Trump is a risk taker - success or failure?

[Ray From Cleveland]

Well........that's great, but it's also why you'll never be as successful as Trump.

Success is not determined by wealth. Do you think everyone who has more money than you is more successful than you?
There are plenty of individuals with more money than Trump that did not "take advantage of the rules" if it was unethical or immoral. Ethics and morality are not a consideration for Trump.
I definitely could have made more money if I was not guided by ethics and "took advantage of the rules". I had decent success and did not have declare bankruptcy or screw someone over to my advantage just because I could.

It's not about ethics or morality. It's about legality.

I work full-time but have my own side business. Anything my tax preparer says I should do is what I do. I may question it, I may not think it's the right thing to do, but I do it because it's to my advantage.

Yes, success is determined by your wealth in business. That's why a business that's worth 10 million wants to be worth 20. That's why a business that's worth 100 million wants to be worth 200 million. Money IS a measurement of success when it comes to business.

Sone people inherit money, some hit the lottery or get lucky in Vegas or the horse track or something, but we're not talking about people who got lucky enough to win a major lawsuit, we're talking about people who made personal investments and became financially successful. So yes, I do consider the big D a success.

I have feeling I am much more successful than you based on your definition of success.

Good for you. What does that have to do with anything? Trump is way, way more successful than you are.

I do not agree with basing success on the amount of money one has.
Harvey Weinstein has a lot of money but he is a failure as a human being.
If I do have more money than you it does not mean I am more successful than you, in my book.

Of course it does. Anybody with more money than another is financially more successful.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Are we talking about society or a businessman? A businessman who doesn't take responsibility is not a businessman for very long.

Businessmen have responsibility to themself and their business and a responsibility to society. The society includes the marketplace the business makes their money from.
Trump shows very little responsibility toward society in his personal life or his business life.

You are completely wrong. A business opens up or operates to provide products or services for a profit. That's it. There are no social obligations of a business. Nobody opens up a business to provide good paying jobs and great benefits. Nobody opens up a business to provide government with tax money.

A nice gesture, a good PR move, perhaps, but that's not an obligation.

Do you own a business? I do.
There are benefits to providing good wages and benefits to employees. They stay longer, they are better workers and are loyal. The marketplace has ears. They know businesses that are in it for as much money as they can make and nothing else. The marketplace rewards those who are not out to squeeze every nickle they can out of customers or clients.
Check out Jeff Bezos's business model for Amazon. Profits are a secondary goal. You do not know business.

I work with business all day long. I've seen success, I've seen failure. I've noted the strategies that businesses use to remain successful.

Now, not all companies are the same. Yes, there are companies that can afford to pay their employees more. It's based on their competition and availability. But there is no way you can afford to pay your workers much more than your competitor.

If you and I both had widget factories, and you pay your workers (on average) four dollars more per hour in wage and benefits than I do, it's only a matter of time before I put you out of business. Why? Because I can sell my widgets at a lower price than you can. That means your customers will eventually be calling me to supply their widgets.

Sometimes price is not the only factor for a customer, but it is in many cases. Take for instance the company Grainger. Now, Grainger sells it's products at a much higher price than other companies. But Grainger is successful because they carry just about everything. Companies don't have time to shop around to see who has what. They know that Grainger is just a phone call away and will have anything a company needs.

I was reading a book about investments. The author held seminars across the country. He always asked people who would invest their money in a store that sold items for a much higher cost than everybody else. Few would raise their hands. He told those people who didn't raise their hand that they lost out on a great opportunity, because that's exactly what 7-11 does. They sell products for a much higher price than a grocery store.

So how did 7-11 become so successful? Convenience. People will pay more money for a product if they can get it conveniently.

I am impressed with your research but look at the key to success. In all cases you referenced the focus, initially, was on the customer not on the businesses needs. Businesses will be more successful if they focus, first, on the needs of the customer and then on how you can be profitable. I f the business puts their needs first, they usually are not successful.

Of course I agree with that, but the American consumer is obsessed with lower prices. Thats why Walmart is number one and has been for some time.

Walmart works diligently to get the lowest priced products they can. They do this to pass the savings to their customers. One of our customers produces products for Walmart and Walmart is constantly on their ass to find a way to produce their products even cheaper. It's a rat race and constant bait and switch. They are constantly switching manufacturers or buying products from different outlets that outbid each other for our customers business.

People can talk about unions, foreign labor, outsourcing, CEO pay, whatever. But the bottom line is our economy is driven by consumer demand. Unless we change our way of thinking when it comes to purchases, we will never see many good paying blue collar jobs again. The American consumer simply won't support it.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Trump is not a risk taker, he is a "i am smarter than everyone else so I am going to do it my way" kind of person. It very rarely works out well, if not for some very powerful and rich friends via his father's company he would not have survived the bankruptcies.

