Globes held its annual Israel Business Conference at the beginning of this week. The self-proclaimed “conference of the business elite in Israel” did indeed draw business leaders from all over the world. The grand opening was attended (via videoconference) by Donald Trump and his children, Donald Jr. and Invanka, both Vice Presidents in the family business. The Trumps are about to start construction on a new luxury 70 story building in the Ramat Gan area.
Globes has a number of videos on their site from the conference, and the Trump video is highly recommended (for viewing instructions, see below)! First of all, Donald Sr. states in no uncertain terms that Israel is one of his favorite places in the world. Not only that, he actually loves the Israeli people! It’s refreshing to hear these sentiments, especially at a time when certain leaders at other conferences are fantasizing about vaporizing the Israeli people.
Warm and fuzzy feelings aside, Trump describes how he pulled himself out of the crisis that hit his company in the wake of the real estate market crash in 1990. When the market crashed, Trump owed $9 billion dollars! Trump gives three tips to business owners, which can be applied to all businesses, whether they are multi-billion corporations or tiny home-office operations:
- Focus – Trump says that when everything crashed, he went back to work. And he just worked with one goal – to survive. He says “Focus, and things just seem to turn out right.” Recently, an Israeli friend told us the same thing in his Israeli accent: Fokoos, he said, and your business will succeed. If you jump around too much, you won’t get anywhere.
- You have to love what you do. Trump loves building buildings, which seems to have worked out well for him.
- Never ever quit – Donald Sr. says another key to success in business is to never quit. While that may seem obvious, sometimes many business owners face situations that make them consider throwing in the towel. The problems can range from financial issues like debt (although compared to $9 billion, my overdraft doesn’t seem like such a big deal), to performance issues, like a major fashla (mess-up for the non-Hebrew/Arabic speakers out there). Recently I had a major fashla: we sent out an email to a client’s list with more than 9,000 subscribers with a major error in it. That’s a 9,000 person fashla, and I was so distressed that the word “quit” flashed in front of my eyes more than once. But I didn’t.
Trump also said that Israel is a country that will never quit, and that’s why we’ll succeed. As my grandmother says, from his mouth to G-d’s ears, Amen!
Go to the Globes Hebrew site, and click on the TV link all the way at the top of the page. A small window will open with a bunch of links on the right. Click on the second link from the top (it says Ve’idat Yisrael Laasakim for the Hebrew speakers). A bunch of pictures and text will appear for all the available videos. Click twice on the green arrow at the bottom of the window that is pointing to the right to get to the page with the Trump video. The Trump video is the one on the bottom-left side, with the picture of Trump (duh!).
N.B. While you’re at it, I highly recommend watching the Richard Quest video, which is on the page before Trump also on the bottom-left side. Quest is CNN’s financial reporter, and he is very entertaining, especially when he talks about the fate of the American dollar. Apparently he’s much older than he looks!
Health warning – do NOT watch Amir Peretz, unless you’re suffering from insomnia. On the blahblah-meter, he gets a very high rating…