When
it comes to George Ross, who trumped who?
By
CARL CORRY
Friday,
December 10, 2004
In
1996, before agreeing to become one of Donald Trump's chief advisors, George H.
Ross suggested some "working guidelines."
No.
1: He would work only four days a week, and not Fridays.
No.
2: He wanted to take vacations whenever he wanted for as long as he wanted.
No.
3: "I said, 'I want access to whatever you have. I can take a plane to
No.
4: "I told him: 'If you're unhappy with me, I leave and we're still
friends. If I'm unhappy with you, I leave and we're still friends.'"
No.
5: "I said, 'I'll work for cheaper than what I'm worth, but when it's time
for a bonus, I want it.'"
Trump's
response: "I can handle that."
Ross
admits that it was presumptuous to make such requests, especially with a man
like Donald Trump, who's better known for firing people than hiring them. But
it's that type of forthrightness that has made him a success, both in business
and as a boardroom judge of the hit reality show "The Apprentice."
Ross,
76, is executive vice president and senior counsel for the Trump Organization,
advising The Donald mostly when it comes to real estate matters.
Speaking
to a room of marketing and business students at
"He
was very enthusiastic, but I thought he was unrealistic," Ross recalled.
But Ross, who had worked with Trump's father, took the job.
Two
years and 23 drafts of the lease later, the deal was done, Ross said.
Over
a career spanning more than 50 years, the longtime resident of
Ross
now attracts foreign investors for Trump and oversees the operations of
He's
played a starring role in
In
1966, partnering with brother-in-law and broadcast veteran Martin Beck, Ross
decided to buy a
About
a month later, however, the owner called back and wanted to take the offer.
"I
said, 'Well, I made that offer when I thought I was the lower bid. Now that you
waited a month, I find out that I'm the highest," said Ross, who wound up
paying $100,000 in cash and the rest in long-term notes.
After
going on to amass 10 radio stations, including WBLI, Ross' group cashed out in
1987. At that point, he said, the options were to build more stations or sell
to a larger entity.
"We
started out with the station earning $14,000 a month and left it earning
$400,000 a month," Ross said.
Looking
back on his career, there's one instance that Ross says he wish he could take
back. It was back in the 1960s and he was the only attorney representing the
new buyer of the
"I
said, 'My client never shows up for small deals.' That didn't sit well with
everyone in the room. Fifty-one million dollars was a lot of money back then.
If I could take back that comment today, I would."
Times
like that made Ross consider whether he should have pushed to become an
engineer, which was his first ambition.
But
after his father died when he was 16, on Father's Day, "going to MIT was
out of the question." So he enlisted in the U.S. Army to take advantage of
the GI Bill. When he got out, he went to
And
what about those boardroom showdowns in "The Apprentice?"
Rather
than the two- or three-minute synopses offered on the show, Ross said they
typically take about two hours, and as long as five hours.
If
there's anything that the candidates have in common with people in the real
world, Ross said it's that "there are so many people with good educations
that are stupid."
Ross,
who teaches a course in negotiation at