If you notice Trump Inc is now basically just a holding company, they own companies but do not make any day to day decisions for them and they sell the "Trump" name. If you look close you will see a direct correlation between when Trump stopped making business decisions and when Trump Inc started to make some good money.

We took a guy that was not even smart enough to make good business decisions and put him in charge of the country and gave him the launch codes to enough nukes to waste the whole world...

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Trump is not a risk taker, he is a "i am smarter than everyone else so I am going to do it my way" kind of person. It very rarely works out well, if not for some very powerful and rich friends via his father's company he would not have survived the bankruptcies.

If you notice Trump Inc is now basically just a holding company, they own companies but do not make any day to day decisions for them and they sell the "Trump" name. If you look close you will see a direct correlation between when Trump stopped making business decisions and when Trump Inc started to make some good money.

We took a guy that was not even smart enough to make good business decisions and put him in charge of the country and gave him the launch codes to enough nukes to waste the whole world...

What could possibly go wrong?

People that worked with Trump would disagree with you. It's been said that Trump's success was from taking advice from experts in certain fields. He never turned a deaf ear to anybody. He may have challenged them, he may not have agreed with them, but he certainly never had the attitude that he was smarter than everybody else. That's more of an Obama personality trait than Trump.

Anybody who makes large amounts of money is a risk taker. If Trump was not, he wouldn't have had any bankruptcies. Speaking of which, when you file bankruptcy, you don't need rich friends to help you out. You have the protection of the federal government.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Trump was a big risk taker in business. He was either very successful, if you judge success by making money, or a total failure, if you judge failure as losing money. The failures resulted in multiple bankruptcies that allowed him to walk away from the failures relatively unscathed.

He is the same risk taker in politics. He will either be very successful or a huge failure. There will not be any middle ground.
Bankruptcy is not an option when you fail in politics

I agree mostly. He was CLEARLY very successful in business. However he has something worse than a bottom line or board of directors now....congress.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Trump is not a risk taker, he is a "i am smarter than everyone else so I am going to do it my way" kind of person. It very rarely works out well, if not for some very powerful and rich friends via his father's company he would not have survived the bankruptcies.

If you notice Trump Inc is now basically just a holding company, they own companies but do not make any day to day decisions for them and they sell the "Trump" name. If you look close you will see a direct correlation between when Trump stopped making business decisions and when Trump Inc started to make some good money.

We took a guy that was not even smart enough to make good business decisions and put him in charge of the country and gave him the launch codes to enough nukes to waste the whole world...

What could possibly go wrong?

People that worked with Trump would disagree with you. It's been said that Trump's success was from taking advice from experts in certain fields. He never turned a deaf ear to anybody. He may have challenged them, he may not have agreed with them, but he certainly never had the attitude that he was smarter than everybody else. That's more of an Obama personality trait than Trump.

Anybody who makes large amounts of money is a risk taker. If Trump was not, he wouldn't have had any bankruptcies. Speaking of which, when you file bankruptcy, you don't need rich friends to help you out. You have the protection of the federal government.

Actually it was from reading things written by those who did work with Trump that would tell you he always thought he was the smartest person in the room. And he very often ignored the experts and it almost always worked out poorly.

Trump will tell you that nobody knew things were going south in Atlantic City, but that is a lie. Everybody knew, but Trump tought he knew better, so when nobody else was building any new casinos Trump built the Taj Maj Hall and it was a disaster from day one

Another example of Trump doing this was Trump Shuttle (aka Trump Air). He bought an airline that had been running in the black for 30 years bankrupted it in less than 3 years. He ignored the experts when he set the price for it and overpaid, and he ignored the experts when they told him that people flying from Boston to NY City didn't care about gold plated sink faucets and oak wood paneling in the cabin.

As far Trump not thinking he is smarter than everyone else...here are some quotes from him...sure sounds like he thinks he is smarter than everyone else

I know more about renewables than any human being on Earth
Nobody knows more about debt. I'm like the king. I love debt
"I think nobody knows more about taxes than I do, maybe in the history of the world. Nobody knows more about taxes
"Nobody knows banking better than I do"
"I understand money better than anybody. I understand it far better than Hillary, and I'm way up on the economy when it comes to questions on the economy."
"I think nobody knows the system better than I do
"Nobody knows the system better than I do."
"Nobody knows politicians better than Donald Trump."
"Nobody knows more about trade than me."
"Nobody in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump."
"There's nobody bigger or better at the military than I am."
"I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me."
"There is nobody who understands the horror of nuclear more than me."