Prospering During Trump's Presidency - How Ordinary People Achieve Extraordinary Prosperity

CHAPTER 1

NO ONE CROSSES THE FINISH LINE WITHOUT FIRST CROSSING THE STARTING LINE

Proper preparation is the key to our success. Our acts can be no wiser than our thoughts. Our thinking can be no wiser than our understanding.

— George S. Clason, author of The Richest Man in Babylon

It is common knowledge that only God can count the number of apples born from a single apple seed. Likewise, one new idea can give birth to countless new ideas. Transforming ideas into reality is what Prospering During Trump’s Presidency intends to do—inspire and empower readers to take their business idea from thought and turn it into reality. That they may bear fruit and prosper from their creative ideas, and in turn, inspire others to find and pursue their prosperity legacy.

I am not sure if you are the type of person brazen enough to believe in the possible, but if you are, then there are infinite possibilities in store for you. Like an infant in the womb, the seed of prosperity sown within you is yearning to come to life. Your job is to bring that seed to life. My job is to inspire you to cultivate that seed. I will give you the tools required to cultivate prosperity in every area of your life. The tools I speak of are the principles and practices needed to achieve real prosperity. Be assured; these are the very same tools used by those who are already living their prosperity legacy. The fruit of your labor produces an abundant harvest. And within the pages of this book, I will bring to light all of the principles and practices you must exercise in the creation of your prosperity legacy.

The best way to learn to achieve prosperity is to learn from those who have already achieved extraordinary success. I have studied, interviewed, and met with some of the greatest wealth creation gurus in the business. I assure you that most billionaires and millionaires do not hide their secret to success. No one lights a candle and then hides it under a basket. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that others may see the light. Those who are living their prosperity legacy want you to know how they did it, and that you can do it too. And so, we begin our discussion with the icon of prosperity himself, Donald J. Trump.

In 1987, Donald Trump wrote his first book, The Art of the Deal, which has sold over one million copies and counting. Within weeks of its release, The Art of the Deal skyrocketed to the coveted number-one position on the New York Times Best Seller list and remained the number-one best-selling book for thirteen weeks.

And as history records, Art of the Deal remained on the Times

Best Seller list for an astonishing forty-eight weeks, just twenty- nine days short of a year.

According to multiple sources familiar with the book publishing, as of 2017, The Art of the Deal sales have exceeded a million copies. That total does not include Amazon’s Audible audiobook sales, Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited e-book sales, consumer resale transactions, and thousands of public library copies. The point being, like many of Trump’s endeavors, The Art of the Deal sales constitute a phenomenal standalone success story.

In The Art of the Deal, Trump introduces readers to his core business philosophy for business success. Many believe that Trump was inspired by the work and teachings of his dear friend, the infamous “positive thinking” author, and minister Norman Vincent Peale. The Trump to Peale connection is an excellent example of the apple seed principle at work. One man builds upon another’s idea and brings the next generation of new ideas, inventions, and talents into existence. And the process keeps duplicating itself with each individual who implements the knowledge shared.

The Power of Positive Thinking, the impetus behind Trump’s eleven elements for success, was first published in 1952 and has sold an estimated five million copies. With some estimates as high as seven million copies sold worldwide. Translated into fifteen languages, The Power of Positive Thinking is unparalleled in its extraordinary capacity for fostering self-confidence in millions of readers. It is one of the beloved self-help books of all time. And if you have not read it, do yourself a favor and read it.

Prospering During Trump’s Presidency explores the eleven elements of deal-making utilized by Donald Trump. Trump is a man known worldwide for his success as a real estate mogul, renowned television celebrity of The Apprentice, author of twenty best-selling books, and a net worth of approximately $5 billion, give or take a few million. What does this shortlist of Trump’s achievements reveal? Trump’s life prosperity legacy tells us that nothing is impossible for those who believe in what is possible for them to achieve.

Trump is a highly intelligent, creative, ambitious, and hardworking individual. He is a son, a husband, and a father; an employer, a consumer, a golfer, a reader, a leader, and a tweeter. He is just like you and me, no more, no less. As my dad would say, he puts his pants on just like everyone else—one leg at a time. He is a normal human being, living his own extraordinary life of prosperity. He has no super-human power or proclivity for creating wealth. And if he does, it is in what he believes he can achieve.

The only thing limiting the prospect of you living an extraordinary life of prosperity is what you believe possible for you to achieve. Fear and doubt about what might go wrong, or how you might fail, are nothing more than an imagined scenario. Like it or not, fear and doubt in your potential and ability to prosper is a belief. A cruel, deceptive, and self-defeating belief nonetheless.

That type of unproductive thinking is responsible for so many good people choosing not to take that necessary step-of-faith required to start their own business, write the book they would love to write, compose the music, sing the song, or dance the dance they would love to perform. Self-imposed fear and doubt are why so many potential millionaires fail at the starting line. Listen to me carefully, and I say this with all sincerity: If you are not living the life or business success that you want, then stop making excuses for not doing what leads to prosperity. And start believing in yourself and how you can succeed in whatever you choose to do.

Even if your current circumstances appear to prohibit your ability to achieve the good life—the American dream of health, happiness, and prosperity—your ability to achieve the good life is a very attainable reality. Even if your education or lack of education, your childhood, or the lack thereof, or whatever appears to prohibit your ability to be truly happy, healthy, and wealthy, you must choose to believe in the capacity within you to achieve what is possible. If you struggle believing in your ability to be healthy, happy, and wealthy, then at the very least, believe in the capacity within you to achieve health, happiness, and prosperity. Because when you know what you want to achieve, and you believe in the possibility of that achievement, the process begins. And the fastest and best way to start living your true prosperity legacy is by acknowledging and accepting the fact that you have the innate ability to prosper.

In a world of unlimited opportunity, where anything is possible, you cannot afford to be your own worst enemy. You have an amazing brain with the immeasurable capacity to think, imagine, analyze, and realize the impossible as possible.

Everything you need to be truly prosperous is already available to you. The only limit to what is possible for you to achieve is determined by what you believe. When you think in terms of achieving extraordinary things, extraordinary things become possible for you to achieve. When you do the extraordinary, you achieve the extraordinary. When you achieve the extraordinary, the impossible becomes possible. And once you experience what is possible for you to achieve, the opportunities and possibilities are limitless.

In 1972, when I began my career in sales, the tools of the trade consisted of a rotary dial telephone, an electric typewriter, and a plug-in calculator. I drank water from tiny collapsible paper cups (because mass production of water in plastic bottles was not a thing). That is how I made my first fortune, selling from a phone on my desk, typing contracts by hand, and calculating my profit on a calculator. Sure, life was rough, but I loved every minute of it.

And I remember thinking, it sure would be nice if someone could invent a way that I could take the phone with me wherever I go.

Then in 1973, Motorola introduced to the world something called a mobile device. It was wireless and portable, about the size and weight of a brick, and capable of providing thirty minutes of talk time. This primitive mobile phone required ten hours of recharging, stored up to thirty phone numbers, and sold for about

$3,995 plus tax. The mobile phone was born, and those in business embraced it with open arms. And the rest is history.

Before 1973, the reality of a handheld computer (a.k.a. smartphone), a life-saving artificial heart transplant, a self-driving electric car, and many...