Hey guys, excited to be back for another day in Trump's schedule back in 1987. He's going to kick off his day at the War Mirror Inc, then go to Trump Tower and eventually speak about them tomorrow. Today we're going to explore a few lessons. I'm going to mention them first here and then we'll go a bit deeper. So when the request is in good faith and reasonable, be accommodating. It's a loop. Do business with people you appreciate. Tell people you appreciate them. Set value.
Know your worth and have a many options attitude. Have a long time horizon. Don't get too excited by the first offer. Think of small tasks you can do today that will save time, money, efforts or energy tomorrow. Be persistent, yet adaptable to evolving circumstances. Move quickly and decisively when the time is right. And trust for gut. Trust for gut is going to be a recurring theme throughout most of Trump's professional endeavors. So let's go in a bit more detail.
So Trump starts his day by visiting schools with his wife Ivana for his daughter Ivanka. He's looking at private schools and kindergarten for his daughter. He then goes to Wollman Rink. Wollman Rink is a project, it's an ice rink built at the beginning of Central Park in New York. The city had a hard time to get the project going. It took years to not go very far.
Trump decided to, he couldn't stand the inefficiency and the bureaucracy and let's say the slowness of the enterprise and volunteered to build the project. And essentially he came in in record time and under budget. So something that took years was he was able to do in a matter of months. And this echoes kind of his attitude towards efficiency and his desire to get things done quickly and to go straight to the point in terms of actions and outcomes.
So he didn't understand why it took years for the city of New York. He took the initiative, he thinks it's better for the city to have a functional rink and that's now still a big attraction in Central Park and in Manhattan. So we see the initiative came from him and he had basically at that stage he's invited to take pictures for the concrete pouring ceremony. He decides to go along and to participate even though he's in a pinstripped suit.
So the lesson here is that when the request is in good faith and reasonable to be accommodating. So we see Trump is willing to go to McDonald's as an employee for a day or to participate in WWE events. He's close to the people that give him love. He wants to, he engages with the public. He doesn't disengage from the public. He takes questions, he answers questions. Actually it's his transparency that can sometimes, it can't be faulted for lack of transparency. He's extremely transparent.
Even his book, you see him giving details not only on his schedule but details on his thought process and his intention. So that's something he's always had. And again this is when the requester is in good faith and reasonable. It also has a great sense if the person, the request you see it's not coming from a good place then you have zero obligations to be accommodating. But if you see that it's from a good place then you can and probably should be accommodating.
Then he goes on to describe a business deal that he'd like to do. So he wrote to an executive on the west coast, I'm going to read right now. As you're aware, I wrote, there is no one I would rather do business with than Marty Davis. In the letter I explained to Marty that I'd recently purchased a fantastic site and was in the midst of designing a building with eight motion picture theaters at its base. And I wondered if he might be interested in making a deal for them.
Martin Davis is a truly talented man but there are also a dozen other companies who would kill to have eight theaters in a top location. In other words, if I can't make a deal I like with Marty I've got a lot of other options. So here there's a couple of lessons. First is to do business with people you appreciate and to tell people that you appreciate them. So it's kind of a loop.
You appreciate people, you let them know you appreciate them, when there's opportunities you bring into them and vice versa. You'd rather do business with people you appreciate in general and we see that's what Trump does here. He's used to provide value. Trump knows he has a great asset that can be exploited in different ways that could be very lucrative for people interested in having movie theaters in the area. And so he knows what he's bringing to the table.
He's providing value, he knows his worth and he also has a many options attitude. So he's not tied down to a single person for a given outcome. He prefers to do the deal with Marty but he's open to not doing it with him if Marty doesn't want to do it or if the proposal is not going to be to his standard. So he comes to the table with a know your worth and a have a many option attitude. He has an attitude of plenty.
He's definitely not coming across as desperate to get the deal or to do it only with that person. He is polite and he has the intentions to highlight that he prefers doing business with Marty Davis. Secondly, now he's going to talk about the land that he purchased on the Hudson River. The truth is I really don't want to sell the Hudson the yards at any price. To me those 100 acres that were looking at the Hudson River are the best underdeveloped real estate site in the world.
On the other hand, I don't want to rule out anything. He said they were serious people and they were prepared to make me a very substantial offer for the site. Far more than the 100 million I paid a year ago. I didn't get too excited. On the contrary, I said to Arthur, the bid sounds low. If you can get them higher, I might be interested. Arthur tells me his clients are still very interested and they may come up a little, but he does still go much higher. Keep pushing, I tell him.
In this little sequence, we see first of all that Trump has a long time horizon. He is not interested in just making a quick buck. He sees the potential of the Hudson River, the land he has by the Hudson River. He doesn't just want to sell for a profit right now. He sees the potential. Have a long time horizon. There is a lesson here. Secondly, don't get excited by the first offer.
Even though he paid 100 million for it and the offer brought forth is much bigger than that, he is not necessarily excited. He doesn't show excitement. He says the bid sounds low. If you can get them higher, I might be interested. He knows he may have gotten it for a bargain himself, but he also knows the worth of the property. In any case, he doesn't show excitement at the first offer.
