I’ve tried my hand at some business ventures, but it wasn’t until I began to watch “Shark Tank” (and it’s non-US counterpart, “Dragons’ Den”) that I began to recognize what I did wrong. Sometimes, I like to think of new business possibilities and I imagine a scenario where I give a presentation to a “Shark Tank” type of panel of potential investors. This has led to me to spot problems before wasting any money, thankfully.
When I imagine Donald Trump standing in front of that type of panel, I can’t imagine any “pitch” other than something like, “people will come to the hotel because it has the Trump name on it, and that is an indicator of all things high class.” I can then imagine him being grilled by the investors, who ask how they can trust someone who has led several companies into bankruptcy and demands a high salary, regardless of how the business fares. I can’t imagine any reply to counter criticisms, other than perhaps some business statistics of what the Trump name has generated in the past (though of course it’s not clear that will be the case going forward).
So, I’d like to hear from people who know more about business ventures than I do. How would (and how has) Donald Trump be able to obtain investor cash for new projects, given what we know (and don’t know — due to his secrecy) about how he does business? It seems like this is something Hillary could use against him, as it would make an excellent “sound bite,” something along the lines of, “I’m sure many of you watch the Shark Tank TV show — how many of those investors do you think would have any interest in giving Trump even a dime of their money? What would he do with it? What kind of salary would he insist on being paid? How much of it would be a tax write off? Would he get laughed out of the building?”