Page 71 - How To Get Rich

Another failed politician who disappointed me is a man named Pete
Dawkins, sometimes referred to as General Pete Dawkins. He led a
charmed life—West Point cadet, Heisman trophy winner, Rhodes scholar,
but as I found out, Pete was also a stiff. When he was running for the U.S.

Senate in New Jersey against Frank Lautenberg, a magazine
calledManhattan, Inc. published a damning profile of him, and Dawkins
folded up like a broken umbrella.
One day, Dawkins came to my office and asked me to help him build
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in lower Manhattan. He asked for a
million dollars (or more) because he said he was having bad luck raising
money.

I decided to help because no soldiers have ever been treated worse than
the courageous people who came back from Vietnam, wounded and
maimed, attacked physically abroad and psychologically at home. I
provided over a million dollars in matching grants, and, almost as
important, I helped get it built by using the best contractors in the city,
along with unions who made sure it was constructed swiftly, properly, and

cost-effectively. At the opening, Pete Dawkins took the credit.
Many years later, he was working as a high-ranking executive at
Citibank and I phoned him to ask a small favor, to find something out for
me. He didn’t respond for a while, so I called him two more times. Finally,
he said, I really can’t do it for you, Donald, and I really don’t want to get
involved. I told Dawkins that theManhattan, Inc. article about him had
been true. I consider him to be one of the most overrated people I have

ever dealt with.
Sometimes you have to hold a grudge.
The hugely successful Miss Universe Pageant. From left to right:
Charles Gargano, Stephanie Seymour, Evander Holyfield, Miss Universe
Wendy Fitzwilliams, me, and NFL great Bruce Smith. Also pictured: Kylie

Bax (third from right) and Sirio Maccioni (far right).

Learn the Value of Saying No
I purchased the Miss Universe Organization in 1996 and immediately
sold half of the company to CBS; so not only were they our broadcaster,
they were a co-owner as well. This kind of arrangement, where the
network actually owns the end product, was a fairly new concept and
should have been a win-win situation, since CBS would actually be able to