It’s much easier to break down a concern than it is a fear. Fear cre-
ates a block that will only hinder your creative thinking. Objec-
tivity will remove that block and allow for creative ideas to flow.
An antidote to fear is as simple as problem solving. Whether
you have investing, estate planning, or running a business on your
mind, or all of those things, they can be broken down into units
of thought and dealt with in an orderly manner. It’s a bit like a jig-
saw puzzle—you need to find the right place for each piece of the
puzzle until the whole is apparent.
When I began to construct Trump Tower, for example, I had
several things in mind that I knew I wanted. I wanted a certain
kind of marble called Breccia Perniche, which was expensive, beau-
tiful, and rare. It was also irregular and had white spots and white
veins, which bothered me, so I went to the quarry itself and
marked off the best slabs with black tape. Action turned this con-
cern into a problem solved. I got exactly the marble pieces I
wanted, and sitting around worrying about whether those pieces
would be right or wrong was getting me nowhere. As a result of
deciding to go to the quarry myself, the pieces of this puzzle fell
into place and the finished product was perfect.
Know that if you want to own your own business, you will be
doing a lot of the work yourself. That’s just the way it is. It isn’t all
about giving orders or having other people do the legwork or
brainwork for you. That comes into the picture, but you should
always be ready to go at it yourself. If that idea bothers you, maybe
you’d be better off being an employee. If responsibility comes nat-
urally to you, or if you enjoy that challenge, owning your own
business is a good fit.
Fear has a way of making things bigger than they are. There’s
an old German proverb to the effect that “fear makes the wolf
bigger than he is,” and that is true. But the opposite of fear is faith,
which is one reason you’ve got to believe in yourself and see your-
DONALD J. TRUMP