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Successful Business Man?

 
 
 
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Jimmy Higgins

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I was wondering, is it even fair to say Trump is a successful business man having started with $40 million, back when $40 million was a lot more than it is today, bankrupting due to too much debt 6 times, having to trade off ownership of the company for refinancing, and pretty much whoring your name on products that have pretty much all failed.

Wouldn't it be like playing Monopoly and starting the game with 75% of the bank and then talking big about how you won the game?
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Wouldn't it be like playing Monopoly and starting the game with 75% of the bank and then talking big about how you won the game?
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If we ever see those fabled tax returns, it will likely become apparent that it's more like starting with 75% of the bank, then kicking the board over when your fortune is reduced to 30%.
 
Suppose I'll be the contrarian and say he is a successful business man. While he certainly had more advantages in his youth than you or me, there's nothing that unique about his advantages. He is one of five children to a real estate developer. You may not know them personally, but real estate developers abound here, there, everywhere. And an upper middle class kid going to work for his dad, well, that's just cliché. Don't know where you get the $40M starting capital, as  Donald_Trump says in 1968 he had the equivalent of $1,020,000 in 2015 bucks. Not bad, but more like trust-fund hippie level. So, really, the reason he's a successful business man is because you know he is, even before he ran for president. Why didn't the other Trump children rise similarly? Can anyone cite other sons of real estate developers who are household names? His accumulation of wealth, reputation, and status are his own. He wasn't like Prince George, born on the cover of People. And his bankruptcies, so what? Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a tool very often employed by otherwise successful companies to restructure debt. If you were running a business, you'd be a fool not to consider that if it'd give your business an edge over competitors. But, whatever. I'd say his greatest success was making his name synonymous with wealth. He made himself a brand. How many other people have made money doing that?
 
I don't think that you can deny Trump his success in business. Yes, he started on third base. He relied on his father's money and his father's political connections to get started. But many others have started with more and done much worse. And I built a water treatment plant in New York City, it is not for the faint of heart, it is the hardest place in the US to run a construction project.

The important question for me is whether even a successful businessman is qualified to be elected president as the very first elected position that they have ever held. I feel that there are enough differences in the dynamics of running a business and running a major elected office. There are many ways to be successful in business, the possibilities are much narrower in government. I am not sure if shamelessly lying to promote oneself is a good way to run the US, as an example.

Sorry, I don't mean to derail.
 
A business model in which you hire contractors and then don't pay them fully (or at all) because you know it'll cost more for them to sue you than they'd get for doing the work and less for you to hire the lawyers to defend you than you'd pay them for the work may be considered "successful" but it surely isn't *ethical*.
 
My understanding is dad kicked him off with $1M and dad's bud was the mayor of NYC at the time so things were made easy for him. Not to make light of his wealth but real estate has got to be one of the easier ways to make it, save for inventing the Pet Rock.
 
blastula said:
barbos said:
Makes you wonder why is he not a homeless asking for a money on the streets?
There must have been some nominally "successful" businesses he started. Or all his "success" is due flat out screwing other people?
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Don't forget living off the loans from Russian oligarchs.
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Why would they give him loans?
But you're right, any legit business success makes up for all the times he screwed over anybody.
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That's a thing, they did not list any successes, there could be none, and the real question, what the fuck is wrong with a system when such a looser gets money.

- - - Updated - - -

TV and credit cards said:
My understanding is dad kicked him off with $1M and dad's bud was the mayor of NYC at the time so things were made easy for him. Not to make light of his wealth but real estate has got to be one of the easier ways to make it, save for inventing the Pet Rock.
Click to expand...
So good old fashioned corruption and nepotism.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
I was wondering, is it even fair to say Trump is a successful business man having started with $40 million, back when $40 million was a lot more than it is today, bankrupting due to too much debt 6 times, having to trade off ownership of the company for refinancing, and pretty much whoring your name on products that have pretty much all failed.

Wouldn't it be like playing Monopoly and starting the game with 75% of the bank and then talking big about how you won the game?
Click to expand...

Doesn't your question answer itself? If he wouldn't have invested in anything, but just put it in the safest bonds possible and spent his days finger-painting he would have had six times more than he has now. He's the definition of a loser. If he hadn't had rich parents he'd be living in their basement today.
 
Someone posted in other thread that he got $1mi then $40mill and then $200mil inheritance. So it would be nice if someone checked it and adjusted for inflation.
 
I've read someplace that Trumps net worth is the same now as when he got his wealth from his father, several decades ago.

Adjusting for inflation, that means he lost money. But I could be wrong.

Later,
ElectEngr
 
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