When Donald Trump went to Atlantic City, he spent nearly half a billion dollars on hotels and casinos. He, like many other people, believed that the city would become a new commercial hub for the twenty-first century. Unfortunately, that never materialized, and Trump realized that the whole thing had been a mirage. There was no real value in Atlantic City, just a bubble waiting to burst.
But ever the fighter, Trump looked for ways to turn his misfortune around. Yes, he was down, and several of his companies went bankrupt, but he wasn’t out. He used the laws as they stood to write off his debt and start out again, rebuilding his business in the process. Before he fought the election in 2016, Forbes estimated his net worth was more than $4.5 billion. Trump put his own worth at closer to $10 billion.
Trump isn’t the only person to have turned a situation around. Steve Jobs, another titan of the business world did the same thing in the early 2000s. Mac’s market share had been slipping for more than a decade, thanks to the ubiquity of the Microsoft Windows platform under Bill Gates. It’s hard to believe now, but Apple were looking very weak after the Dotcom bubble burst, and many thought that the company wouldn’t make it. But Jobs, the marketing genius that he was, realized that it was now possible to build a device that would store music in the form of MP3s that could replace the traditional personal CD player. Soon the iPod was born which provided the revenue that the company needed to market its brand, expand its Mac lineup and build the world’s first smartphone.
What can we learn from Trump and Jobs about turning our own finances around?
#1: Use The Law
When Trump’s businesses in Atlantic City failed, he didn’t want them to bring down the rest of his real estate empire. As a result, he used the bankruptcy laws as they stood to protect the rest of his wealth from the fallout when they went under.
According to Hastings Law Firm, regular people need to do the same. They need to think of the law as a tool that can help them in times of misfortune. There are all sorts of ways that misfortune can affect personal finances, like medical negligence, and yet too few people take action.
#2: Be Opportunistic
Both Trump and Jobs were opportunistic when turning their finances around. Jobs, for instance, saw that technology was changing and that his company was in the ideal position to take advantage of it. He had all the networks he needed to build a new device that would set the market on fire. He saw what was coming and decided to take the risk.
We can do similar things in our own lives. The world isn’t a static place. New opportunities emerge all the time. When some of our skills become less valuable, others become more valuable, opening up new job opportunities in different areas.
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