THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com
32 Saturday, March 29, 2014
EMPOWERNIGERIA CASE STUDY
YOUTHMAGAZINE
GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURAL LEADER
THE REAL–ESTATE TYCOON. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31 Trump was able to obtain an option on the railroad’s yards on the west side of Manhattan. When initial plans for apartments proved unfeasible because of a poor economic climate, Trump promoted the property as the location of a city convention center, and the city government selected it over two other sites in 1978. Trump’s offer to forego a fee if the center were named after his family, however, was turned down, along with his bid to build the complex. In 1974, Trump obtained an option on one of the Penn Central’s hotels, the Commodore, which was unprofitable but in an excellent location. Trump then worked out a complex deal with the city to win a 40-year tax abatement, arranged financing, and then completely renovated the building, constructing a striking new facade of reflective glass designed by architect Der Scutt. When the hotel, renamed the Grand Hyatt, opened in 1980, it was popular and an economic success, making Donald Trump the city’s best known and most controversial developer. Trump married Ivana Zelnickova Winklmayr, a New York fashion model who had been an alternate on the 1968 Czech Olympic Ski Team, in 1977. After the birth of the first of the couple’s three children in 1978, Donald John Trump, Jr., Ivana Trump was named vice president in charge of design in the Trump Organization and played a major role in supervising the renovation of the Commodore. In 1979 Trump leased a site on Fifth Avenue adjacent to the famous Tiffany & Company as the location for a monumental $200 million apartmentretail complex designed by Der Scutt. It was named Trump Tower when it opened in 1982. The 58-story building featured a 6-story atrium lined with pink marble and included an 80-foot waterfall. The luxurious building attracted well-known retail stores and celebrity renters and brought Trump national attention. Meanwhile Trump was investigating the profitable casino gambling business, which was approved in New Jersey in 1977. In 1980 he was able to acquire a piece of property in Atlantic City. He brought in his younger brother Robert to head up the complex project of acquiring the land, winning a gambling license, and obtaining permits and financing. Holiday Inns Corporation, the parent company of Harrah’s casino hotels, offered a partnership, and the $250 million complex opened in 1982 as Harrah’s at Trump Plaza. Trump bought out Holiday Inns in 1986 and renamed the facility Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. Trump also purchased a Hilton Hotels casino-hotel in Atlantic City when the corporation failed to obtain a gambling license and renamed the $320 million complex Trump’s Castle. Later, while it was under construction, he was able to acquire the largest hotelcasino in the world, the Taj Mahal at Atlantic City,
which opened in 1990. Back in New York City, Donald Trump had purchased an apartment building and the adjacent Barbizon-Plaza Hotel in New York City, which faced Central Park, with plans to build a large condominium tower on the site. The tenants of the apartment building, however, who were protected by the city’s rent control and rent stabilization programs, fought Trump’s plans and won. Trump then renovated the Barbizon, renaming it Trump Parc. In 1985 Trump purchased 76 acres on the west side of Manhattan for $88 million to build a complex to be called Television City, which was to consist of a dozen skyscrapers, a mall, and a riverfront park. The huge development was to stress television production and feature the world’s tallest building, but community opposition and a long city approval process delayed commencement of construction of the project. In 1988 he acquired the Plaza Hotel for $407 million and spent $50 million refurbishing it under his wife Ivana’s direction. Trump reached south to build a condominium project in West Palm Beach, Florida, and in 1989 he branched out to purchase the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle for $365 million, renaming it
the Trump Shuttle. In January 1990, Trump flew to Los Angeles to unveil a plan to build a $1 billion commercial and residential project featuring a 125-story office building. It was in 1990, however, that the real estate market declined, reducing the value of and income from Trump’s empire; his own net worth plummeted from an estimated $1.7 billion to $500 million. The Trump Organization required a massive infusion of loans to keep it from collapsing; a situation which raised questions as to whether the corporation could survive bankruptcy. Some observers saw Trump’s decline as symbolic of many of the business, economic, and social excesses that had arisen in the 1980s. Yet, he climbed back from nearly $900 million in the red: Donald Trump was reported to be worth close to $2 billion in 1997. Donald Trump’s image was tarnished by the publicity surrounding his controversial separation and the later divorce from his wife, Ivana. But he married again, this time to Marla Maples, a fledgling actress. The couple had a daughter two months before their marriage in 1993. He filed for a highly publicized divorce from Maples in 1997, which became final in June 1999. A prenuptial agreement allotted $2 million to Maples. In January 2005, Trump married for a third time in a highly publicized wedding to model Melania Knauss, who gave birth to a son, Barron William Trump, in March 2006; it was her first child and Trump’s fifth. On October 7, 1999, Trump announced the formation of an exploratory committee to inform his decision of whether or not he should seek the Reform Party’s nomination for the presidential race of 2000. In 2004 Trump began starring in the NBC reality series The Apprentice, which quickly became a hit. In later years the show began showcasing celebrities as contestants under the revised name The Celebrity Apprentice. In 2012 Trump’s flirtation with politics returned when he publicly announced he was considering running for president again. However, his association with the “Birther” movement, a fringe group that staunchly believed President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, discredited his reputation politically to varying degree. Regardless, Trump has continued to be vocal against President Obama—not only regarding his place of birth—but also on a variety of his political policies.
