Deal maker Trump sets the tone for success.

"Can we get the sign out front?" Donald Trump asked the person on the other end of the phone in an easy tone.

It wasn't the kind of commanding, aggressive request you'd expect from the man who single handedly inducted the brusque catch phrase "You're Fired!" into the pop cultural lexicon.

Where was the larger than life mogul who barks orders and gets results, the real estate titan who has often been portrayed by the media as brash talking, loud-mouthed and a bully, known for spouting off hyperboles and hurling insults, all while still expressing provocative, but valuable opinions on everything from real estate to romance?

Trump conversing like any reasonable business-man would. No, not like any businessman would, like any person would. I got just a tad uncomfortable, as if this was something I wasn't supposed to be seeing.

It was like discovering a magician setting up his tricks backstage; the whole illusion was in danger of being ruined. I wasn't supposed to know that Trump is a nice guy, was I? That in reality, despite the endless streams of sour faced pictures we see of him and his tough tales of going bankrupt in the early 90s and having to crawl tooth and nail back to where he is now, he is having fun.

Trump paused just long enough in his conversation to slide over a piece of paper, a color printout of his new condo tower in Miami. A gargantuan building located just north of South Beach and whose completion comes just as South Florida's condo craze seems to be hitting a fever pitch.

"Check that out," he said.

Trump seemingly has focused much of his attention on developing ground-up condos like this, with projects from New York City to Seoul, Korea.

"If you can build in New York City, you can build anywhere," he said.

In Manhattan, however, where ground-up development is increasingly difficult because of skyrocketing construction costs, Trump has also become a master converter and recently transformed the former Delmonico Hotel into Trump Park Avenue, a luxury condominium building that will rival the best in the city in terms of design, spaciousness and location.

Trump got his start in real estate after graduating from the Wharton School of Business working for his father Fred Trump, who was a well-known and successful developer in Queens. Although Queens is a less competitive place to build compared to Manhattan--where land commands dizzyingly high value--to say that Trump got off to a humble start in the business would be inaccurate.

His first project, the development of the Grand Hyatt Hotel next to Grand Central Station, which he did at the age of only 27, was not only big, but also intensely complicated, involving the city, state, a bankrupt private railroad company, a bankrupt hotel, and a major hotel chain.

When Trump began the project in 1974, the site was home to the ailing Commodore Hotel, owned by the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad, which owed millions in back taxes to the city. These were the years when the city itself was on the verge of bankruptcy.

As described in "Trump Strategies for Real Estate," a book written by Trump advisor George Ross who also co-stars with Trump on "The Apprentice," Trump recognized the city's position and negotiated a deal in which Penn Central would agree to turn over the $12 million purchase price to the city in order to pay off the bulk of its tax debt.

He then fashioned a deal with the city in which it would agree to a long-term lease that would give it a share of the hotel's profits.

When Trump's expertise in running a luxury hotel was brought into question by city officials, Trump silenced them by bringing in Grand Hyatt. To get the banks to lend him the $80 million he would need to transform the Commodore, Trump, who realized that his youth wouldn't exactly inspire confidence, smartly hired Henry Pearce, an experienced banker whose reputation gave the impression of reliability and security.

The hotel was completed in 1980 and, by 1987, was grossing $30 million in profits a year. Trump eventually sold half of his interest in the property for $85 million.

"That was a great deal," Trump recalled. "But if I had to say which development I am most proud of, it would be Trump Tower, I live here, I work here, it's closest to me."

That development, which is located at the heart of the Plaza District, Midtown's most elite section, wouldn't be easy either.

The site was owned by Bonwit Teller, a department store chain whose presence on Fifth Avenue was becoming more and more inappropriate considering the area's prestige and luxury tenants.

Trump purchased their property for a high price he knew could be justified with a multiuse skyscraper that would include restaurants, retail, office space and residential condos.

The only hitch was that Leonard Kandell, an elderly developer, owned property on an adjoining site on 57th Street that Trump would need to purchase in order to develop his building.

Kandell said that he wouldn't sell no matter how high the price. Instead, he asked for a massive rent that Trump would not agree to.

But while in negotiations to buy air rights to the neighboring Tiffany store, which would allow Trump Tower to be much taller, Trump learned that Tiffany had the right to purchase Kandell's property at fair market value. Trump didn't let on how important that option was to him while striking the deal and, according to him, Tiffany wound up throwing the option to buy Kandell's property in as icing on the cake.

He again approached Kandell, this time with the purchase option in hand.

Even though he would most likely ultimately lose, Kandell vowed to resist the leveraged buyout by fighting Trump in court every step of the way.

Trump defused the situation by using the right to purchase option to instead negotiate a more reasonable rent for Kandell's land.

The two emerged from the deal as friends and Trump says that he continues to have good relations with Kandell's heirs.

At the end of the interview I was hesitant to extend my hand to shake. Trump's phobia of germs and consequent distaste for handshakes is well known.

In his book, "How to Get Rich," he even writes that he wishes the handshake could be replaced with the Japanese custom of bowing instead.

I was tempted to give the bow a shot, but Trump extended his hand.

"Great to meet you."