By #17: Donald Trump
Lesson: Even if you’re a failure, you can still be a success.
Donald Trump is one of the best known business moguls in the world, but his “empire” seems to be a house of cards built on sand. Trump’s business ventures have filed for bankrupty not once, not twice, but three times, most recently in February of this year.
So how does Trump continue to maintain his mystique as a formidable tycoon, telling contestants on The Apprentice, “You’re fired!” because they can’t cut it? He has several tricks up his sleeves.
If you’re going to take on debt, don’t take on a little, take on a lot. A whole lot. When the “Trump Debt Crisis” first appeared in 1990, Newsweek reported that “the banks are owed so much by Trump…that they have no choice but to try to keep him going.”
While his name may be gaudily splashed across most of his ventures, it doesn’t actually appear on the companies’ paperwork. The companies he starts file for bankruptcy, not the Donald himself.
Fight, fight, fight for your place on Forbes. It has been reported that Trump and his associates badger the people who rank personal wealth so that he appears to have more money than he actually does.