Food Carts And Tricycle Carts HREE-WHEELED CARTS are a common sight in many mobile foods gathering place in the world. This tricycle mobile food cart is a fully electric van for food catering with three wheels. It is just like a flow restaurant with fashionable outlook and reasonable inner-structure. You can equip it with different kitchen wares to provide various delicacies and beverage for customers. Tricycle food carts are affordable to small retailers offering different specialties and snacks. The food carts trend has gathered so much steam that there wouldn’t seem to be enough tires left in the world to get another mobile kitchen trend like the food cart rolling along. While the number of food bikes pedalling through city streets does not compare to the number of food trucks/carts, they are quickly becoming a go-to mobile option for urban operations. As bike-powered foodservice concepts become more common in dense, urban areas around the country, the possibility of food trucks yielding to their two-wheeled (or sometimes three-wheeled) cousins seems more likely. The food carts would definitely make for a profitable business in the industry. Food carts could sometimes be referred to as Food-onwheels, well yeah, they are on wheels. In Nigeria a bike powered Food cart is a winner
T
as it is cost effective and gives you mobility with very little investment. You can brand your cart and ride it around the neighbourhood or market and sell your food. In addition you may decide to own an entire army of food carts in which many others can be riding your bike food carts for you and making daily returns. To find out about this and other business ideas, visit our showroom at W2, THE ARENA Army Shopping complex, Bolade Bustop, Oshodi, Lagos. You could also contact our sales representative at +234 1 277 1388 OR Email us on info@empowernigeria.com
Guide to Personal Development By Nicholas Okoye
nokoye@empowernigeria.com
A Sound Balance On All Four Dimensions HE human being is made up of several functioning body parts that have to be in balance in order to achieve peak performance. Any world class athlete that has won an Olympic gold medal will tell you that peak performance is a combination of a host of certain factors. And once you discover the combination and you can hit it on all cylinders the chances are that you can achieve world Class results. That means that you can become the best in the entire World in what you are doing. Just think about it being the very best in the World in what you do. Usain Bolt has told the World that he started training to be a World champion runner from the age of six years old, and it took ten years before he started winning World class tournaments. And it was not just the fact that he practiced every day of the week and twice on Sunday, it was the fact that he understood the balance required for peak performance and he was able to attain that balance and he rode it will the way to the top. The balance is a combination of four Dimensions and I have outlined them here. Sound Mind: You cannot expect to be good let alone be the best at anything if you do not have the mental capacity to understand what you are doing, put your determination behind it and engage a healthy mind that fits the purpose. Your mind must believe it, your mind must accept it and your mind must be fed with the food it needs to keep it with a strong desire for continuous peak performance. Healthy Body: the Body is the temple of all achievement, so if it not healthy the chances of achieving peak performance will be very slim. The need for a sound mind and healthy body stands out for all performances whether in school, as an athlete, or in business. You need to eat the right foods, do the right exercise and avoid all the poisons such as tobacco, alcohol, white sugar, white flour and white salt. Active Spirit: the spirit is a part and parcel of the individual and whether you are religious or not that fact remains that every living thing on earth, we are not so sure about living things on other planets, but for the living things on this earth, we all have a spirit. And that Spirit must be kept active engaged in a direction that you love or you have a passion for, that way it stays active. A lot of people feed their spirit by engaging in religious activity, some tend to meditate. Others practice applied faith, whatever you do it must be an activity that keeps the spirit active. This is paramount for peak performance. Happy Emotion: if you have a great emotion then you are likely to maintain the balance you need for peak performance. Your emotions must be in check at all times so that it does not slide into a negative state. The negative states are deadly and can destroy any well attained peak performance balance you may have achieved. You can sometimes be unbalanced by a spouse, a close friend or even a work collogue, if this happens find a way to remove yourself from that environment and ensure that you have neutralized the reason for the negative emotional state or atmosphere before you return.
T