Trump: How to Get Rich

Be Tenacious

The Art of the Deal contained a chapter called West Side Story, about my acquisition of the West Side yards, a hundred-acre property fronting the Hudson River from Fifty-ninth Street to Seventy-second Street. The chapter title was a deliberate double entrendre, as I knew that the popular musical West Side Story had taken ten years to put together. Its creative team had included no less than Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents, so whenever I experienced setbacks or delays on my West Side project, I would remind myself that I had some very illustrious company.

It’s now seventeen years later and it’s still a work in progress, but the example set by the architects of West Side Story has served me well. You don’t create a classic overnight.

I’m calling it Trump Place. It’s a $5-billion project, the biggest development ever approved by the New York City Planning Commission. When it’s done, Trump Place will have 5,700 residential units and more than five million square feet of commercial space. So far, four towers have been completed and are occupied, and two additional buildings are under construction. When we’re done, there will be a total of sixteen buildings on the site.

Trump Place is a good example of why tenacity is crucial in business. I bought the property in 1974. We’ve hit snags along the way and made many changes over time, but for more than thirty years, we’ve persisted. At times, just about every executive will appear impatient, but to build something that endures, you have to take the long view.

Recently, an employee told me that the pastor of her church had used Trump Place as an example of what a firm foundation should be, whether it be in faith, family, or, as in my case, buildings. The pastor, whose church was near the construction site, would watch each building go up and marvel at the immensity of the work. Each building could be a hundred stories high, he said, considering the meticulous foundation work.

My publisher sent me an inspiring book by Bill Shore called The Cathedral Within, which celebrates the commitment and hope necessary to build something that endures. It might be a cathedral like the one in Milan, which took five hundred years to build, or it might be a community organization or a business.

Paul Davis, the man developing Trump Place for me and my partners, is a true cathedral builder. I have rarely seen anyone work so hard or so diligently—Saturdays, Sundays—he’s there at all hours, paying close attention to every impeccable detail of the layouts, room sizes, and the quality of the fixtures. He’s one of the big reasons for our success.

Some things are worth waiting for. For me, Trump Place is one of those things: Sixteen beautifully designed buildings on the Hudson River. A twenty-five-acre park. The Upper West Side as a backyard. This could prove to be my finest contribution to the city of New York. Time will tell, but I’m in no rush, and I won’t stop until I’m done.

Golf is a brain game, and practice makes perfect.