And by
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that, I mean physically rough. I remember, for
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example, going around with the men we call the
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rent collectors. To do this job, you had to be
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physically imposing because when it came to collecting
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rent from people who didn't want to pay, size
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mattered. A lot more than brains. The second
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thing I didn't find appealing was that the profit
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margin was so low. You had no choice but to pinch
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pennies. There was no room for any luxuries.
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Design was beside the point because every building
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had to be pretty much the same. Four walls, common
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brick facades, and straight up. You used red
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brick not necessarily because you liked it, but
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because it was a penny a brick cheaper than tan
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brick. So Trump was, as we said earlier, Trump's
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sole purpose. to go to college to kind of get
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that done and he was very eager to start his
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career in real estate so he went back to work
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for his father but quickly once he came back
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he was confronted to two major drawbacks the
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first was that the scene where his father operated
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was the lower income housing rent control area
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and you know being confronted to people who aren't
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necessarily paying the rent or to sanitary conditions
29:32
that he didn't really like. So with his dad or
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his dad's helper, he came to collect them. That
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was a bit of a rough environment, as you can
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imagine. It's not exactly what a Wharton boy
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would aspire or imagine to be doing after graduation.
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The second thing is, He didn't like that everything
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was cookie cutter, right? Because it was very
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standardized for government's projects for lower
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housing. All the apartments looked the same.
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There was no room to add creativity. Also, it
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was on shoestring budgets. The costs had to be
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controlled. And Trump liked the luxury, as we
30:27
know. He wanted out, and eventually he did. He
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says, the real reason I wanted out of my father's
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business, more important than the fact that it
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was physically rough and financially tough, was
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that I had loftier dreams and visions, and there
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was no way to implement them building housing
30:43
in the other outer boroughs. Looking back, I
30:48
realize now that I got some of my sense of showmanship
30:51
from my mother. She always had a flair for the
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dramatic and the grand. She was a very traditional
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housewife, but she also had a sense of the world
30:59
beyond her. I still remember my mother, who is
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Scottish by birth, sitting in front of the television
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set to watch Queen Elizabeth's coronation and
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not budging for an entire day. She was just enthralled
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by the pomp and circumstance, the whole idea
31:16
of royalty and glamour. I also remember my father
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that day pacing around impatiently. For Christ's
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sake, marry, he'd say. Enough is enough. Turn
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it off. They're all a bunch of con artists. My
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mother didn't even look up. They were total opposites
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in that sense. My mother loves splendor and magnificence,
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while my father, who is very down to earth, gets
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excited only by competence and efficiency. This
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one is worth repeating. And it's a great takeaway
31:44
for what combines in Trump's character. My mother
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loves splendor and magnificence. While my father,
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who is very down to earth, gets excited only
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by competence and efficiency. And a great note
31:59
here is that Trump eventually gets to meet Queen
32:02
Elizabeth as the president of the United States.
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He must have been extremely proud to have lived
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that moment. Seeing his mom admire that on TV
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probably inspired him to also want those things.
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to appreciate the luxuries of the ceremonies
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and the glamour. And so this is where Trump gets
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his love for splendor and magnificence and also
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grounded by his dad's appeal for competence and
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efficiency. So I think those four characteristics
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summarize what was instilled in Trump by both
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of his parents.