Trump: How to Get Rich

Play Golf

I made a lot of money on the golf course before I ever went into golf as a business. I found solutions to problems, new ideas for ventures, and even a new career. Golf has a way of giving you an equilibrium that you can’t always find in the office.

Doing what you love will always make you a winner, and after spending many happy hours on golf courses, I decided to build some of my own. I am now one of the busiest golf course developers in the United States, with two award-winning, internationally acclaimed courses fully operational and two more in the works.

My first course, the Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida, has been home to the ADP LPGA championships for three years. When I first decided to develop the most beautiful golf courses possible, I did some research and got in touch with the most respected designers in the business—the Fazio family. Just as Michelangelo had an affinity for sculpting marble, some people have an affinity for sculpting land. In this case, Jim and Tommy Fazio designed a dream come true for any golfer, not only visually, but in terms of playability.

The course opened in 1999. With its waterfalls and landscapes unique to Florida, Trump International Golf Club is already a landmark course in the state—and the best course in Florida.

My second course was Trump National at Briarcliff Manor in New York. We moved three million yards of earth, the largest land excavation ever in Westchester County, and it was worth it. We were also dealing with stone, which was used for walls and a spectacular waterfall on the thirteenth hole—a 101-foot cliff of black granite quarried from the property—which pumps five thousand gallons a minute. The walls were built by my very talented stone mason, Frank Sanzo. Membership costs $300,000. I think it’s a bargain.

My third golf course is Trump National Golf Club, in a sumptuous area of New Jersey known as Bedminster. It is being designed by the master golf course architect himself, Tom Fazio. Three times,Golf Digest has named Fazio the Best Modern Day Golf Course Architect, and when you see this course, you’ll know why. It will be long, big, and beautiful, and I am involved daily in the design and construction. Additional plans for this property, formerly owned by automaker John DeLorean and located in the heart of New Jersey’s horse country, will include a second course and a world-class clubhouse designed in the colonial mansion style.

I don’t want to limit my golfing to the East Coast, so in 2002 I bought a course along two miles of the Pacific Ocean. What was formerly known as Ocean Trails in Palos Verdes will now be known as Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles. The course had fallen into disrepair under its previous owners—the eighteenth hole fell into the ocean—so I’m rebuilding it with legendary golf course architect Pete Dye. We’re also planning to build luxury estate homes on the property. When completed, this course will be the best in California.

Dave Anderson, Joe Kernen, me, and Ron Howard at the opening of Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, New York.

When we announced the deal, the Los Angeles Times reported, As he has so many times before, Trump has spotted a trend to tap. True, but mostly I was following my instincts and my interests.

Building golf courses is not a big business for me and it’s unlikely that I will ever do another one. I want only the best.

Sometimes I will sell memberships while I am hitting balls on the practice range. People approach me and hand me checks. One recent day at my Florida course, a group of four wealthy friends came to me with checks of $300,000 each. I said to myself:Not bad; I’m playing a game I love and going home with $1,200,000 in my pocket.

I realize that some of you don’t care much about golf. Golf is one of those things that has aficionados, just as opera has diehard fans who will fly around the world to catch a certain performance. To people who don’t know or like opera, that seems absurd.

I can’t make you love golf, but, believe me, once you’ve had the opportunity to play on a beautiful course, it could turn you into an enormous fan, or even a passionate player, no matter how poorly you hit the ball.

If anyone had told me twenty years ago that I’d become a dedicated golf course developer, I would have sent them out of the room for being ridiculous. But golf has a transforming power. It’s a brain game. Yes, there is skill and technique involved, but, just as important, it requires concentration and assessment.

It’s a great way to improve your business skills, to learn how to maneuver. It can even be equated with learning how to negotiate, which is an art in itself.

Golf is also, in essence, a solitary game. Being an entrepreneur, even within a large company, is a solitary game.

Ultimately, the rule here is not just to visit one of my golf courses (though you would be wise to do so) but to turn your passion into profit. The results of that passion will reward you in more ways than you ever could have expected.

Passion is enthusiasm on a big scale. It is all-encompassing and consuming. People with passion never give up because they’ll never have a reason to give up, no matter what their circumstances may be. It’s an intangible momentum that can make you indomitable.

Take out the passion and you will have a fizzle or, perhaps, an okay product at best. Add the passion and you will be in a rarefied realm that every other passionista will recognize—and one that every person would like to enter.

A friend of mine is a member of what I call the lucky sperm club—born into a wealthy family. He followed his father to Wall Street, but he was a total failure. He didn’t like it, and he couldn’t do it. Meanwhile, he became increasingly involved in his Connecticut country club. He was named the head of the greens committee and took on the lead role in rebuilding the golf course. He loved it and was great at it. The club held a dinner for him out of gratitude for his volunteer work. I asked him, Why don’t you do this for a living? You’re not for Wall Street. You’re getting eaten alive there. He told me his family wouldn’t understand if he quit a serious job to work on golf courses.

Well, two years later he took my advice, quit the Wall Street job, and is now working full-time at renovating golf courses. He says he loves getting up in the morning, and he is doing better than ever.

Of course, you don’t have to learn how to play golf to have a satisfying career. But no matter what you do, you must be passionate about it.

There’s no place like home.