The 25 Best Donald Trump Quotes About Success

Long before Donald Trump became President, he was known for being a wealthy, successful, entrepreneurial playboy who was great at creating ostentatious buildings and writing books on how to succeed. These days, his controversial political quotes get all the attention, but he had already churned out a lot of terrific quotes that men can learn from before anyone cared what he thought about politics. Here are the best ones:

25) “Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you’re generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.”

24) “I’ve always said, ‘If you need Viagra, you’re probably with the wrong girl.”

23) “Nothing is easy. But who wants nothing?”

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22) “Marriage is a contract unlike any other contract in life. You marry for love. But your signature on the marriage certificate is all about rights, duties, and property. It’s a legally binding contract that knows nothing of love. If the love dies, all you have left is a resentful ex-spouse and the marriage certificate. There’s nothing more terrible than an ex-spouse with a ten-ton axe to grind, and no agreement on how your common property is to be divided. It usually leads to all-out war that is more vicious than any legal battle in business and could easily lead to your financial and emotional ruin. Always get a prenup. It’s just too risky not to.”

21) “Remember, there’s no such thing as an unrealistic goal–just unrealistic time frames.”

20) “Sacrifice is the price a person pays for success. Unfortunately, most people are not willing to pay the price. It is easier to be average, comfortable, safe, secure, and live life just below success.”

19) “We win in our daily lives by being careful with every day, by having a champion’s view of each moment.”

18) “The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts.”

17) “Show me someone without an ego and I’ll show you a loser.”

16) “The point is that if you are a little different, or a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you.”

15) “Do not spend too much time planning or trying to anticipate and solve problems before they happen. That is just another kind of excuse for procrastination. Until you start, you won’t know where the problems will occur. You won’t have the experience to solve them. Instead, get into action, and solve the problems as they arise.”

14) “In a lot of ways it is easier to do things on a large scale. It is easier to build a skyscraper in Manhattan than it is to buy a bungalow in the Bronx. For one thing, it takes just as much time to close a big deal as it does to close a small deal. You will endure as much stress and aggravation; you will have all the same headaches and problems. It is easier to finance a big deal. Bankers would much rather lend money for a big project than for a small one. They are more comfortable investing money in a big prestigious building than they are a rundown house in a bad section of town. If you succeed with the big project, you stand to gain a lot more money.”

13) “The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead. The best thing you can do is deal from strength, and leverage is the biggest strength you can have. Leverage is having something the other guy wants. Or better yet, needs. Or best of all, simply can’t do without.”

12) “Without passion you don’t have energy. Without energy you have nothing.”

11) “The worst of times often create the best opportunities to make good deals.”

10) “Luck does not come around often. So when it does, be sure to take full advantage of it, even if it means working very hard. When luck is on your side it is not the time to be modest or timid. It is the time to go for the biggest success you can possibly achieve. That is the true meaning of thinking big.”

9) “People who think achieving success is a linear A-to-Z process, a straight shot to the top, simply aren’t in touch with reality. There are very few bona fide overnight success stories. It just doesn’t work that way. Success appears to happen overnight because we all see stories in newspapers and on TV about previously unknown people who have suddenly become famous. But consider a sequoia tree that has been growing for several hundred years. Just because a television crew one day decides to do a story about that tree doesn’t mean it didn’t exist before.”

8) “If you’re interested in ‘balancing’ work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable.” – Donald Trump

7) “Good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells.”

6) “Think about it: If you can’t say great things about yourself, who do you think will? So don’t be afraid to toot your own horn when you’ve done something worth tooting about.”

5) “In the make-believe world you will automatically get paid what you are worth. The real world doesn’t work that way. You get paid what you are worth only when the person you are dealing with has no other choice.”

4) “Rich people are rich because they solve difficult problems. You must learn to thrive on problems.”

3) “Criticism is easier to take when you realize that the only people who aren’t criticized are those who don’t take risks.”

2) “Here’s the paradox: If ‘A’ students are considered the smartest people of all, why don’t they all become extremely wealthy entrepreneurs? The answer is because most ‘A’ students are winners in the classroom where they win by making the fewest mistakes and failing the least. They learn that mistakes and failing are bad, so they do their best to excel. In the real world of entrepreneurship, by contrast, the people who make the most mistakes—and learn from those mistakes the fastest—are the winners. Business rewards people like that.”

1) “Always protect against the downside–the upside will take care of itself.”