Page 118 - Midas Touch

Sure enough, three years later in 1995, the owners wanted out, which put
me in a great position. They accepted my terms without question, and 40
Wall Street was mine. I also flew to Germany to meet with Walter
Hinneberg to restructure the ground lease which he held. There were a lot

of details, one being whether the building should be a residential property
(which everyone advised) or to keep it as a great business address. My gut
went for the business address, and it has turned out to be a tremendous
success. Plus, it’s beautiful, and the tallest building in Lower Manhattan. I
knew it would be a fantastic addition to the Trump brand of great
buildings, and I was right.

Knowing your brand and keeping it intact as you progress requires

diligence and focus. I’m big on focus because, when I had a financial
turnaround in the 1990s, the number-one lesson I learned is how important
focus is. That was the point of the previous chapter and is what the index
finger represents. I had lost my focus, and the results were all too obvious.
I was attending fashion shows in Paris, traveling around the world, and
socializing, and I wasn’t working as hard as I should have been. I got a
little lazy. But the ultimate wake-up call was when both the Wall Street

Journal and The New York Times had front-page stories predicting my
demise—on the same day! Of course, the story was picked up worldwide
in a flash. It’s a day I won’t forget. But I got my act together, and I’m far
more successful now than I was then because my focus is definitely in
place—personally, professionally and with my brand. Today, I don’t allow

for distractions and, because of that, I can manage a lot of businesses at
once. The Trump brand remained intact during the rough times and from
that we moved forward and expanded with new vigor.

Is Bigger Better?
Let’s talk about brand expansion. I believe your brand can expand, but the
integrity must remain the same. I’ve expanded into the entertainment

business, golf-course development, a hotel collection and many other
things, but the common denominator is always there: gold-standard
quality. Keep your brand standard in mind, and your expansion will seem
possible as well as gratifying. It doesn’t mean it will be easy. The golf-
links course in Scotland at times was intensely difficult. Just the fact that
we were operating in a foreign country was enough, but there were many

different factors involved. This brings us back to being true to yourself,