Adversity builds character or new energy

use it or lose it -right

Adversity Builds Character (But I Prefer the View from the Top)
by Donald J. Trump

The issue of Inside Trump Tower that you will receive in two weeks will be our 100th issue! As always, it will be packed with good advice - and for that issue, a choice selection of a few popular articles from the past. To start that process today, we are proud to reprint this great article by our Chairman Donald J. Trump that first appeared on the Trump Blog in June 2005.

My greatest respect is for people who have experienced adversity and then come back. I was one of those people, in the early nineties. I went through a tough period and learned a lot about myself, and then came back bigger and better and stronger. It wasn't unlike what happened to Frank Sinatra in the early fifties. Like me, he lost focus. He took his eye off the ball and he made some bad decisions. (Also like me, it was the fairer sex that had a little something to do with his troubles, but that's another story for another time.)

There's a wonderful story in Sammy Davis Jr.'s book, Yes I Can. In this story Sammy, who is on the way up (due in no small part to Sinatra's patronage), sees Frank walking down Broadway all by himself, looking utterly dejected. At the time, Frank was on the skids, having gone from being the biggest singer ever known to a laughingstock, reduced to singing novelty songs.

It's a familiar scenario to me, because one night at 3:00 A.M., when I was more than $9 billion in debt, I was summoned to Citibank for a conference call with a bevy of international bankers to whom I owed money. It was pouring rain and I couldn't get a cab, so I had to walk to the bank, 15 blocks from Trump Tower. By the time I got there I was soaked. I felt then like I had reached my lowest point. But we worked things out, and the rest, as they say, is history. They also say it's darkest before the dawn. You know what I say: Never ever give up.