were lacking…. The jury found that the failure of the USFL was not the result of the NFL’s television contracts but of its own decision to seek entry into the NFL on the cheap.56
Donald Trump described his USFL experience this way,
I bought a losing team in a losing league on a long shot. It almost worked, through our antitrust lawsuit, but when it didn’t, I had no fallback. The point is that you can’t be too greedy. If you go for a home run on every pitch, you’re also going to strike out a lot…. If there was a single key miscalculation I made with the USFL, it was evaluating the strength of my fellow owners. In any partnership, you’re only as strong as your weakest link.57
Another win–lose mindset hallmark: If you win, take credit; if you lose, blame your partners.
Two final notes on Trump’s win–lose mindset. One, George Ross, his long-time lawyer, would disagree with the conclusions here. Ross notes that “the recurring theme in Trump-style negotiation is looking for ways to satisfy both sides, to structure a deal so that everyone feels that he or she comes out a winner.”58
In fact, Ross concludes his book by stating: “Just remember this most important element of Trump-style negotiation: You can only achieve mutual satisfaction and complete the biggest and best deals when you build a relationship of trust and rapport with those with whom you become involved.”59
Ross’ statement regarding mutual satisfaction is true. Does Trump believe this? Not according to the evidence. Does Ross himself really believe Trump brings a win–win mindset to negotiations? The example he cites in his book after this statement does not even involve Trump.
Plus, the USFL negotiation and Trump’s many negotiations detailed later illustrate his dominant negotiation mindset: win–lose.
It’s also important to examine what constitutes a “win” here in Trump’s eyes. If Trump measures wins financially, he admittedly lost $22 million here.60
A better financial deal would have been the Cowboys. He could have bought the NFL Cowboys in 1984 for $85 million. (It sold then for $85 million.) Its owners then turned around and sold it to its current owner in 1989 for $170 million. Forbes in 2017 declared the Cowboys the most valuable sports franchise in the world at $4.8 billion.61
But Trump didn’t think in purely financial terms. He said in January 1984, shortly after buying the Generals, “I feel sorry for the poor guy who is going to buy the Dallas Cowboys. It’s a no-win situation for him, because if he wins, well, so what, they’ve won through the years, and if he loses…he’ll be known to the world as a loser.” 62
Trump became “known to the world” and gained his first national exposure for his name and brand during this time. He also gained a reputation as the wealthy New York developer who took on the uber-powerful NFL. That’s a win for him.
On the other hand, he didn’t end up owning an NFL team.
Bottom line—Trump views negotiations and life with a win–lose, zero-sum mindset.
As John “Jack” O’Donnell, President of the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino in the late 1980s recalled after working closely with Trump in Atlantic City, “Trump had a simple mindset, winners versus losers, and…his chief motivation was winning, even when he didn’t need the money.” 63
And Trump himself stated: “Man is the most vicious of all animals, and life is a series of battles ending in victory or defeat. You can’t let people make a sucker out of you.” 64
LESSONS LEARNED
| Trump’s Strategies and Tactics | Gut-level decisions drove Trump’s negotiations, not strategic planning. |
| A strictly win–lose mindset impacted all Trump’s negotiations. | |
| Lessons Learned | Strategic preparation based on the experts’ proven research—not guts and instincts—should drive our negotiations. |
| Detailed preparation and homework behind-the-table should involve two to nine times more time than at-the-table negotiating. | |
| Preparation on the process of negotiation—not just learning the facts—is critical to success. |
SETTING THE BAR HIGH: SUPER AGGRESSIVE EXPECTATIONS
When asked about his goals in a television interview, Trump once said “‘Goals?’ he repeated. ‘You keep winning and you win and you win, and you win.’” 65
He also said, “to get momentum, you must first focus on a specific goal” and “remember, there’s no such thing as an unrealistic goal—just unrealistic time frames.” 66
What has Trump actually done regarding goal-setting? He reaches for the sky. And he doesn’t let naysayers weigh in. He goes for it, often against conventional wisdom and so-called experts.
And he should set aggressive goals. To start, though, some strategic context. Setting goals lives within my First Golden Rule: Information Is Power—So Get It! The first Golden Rule is essential to success in any negotiation and is well-supported by the research.
RESEARCH: It’s critical to ask questions and get as much relevant information as you can throughout the negotiation process. You need sufficient information to set aggressive, realistic goals and to evaluate the other side’s goals.67
This was essential to Trump’s success, especially early on. His father, Fred, built a highly successful residential real-estate company with thousands of apartments and projects in several states. But he shied away from Manhattan.
Based in Queens, Fred Trump made millions building standard housing for middle-class families. And when he expanded beyond New York, he bought inexpensive tracts of land from desperate sellers in California, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia.68
Donald Trump wanted more. A lot more. And he set his sights on Manhattan.
As Ned Eichler, one of his early negotiation counterparts recalled, Trump, in a walk around New York City’s Central Park during a break in their negotiations, viewed the park as “merely the lawn in front of his future properties.” 69
During that walk, Trump pointed to the buildings on Fifth Ave and Central Park South and said, “I’ll be bigger than all of them. I’ll be bigger than Helmsley [a major New York developer] in five years.” 70
Did he get there? Yes and no. It depends on when you look at him. Three Trump eras took place in terms of his goal-setting:
1) “Over-the-top” best describes Trump in the ’70s and early ’80s.
2) But then he got caught up in a deal-making frenzy in the mid-1980s and took a goal-setting U-turn.
3)
