Name: How to Get Rich
Author: Donald J. Trump

The golden nuggets

Think big and live large. If you are going to think, you might as well think big.

The final rule of his business school: in some ways it is easier to buy a skyscraper than a bad house - either way you need financing, so aim at the prize worth winning.

If you do not tell people about your success, they probably will not know about it.

Business Rule #1, from the introduction. Build a name on real quality, then toot your own horn - nobody else will announce your accomplishments for you.

Be a general: work only with the best people, and hire attitude over credentials.

Good people and good management make each other. Creative people with inner drive rarely need motivating, so pick for energy and character, then trust your key people.

Stay focused. Success is exactly when focus slips.

At his peak in the late 1980s Trump stopped paying attention, then the market crashed and he owed $9.2 billion. He survived, and says he now works as hard as he did starting out.

Maintain your momentum. Never assume you can glide by.

Builder William Levitt sold his company, retired to the Riviera for twenty years, came back - and went bankrupt. His last words to Trump: 'I lost my momentum.'

Be tenacious and take the long view.

Trump Place, his biggest development, began with a property bought in 1974 and was still a work in progress thirty years later. Some things are worth waiting for - if you do not stop.

Negotiating is persuasion, not power - so know what the other side wants before you sit down.

His top rule: research who you are dealing with, how they negotiate, and what they want from you. He got 40 Wall Street for $1 million because he knew the owners wanted out, fast and quiet.

Invest simply: only in products you understand, with people you can trust.

Judge track records over fifteen or twenty years, not a lucky season, and be your own best financial adviser. Sometimes the best investments are the ones you do not make.

Money, like comedy, is all about timing - ask for your raise at the right time.

One of his best lawyers nearly got fired for asking for a raise on Trump's worst day of the year. Wait for sunny days: timing shows your boss you are paying attention.

Be optimistic, but always be prepared for the worst.

Expect problems and the ups and downs stop being surprises. Trump calls it positive thinking with a lot of reality checks - before a big move, ask if you can handle it going wrong.

Dress for your culture. Your clothes speak before you do.

Dressing well means reading the environment and respecting it - the right look on Wall Street can be the wrong look in Beverly Hills. Quality also outlasts cheap: his bargain suits wore out fast and always looked cheap.

You’re halfway there

The rest of this summary — and the one thing to do this week — is in the PDF.

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The book, in short

Donald Trump wrote this book in 2004, right as his TV show The Apprentice made him famous all over again. It is not one long story. It is 53 short chapters - blunt little commandments from his business life - and it opens with his mother's advice: 'Trust in God and be true to yourself.' The big idea runs through all of it: wealth starts with how you think - think big, move fast, and never let up.

Part I, The Donald J. Trump School of Business and Management, shows how he runs his company: be a general, hire only the best, and keep the big picture in mind. Its hardest lesson is his own crash - after losing focus at the top in the late 1980s, he owed $9.2 billion and nearly lost everything. Part II, Your Personal Apprenticeship, gives career advice to people who work for others: be tenacious, brand yourself, dress for your culture, time your raise request, and stay optimistic while preparing for the worst.