To me a lot of life boils down to two things: Negotiation and Networking. Who you know, and what you do with who you know. I find myself in almost constant negotiation with my wife, friends, colleagues, etc. The negotiation may be right on the surface or buried deep below - but it is happening. Deciding where to go to dinner, if you will hire someone in your office, whether you will accept a new job, who do you hang out with, the list goes on and on.
This also points to the fact that you make 1,000’s of decisions a day - (negotiating with yourself) and many you do not even give more than a half-second thought to them. Malcolm Gladwell talked about this premise in his book, “Blink,” which I highly recommend. Why am I opining on this topic today? The older I get - (32 the last time my wife reminded me I was not 29) - the more I realize you have to be on top of negotiations. My boss talks all the time about “start high, start fair,” and I have used this technique to help when I think about negotiating. Do you all have any thoughts on this? What have you negotiated lately? Did you come out on top, or at least with something that you felt like you got a win out of? JVD
