特朗普人生至今有三件事最让他得意：

第一件，写作《做生意的艺术》（或译作《交易的艺术》）；

第二件，主持NBC真人秀节目《谁是接班人》(The Apprentice) ；

第三件，当选美国总统。

《做生意的艺术》(The Art of Deal) 在1987年发行后不久便成为畅销书，那年特朗普41岁。此书是详述特朗普童年和早期的商业生涯的第一本书。

特朗普自己说，我一生最喜欢读的一本书是《圣经》，第二本就是《做生意的艺术》。在这本书里，他在吹嘘成就的同时，还提出了11条“谈判心法”。在特朗普看来，用此心法谈判，可以做到无所不胜。

▷ 心法1，敢要价，要大价

特朗普说，他在思考的时候就像一个能够控制自己的精神病患者。

"I like thinking big. I always have. To me it's very simple: if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big. Most of people think small because most people are afraid of success, afraid of making decision, afraid of winning. And gives people like me a great advantage."

▷ 心法2，忍受最坏的，等着最好的

特朗普说，大家都认为他是一个赌徒，但其实，他从来没赌过。

"People think I'm a gambler. I've never gambled in my life……I always go into the deal anticipating the worst. If you plan for the worst--if you can live with the worst--the good will always take care of itself."

▷ 心法3，最大化各种可能性，让子弹飞起来

要谋而后动，给自己更多的灵活性。

"I also protect myself by being flexible. I never get too attached to one deal or one approach...I keep a lot of balls in the air, because most deals fall out, no matter how promising they seem at first."

▷ 心法4，切实了解你的市场

特朗普在作出一个决定前，会先问问每个人的意见。如果要买一块地，他就要向住在这一地区周围的人们打听他们对于学校、商店或犯罪的看法。如果在另一个城市，他就叫辆出租车，他总是爱问出租车司机很多问题。

"I like to think that I have that instinct. That's why I don't hire a lot of number-crunchers, and I don't trust fancy marketing surveys. I do my own surveys and draw my own conclusions."

▷ 心法5，反复无常，飘忽不定

生意场上，急于求成，孤注一郑是最糟糕不过的，手段是最大的实力。手段就是需要，要让对手感觉，你手里有的是独一无二的东西。

"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."

▷ 心法6，打铁也需自身硬

通过自我增值，即使在逆风局下，也能将手中的烂牌打好。

"Perhaps the most misunderstood concept in all of real estate is that the key to success is location, location, location...First of all, you don't necessarily need the best location. What you need is the best deal."

▷ 心法7，宣传、宣传和宣传

好酒不怕巷子深，前提是得懂得宣传。虚张声势是一种真实的夸张，将带来意想不到的好处。

"You can have the most wonderful product in the world, but if people don’t know about it, it’s not going to be worth much."

▷ 心法8，有力反击对手，掌握主动

“谁对我好，我也对他们好”，反之亦然。

"In most cases I'm very easy to get along with. I'm very good to people who are good to me. But when people treat me badly or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard."

▷ 心法9，光说不做假把戏

你可以制造刺激，可以做很棒的推广，得到各种媒体的关注，你还可以加入一点夸张的成分，但不能只做这些。

"You can't con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don't deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on."

▷ 心法10，控制成本，精打细算

每节约一块钱，是增加一块钱的利润，而增加一块钱的销售，增加的利润可能不到一毛钱。想尽办法控制好每一个不必要的成本，这是产生利润的最重要的来源。

"I believe in spending what you have to. But I also believe in not spending more than you should."

▷ 心法11，乐在其中

在持久性的高压下如何保持乐在其中的心态，非常重要。

"Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game."

不过，《做生意的艺术》的合作者，记者托尼·施瓦茨(Tony Schwartz)却希望停止它的出版，或将它重新归类为虚构作品。施瓦茨曾表示，他在没有特朗普帮助的情况下独自完成了这本书。

特朗普对此予以否认。“托尼非常棒，他是合作者。他没有写这本书。我写了这本书。这是我的书。它是一本头号畅销书，是有史以来最畅销的商业书籍之一。有人说它在商业畅销书史上空前绝后。”

施瓦茨一再对他在《做生意的艺术》中所扮演的角色感到后悔。2016年，他说：“我好像给一头猪涂了口红(put lipstick on a pig)。我深深地悔恨，因为我帮特朗普吸引了注意力，他的影响力越来越大，我助纣为虐。”