Page 23 - Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Success

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T R UM P: N E V E R G I V E U P

amount of zeros after the numbers, but the point is, people can
relate to difficulties. I don’t think anyone gets away with a
challenge-free life experience. As one writer described the jour-
ney of life, “No one gets out of this alive.” That’s a bit existen-
tial but when you’re down a few billion dollars in the red, it can
make you think in new dimensions.
My situation in the early 1990s wasn’t looking great. I had
billions in loans I couldn’t pay, and I had personally guaranteed
$975 million of that debt. I could easily have gone bankrupt.
Thisshouldn’tsurpriseanyonebecauseI’dalwaysdonethings
in a big way, and so it follows that my highs would be followed
by a suitably low low. That was a tremendous low. The banks
were after me. People avoided me. There was a recession, and
the real estate market was almost nonexistent. This was not a
good scenario.
Then in March of 1991, both the Wall Street Journal and the
New York Times ran front page stories—on the same day!—
detailing my predicament and the total financial ruin that would
happen any moment. The radio stations got the story and the
loss of my empire was big news around the world. They were
sure I was finished. It would have made a fantastic story—except
that it was happening to me.
That was the lowest moment I had yet encountered in my
life. The phones in my office were even quiet, which had never
happened before. In fact, I suddenly had a lot of quiet time to
think, and I reviewed the situation objectively. It became clear
to me that part of what got me into this situation was that I had
lost my perspective and started to believe the news stories about
me having “the Midas touch” when it came to business. In other
words, I had become complacent. My momentum wasn’t where it
should have been.
However, giving up is something that never entered my
mind. Not for one second, and that’s one reason I think I con-
founded my critics. They were trying to skewer me, but it had

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