1. RELENTLESSLY CONFRONT YOUR FEARS
You can’t let fear -- fear of the new, fear of growing old, fear
of failure -- settle into place in any part of your life. Fear has
a way of making problems bigger than they are. The trick is to
recognize your fears and then zap them with a problem-solving
attitude, faith in yourself and hard work.
Example: I owed billions of dollars in
the early 1990s, and many people thought I was finished. Major
newspapers were announcing my demise. The difference is that I
didn’t believe that I was finished for one second, no matter what
people thought. I simply refused to give in to the negative
circumstances and kept working to overcome my challenges.
Useful exercise: Rename your fears. Call them
"concerns." Just using a different word can affect your approach
and reactions. "Fears" create blocks that will only hinder your
creative thinking. "Concerns" can be broken down into units of
thought and dealt with in an orderly and persistent manner.
2. MAKE YOUR COMMUNICATIONS SHORT, FAST AND DIRECT
As someone on the receiving end of conversations with people who
do not know how to edit themselves, I know what agony means. I
think to myself, How long is it going to
take for this person to get to his/her point?
People are very, very busy today. They are overloaded with
information. Don’t drone on and on. Don’t force people to sort
through it all to get to the important stuff, the good stuff. More
often than not, your listeners -- whether it’s your family,
business associates or those in a social setting -- will be
grateful for your ability to get to the essence quickly for
them.
In any conversation, I give myself an internal deadline. I say
as much as I can in as few words as possible. If you practice this
technique every day, whether it’s relaying a message to someone,
writing a letter or ordering lunch, it will become natural for you
-- and you will accomplish more.
3. PUT BAD NEWS IN PERSPECTIVE
The way you handle difficult situations in life says a lot about
who you are. The same event can wipe out one person but make
another more tenacious. Whenever I am in the midst of difficult
times, I ask myself, Is this a blip or a
catastrophe?
This question reminds me that most problems are temporary if you
keep your equilibrium and maintain your momentum. Realize that
there will always be blips in your daily life but that you never
know when the tide is going to turn in your favor, provided you are
paying attention and still working toward something worthwhile.
Example: I was scheduled to make a
brief appearance on a boat docked in New York City and then get off
before it departed on an evening-long cruise around Manhattan. I
was about to leave when I noticed that the boat was already in the
middle of the river! I wasn’t too happy about this turn of events,
but it wasn’t the end of the world. Instead of fuming and
complaining, I adjusted my mood and treated it as an unexpected
adventure. I actually wound up having a memorable evening, meeting
some fascinating people and getting some great ideas.
4. DON’T TAKE YOURSELF SO SERIOUSLY
Over the years, I have been offered a lot of TV commercials and
turned most of them down. But my favorite one allowed me to display
a self-deprecating attitude that I think took people by surprise.
It’s a commercial for Visa. I’m shown on the top of Trump Tower in
Manhattan holding my credit card when a gust of wind blows it out
of my hand, down many scores of floors to the street below. Next, I
am seen rummaging in a dumpster in search of my lost card. A
well-dressed passerby remarks, "And I thought he was doing so
well."
I do take my work seriously -- but the ability to laugh at
myself keeps my perspective intact, adds an element of fun to my
endeavors and makes people realize that I’m a complex person,
concerned about more than just ambition.
5. NEVER LET ONE PERSON DETERMINE YOUR WELL-BEING
Several years ago, the now notorious hedge fund manager, Bernie
Madoff, approached me in Palm Beach, Florida, where we both owned
property. He said, "Why don’t you invest in my fund?" I had enough
going on in my own businesses, and I didn’t know much about him, so
I declined.
I know a lot of very smart people who became victims of Madoff’s
unscrupulous scheme and had their futures severely compromised by
it.
Money is not a prerequisite to live an active, exciting life,
but it does provide security, confidence and comfort. The takeaway
here is that you must be careful with your financial transactions
no matter how much you like or respect a person. Never bet the
ranch on one person or one person’s idea. Spread your money around
with numerous people and organizations. While we have no guarantees
in life, we can take precautions.
6. TURN YOUR PASSIONS INTO PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES
One thing that I’ve learned about life is that it should be a
series of discoveries. Remember how exciting it was to learn to
ride a bike? If you can capture that kind of excitement as you age,
you will never "stop" -- you will always be on your way to finding
where you are meant to be in life. Remember, whatever you do at
this point in your life, it’s better to love it. Enthusiasm on a
big scale equals passion, and passion is what gives you the
resiliency to take yourself to amazing places.
Example: I love playing golf, so when I
was looking for new real estate projects, I wanted to build the
world’s greatest golf course. I spent five years reviewing sites
around the world and turned down more than 200 possibilities.
Finally, I found a dramatic, 1,400-acre landscape in Aberdeen on
the north coast of Scotland with miles of spectacular oceanfront
and sand dunes of immense proportion. The place had sentimental
meaning for me -- I have Scottish roots, and my mother’s first
language was Gaelic. I knew this was the right place, but the scope
of development and the cost, one billion pounds, was such that no
one thought I would get approval to go ahead. In fact, building
this course became such a saga that the BBC hosted several
documentaries and HBO did a feature. I’ll be breaking ground in
2010.