1. Perception creates reality. “I got very good at looking the part long before I was the part, I got there because I just bullshitted. I got bullshit in my bones.”
2. Use the news media to build your brands. “How can you pull the rug out from under your competitors? Steal the limelight. The press actually fell for the fact that my people were the power brokers. We weren’t! Soon I had a new business partner, and his or her name was The New York Times.”
3. “Everybody wants what everybody wants“. Creating buzz around just about anything—be it a basket of puppies or a building with 88 vacant apartments—begets popularity.
4. Expand early. “Can you afford extra office space? Buy it”
5. Shoot the dogs early. “I fire the lowest-performing 25 percent of my sales staff every six months”