Page 89 - Think Like a Champion

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DONALD J. TRUMP
and low days, but my approach to that is to design your own chart
and then work at maintaining it. My biorhythms are always on full
speed ahead. I’ve developed my stamina to keep up to that level,
and the results are apparent at this point.
Many things become easier with practice and experience, and
momentum is one of them. You can take advantage of this great
energy source just by being aware that it exists. It’s like swimming
with the current versus being dragged down and out by a riptide.
Find your own current and then go with it! Don’t allow for dis-
tractions. Do everything you can to maintain your energy flow.
There was a hugely successful real estate developer that I ad-
mired very much, and then he went into a decline. We saw each
other at a party, and I pointedly asked him what caused this to hap-
pen. He said, “Donald, I lost my momentum, and I couldn’t get it
back.”When this guy fell, he fell hard. I learned a great lesson from
him that night, so much so that I devoted a lot of time to study-
ing and applying the power of momentum to my own life and
business. I didn’t ever want that to happen to me, and I repeat this
story for a reason. The lesson applies whether you’re in real estate
or not.
I see people who get in their own way when it comes to mo-
mentum. I knew a guy who would take ten big fast steps forward
and then sit there, like he’d reached a plateau, and would expect
things to just keep moving forward. It doesn’t work that way!
Maybe he liked the rollercoaster approach to business, but he lit-
erally wore himself out before he had enough substantial success
to see him through, and his ups and down didn’t work out on the
balance sheet in the long run. Watch out for streaks of momen-
tum that you can’t sustain—keep your equilibrium in all things,
even in your energy output.
There’s a Newsweek ad from the late ’80s in which they have
a photograph of me with the caption, “Few things in life are as

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