so to me success was important but you know and i think this is true for almost everybody
in the room i think you have to love what you do if you don't love what you do you're
not going to be successful and i loved what i did i did real estate i i went in early
when i talked about success i always started you have to do something you love if you don't
do what you love you're most likely not going to be successful and you know you're going to have
a lot of people your parents included they're going to be saying don't do that don't do that
and you have to listen to them they're wise they've been around they've seen and sometimes and
i tell people sometimes they go into a business where basically you can't be successful you know
nobody's successful if you can get away from that get away from it if you can but you have to be you
have to make sure that you do something that you love try to go into something that you love that
can be a good business so you know a lot of people go into businesses that don't are just not good
so when i was young i wanted to with my father built in brooklyn and queens the boroughs and he
did a great job he was uh a very strong guy but a good guy a guy with a tremendous heart but he was
strong very powerful type of personality and he builds single-family housing whatever he built but
he'd save the nails and the sawdust and the chips of wood and they'd take them and sell them i mean
it's like extreme but he was very extreme i'll give you a quick so we have apartment buildings
and i walked to my father's desk in brooklyn this is a long time i was young
and there's a picture of a roach a cockroach on a can like a paint can a five gallon pan can and
sitting on his desk i said dad what the hell is that the cockroach was turned upside down dead
and it said the name of the product was bye bye roach and my father said you know this stuff is
the greatest stuff we've ever used but it's too expensive i don't like it so i'm sending it up
to your uncle mit they're going to analyze it he's going to send it back and tell me what ingredients
are in i said what are you doing dad he said i could say 4 a gallon i say pop is it really
worth it he said yeah it's worth it that's the way you make money and at a certain extent you
know it's not penny wise you got to save the pennies you got to be that's a great thinking
so he wants to take something that's expensive that's good and send it up to a laboratory at mit
find out what the ingredients are because he can save a couple of dollars a gallon
years from now some of them may look back and ask themselves whether they've made the right choice
whether they've made the most of the opportunities they've been given together we have the same
mission over the course of your life you will find that things are not always fair
you will find that things happen to you that you do not deserve and that are not always warranted
but you have to put your head down and fight fight fight never ever ever give up
don't give in don't back down and never stop doing what you know is right nothing
worth doing ever ever ever came easy and the more righteous you fight
the more opposition that you will face in your hearts are inscribed the values of service
sacrifice and devotion now you must go forth into the world and turn your hopes and dreams
into action gary player the great golfer he was a little guy very little but he worked really hard
and he had a great statement but he'd go the harder i work the luckier i get and he wins the
uso but you have all these big handsome guys these big giant guys and they're hitting the ball a mile
and you have gary player and gary player would win the open he'd win the masters he'd win this
he'd win that and he said you know hey he in the u.s open he hit a five arm to one foot from the
hole and he ended up getting a birdie and wins the u.s open right and he came off the green
now i know i've heard the statement before but i heard it from him in a meaningful way
they said what do you think gary what is it he said all i know is i've been working very hard
and the harder i work the luckier i get i thought it was an amazing statement you want to be totally
focused you can't take your eye off the ball when i had troubles in the early 90s a major article
came out and it said very strongly everything he touches turns to gold and i believed it
so i'd go out with models at night instead of working but that wasn't good and i remember i
had a big lease coming up and there was a big show and i went to the show i said don't worry
fellas you can handle the lease you'll get it done well i came back they didn't get it done
and i would have had it done 100 and then the market crashed in the 90s so i had trouble
but it was sort of an amazing i wouldn't want to do it again it was an amazing test
of yourself can you handle pressure how are you under pressure are you smart never ever
give up you can change and you can move around but never ever give up i know people that are very
smart they went to the wharton school of finance with me i know other people that aren't as smart
and those people are the top people in industry today and the top they just were tougher they
didn't give up and the smart ones had everything on their plate that always come in with the a plus
on the tests and the good boards and everything else but when they ran into problems they didn't
know how to solve the problems like the guys that weren't as good and it's very seldom that you see
something other than this happen so never ever give up i love the game everything i do i mean i
see so much i'll look at something and that's what i it was in my blood from the time i'm very young
i loved the creative process of building inflation has always been very good for real estate but
unfortunately at the end the whole thing pops okay that's the bad part you know and you haven't seen
that yet and hopefully you won't hopefully changes will be made substantial changes and you won't see
that but inflation is a good thing for real estate not a bad thing very good okay so i have to tell
you you know this inflation but it's bad for other parts of the country and it's very bad ultimately
it explodes you know inflation is wonderful until it all explodes and you got to be careful
of that you have to watch it i i think real estate grant is got to be part of a portfolio it's been
it's been first of all there are tax advantages depreciation a lot of people you'll look at a
project and you'll have a loss now not good for your ego but it made money but you don't pay tax
and it shows after depreciation you have a loss a lot of times they'll analyze myself they'll say
well you lost money i say yeah i lost money but you're not losing money you you in fact that loss
you can carry it over to other jobs where you're making a profit so real estate from the standpoint
of tax benefits has been great but i love the real estate business i love the creativity of real
estate and i think i always will even as president that say boy that's a great site for a building
right to be a winner you have to think like a winner if you don't think like a winner it's
just never going to happen sometimes in life to be successful oftentimes most of the time you have to
follow your instincts you have to follow your gut you have to your parents may say wrong
your whoever may say wrong but you have to do it so much of success is seeing yourself
as victorious you have to see yourself you have to really believe in yourself
and sometimes it's hard you know you've had failures you've had weaknesses you've had
other things you have to see yourself as a one-man band don't rely too much on other
people because they'll let you down you have to see yourself as victorious
you