Trump: How to Get Rich

Ask for Your Raise at the Right Time

When it comes to your career, certain moves should not be made without careful consideration of the old and very apt sayingTiming is everything.

For example, if you’ve decided to ask for a raise, look around first. So many times, employees who I like very much do the dumbest things when it comes to conversations about their salaries.

Jason Greenblatt, a young and brilliant lawyer who works for me, is terrific at everything he does, but one day, I swear, he must have been wearing blindfolds—and earplugs.

I was having an especially tough, vicious, terrible, miserable day that seemed never-ending to me and to everyone else. It was a grand-slam rotten day. No one could possibly have mistaken it for anything else.

Late in the afternoon, by which time I had had enough, I heard a polite knock on my door. I yelled out WHAT? in my most exasperated tone. Jason nonchalantly entered my office, completely ignoring my angry welcome, and proceeded to ask me for a raise.

I could not believe a lawyer as smart as Jason could make such a dumb move. I use his real name only because Jason knows how much I like and respect him, despite his incredible faux pas. But I have to tell you that I was ready to kill him. Was he joking? It’s amazing, but he wasn’t. He was dead serious. I couldn’t believe it.

Did he get a raise? Not that day. He almost got fired for stupidity, except that I told him to get out before I really lost my temper. I also told him that although he might be brilliant, his timing for certain things needed work—and that maybe he ought to start paying attention to what was going on around him. I remember thinking to myself,Did I really hire such a person? But as I said, it had been a rough day.

Jason is still with me, and he gets lots of raises because he’s great at what he does. But now he always waits for sunny days, blue skies, and puffy white clouds on the horizon before approaching me. I told you he was smart.

The best way to ask for a raise is to wait for the right time. It also indicates to your boss that you have a certain amount of discernment and appreciation for what he might be going through himself. I need my people to be plugged in to what’s going on with me.

What impresses me most about people is their work ethic. A certain amount of swagger is okay—it’s just another form of enthusiasm—but, bottom line, I look for results. When I mentioned to a salesperson that I had to cut her salary because she’d made no sales in nine months, she just about went nuts. But some things are common sense. What would she do if she had a nonproductive salesperson on her own roster?

If you knew your company was scheduled to give a major client presentation at 3 P.M ., would you approach your boss at 2:45 to ask for a raise?

Money, like comedy, is all about timing.