Now, another great lesson is to think of small tasks you can do today that will save time, money, and effort or energy tomorrow. Bob is getting a call from a contractor who is building his pool at Mar-a-Lago. He says, I'm busy, but I take the call anyway. We're going to great lengths to build a pool in keeping with the original design of the house, and I want to make sure every detail is right, all of which is a long way of explaining why I take this call from the pool contractor.
He has a small question about the matching of the Dorian stone we're using for the decking, and I care about every detail when it comes to Mar-a-Lago. The call takes two minutes, but it will probably save two days of work and ensure that the job doesn't have to be ripped out and done over later. We see sometimes a small effort today avoids much more work tomorrow or the day after.
Just answering the phone, giving certain information, being available to attend to a small task can prevent a larger task. We can apply this to other settings if we want. Let's say small savings can't compound, later small improvements in health can't compound, et cetera. We can apply this to different areas of life here in the business sense, if there's a small task that can prevent future hassle, take the time to do it.
Trump is going to explain the story of how he acquired Mar-a-Lago, and the lesson is going to be to be persistent. Persistent, yet adaptable to evolving circumstances. This is very important. I first look at Mar-a-Lago while vacationing in Palm Beach in 1982. Almost immediately, I put in a bid of $15 million, and the asking price, by the way, was $25 million. It was promptly rejected.
Over the next few years, the foundation signed contracts with several other buyers at higher prices than I'd offered, only to have them fall through before closing. Each time that happened, I put in another bid, but always at a lower sum than before. Finally, in late 1985, I put in a cash offer of $5 million plus another $3 million for the furnishings in the house. Apparently, the foundation was tired of broken deals. They accepted my offer, and we closed one month later.
The day the deal was announced, the Palm Beach Daily News ran a huge front page story with the headline Mar-a-Lago's bargain price rocks community. So Trump persevered, was persistent in his bids to acquire Mar-a-Lago, but he also saw that with every passing bid, he put his bid lower. So he went from $15 million to, at the end, $5 million plus $3 million, so $8 million all in. Because the owners of the property refuses bids, and he realized the market is not really
... The other bidders don't have maybe the cash, don't have the financing. He's realizing he's in a better position than he thought he was initially, that although he refuses offer at $15 million, they don't have much better offers. So he was comforted in the direction of his subsequent bids, and he eventually got it. So then he continues. Soon, several far more modest estates on property at fraction of Mar-a-Lago's size sold for price in excess of $18 million.
I've been told that the furnishings in Mar-a-Lago alone are worth more than I paid for the house. This goes to show that it pays to move quickly and decisively when the time is right. Upkeep of Mar-a-Lago, of course, isn't cheap, but for what it costs each year, you could buy a beautiful home almost anywhere else in America. Here the lesson is to move quickly and decisively when the time is right. So Trump had cash on hand, and as soon as the property caused his eye, he made a move.
He was receptive and followed the evolution of the deals that didn't go through for the property, kept on bidding, and eventually got it. So again, move quickly and decisively when the time is right. For that, it could be a good idea to save a certain amount of cash to be able to pounce on an opportunity when it occurs. In any case, having cash on hand was very helpful for him to secure the purchase of the beautiful property of Mar-a-Lago.
Again, we're going to conclude this one with the main lesson that comes from most of Trump's interaction is to trust your gut. So a friend of his calls him from Texas with a deal in the oil and gas field. He gave me all the details, and it sounded very good. I was all set to go forward. The papers were being drawn up, and then one morning I woke up, and it just didn't feel right. I called my friend back, and I said, listen, there's something about this that bothers me.
This bill is underground, and I can't see it. Or maybe it's that there's nothing creative about it. In any case, I just don't want to go in. And he said, okay, Donnie, it's up to you, but you're missing a great opportunity. The rest is history, of course. Oil went completely to hell several months later. The company his group bought went bankrupt, and his investors lost every dime they put up. So Trump's going to say, that experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut.
No matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make. Because I held back, I saved $50 million, the two of us have remained friends. As a result, I don't want to reject him outright on his new deal. Instead, I tell him to sign up the papers. In reality, I'm not too likely to get involved. So Trump shows again how much he relies on his gut.
Everything was signed. It was ready to go. But he said, listen, something's about this that bothers me. And basically he said, I just don't want to go. And he dropped out. He listened to his gut, dropped out of the deal that could have been catastrophic, and saved $50 million. So to wrap up, when the request is in good faith and reasonable, be accommodating. It's a loop. Focus with people you appreciate and tell people you appreciate them.
Provide value, know your worth, and have a many options attitude. Have a long time horizon. Don't get too excited by the first offer. Think of small tasks you can do today that will save you time, money, efforts, or energy tomorrow or the day after. Be persistent, yet adaptable to evolving circumstances. As we saw with the different bids, he adapted his approach. Move quickly and decisively when the time is right. Then trust your gut.
And I'll repeat his verbatim quote on the oil and gas experience. That experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. Two, the second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. Three, and the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make. With that, I hope you enjoyed this Wednesday in Trump's life back in 1987. And be sure to tune in for the next episodes. I appreciate it.