Ladies and gentleman of the jury, I present to you exhibit 424A in the case of The People v. Donald Trump. Florida developer Jorge Perez -- who built a billion dollar fortune as a Cuban exile starting with nothing -- recently came out with a book of real estate advice called Powerhouse Principles: The Billionaire Blueprint For Real Estate Success.I'm only about 40 pages into it and so far it's nothing special. But after a foreword from Donald Trump, there was nowhere to go but up. Trump started his one-page foreword with praise that still managed to come across as self-aggrandizing: "The one person who could teach me something about real estate is Jorge Perez."
What? The one person? Did Donald Trump really just say that there is no one who can teach him anything except for Jorge Perez? There's no question that Donald Trump's an expert in the savvy selection of wealthy parents, losing money operating a casino, and resurrecting his career by playing a caricature of a mogul on a sitcom -- I mean, reality show. But real estate?
That one sentence from the foreword sums up what is most wrong with Donald Trump (other than his hair/face). True business geniuses like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates would never claim that they have nothing further to learn about their fields. Both of those men are lifelong learners, and they've evolved and and grown over the years, never allowing narcissism to interfere with their pursuit of greater accomplishments. Their records speak for themselves and so does Trump's: inherited a fortune, nearly lost everything when hubris took over, got into a cat fight with Rosie O'Donnell, and now his image is being destroyed by overexposure, evidenced by the failure of his cologne, casino company, and rapidly declining ratings for each new season of The Apprentice.
Lillian Smith once said that "When you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die."
I don't support the death penalty but I do suggest that we sentence him to life as Rosie's houseboy and 1200 hours of psychotherapy.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-01-2008 @ 11:49PM
Zack said...
Hey no disrespect, but Im pretty sure you've never made a million dollars yourself, let alone a billion. Not to mention losing nearly all of it and then earning it all back plus more. So next time instead of writing a piece of work criticizing someone, maybe you should go out there and put your name on the line. Just a thought.
7-01-2008 @ 11:49PM
Thom said...
If the banks ever had to call donny on his loans, they'd all go down.
7-01-2008 @ 11:49PM
bill said...
I get a kick out of The Donald. I think he's right. There probably aren't many...maybe only that guy... who could teach him anything he doesn't already know about real estate.
And I've been a real estate broker for 43 years.