That's the dumbest statement.
That holds true for everyone. If everyone had invested their birthday/Christmas gifts instead of spending/using them they'd be richer too.
Trump has built an empire and employed thousands of people. He didn't sit on daddy's money and do blow all day--it's hardly an unsuccessful business life
Yes, game the system, keep your stake small, and don't actually employ anyone and have each firm go bankrupt.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/22/a-secret-to-donald-trumps-success-that-you-simply-cant-replicate/Sometimes, that meant getting taxpayers to chip in.
Trump has bragged about his ability to manipulate public officials into granting him tax abatements and other subsidies.
Early in his career, he was buying lots across the country and improving them on 40-year mortgages from the federal government at 5.5 percent interest. Those terms meant "we didn't have to put up much cash," he told Bender.
On other occasions, he's received favorable loans from private investors.
Not even Trump Tower was built with Trump's money. Chase Manhattan provided him with $24 million in financing to buy the leases, along with a $150 million construction loan.
"He can, thus, add another star to the honor badge of the venture capitalist:
for putting up practically none of his own money for an increasingly valuable equity interest in one of New York's most valuable pieces of real estate," Bender wrote.
That deal went well, but later,
Trump would run into trouble, starting with the failure of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan and three casinos in Atlantic City.
As he's often emphasized, Trump himself did not go broke. The firms managing these and other properties these did, and Trump's personal stake in these companies was small enough that he remained solvent.
