Win-win negotiations

When I was younger, I used to think negotiations were about winning. I’m a natural competitive person so during school I would always try to find ways to win and beat the other party. In order words, I viewed it as a zero-sum game. There was a winner and loser in a negotiation.

I quickly learned in my career that successfully negotiating is far from that. Zero-sum negotiations more often than not result in upset parties and fractured relationships. Even if you do win this round and get what you want, the losing party is going to have a sour taste in his mouth. That’s a great way to end a business relationship or get a bad review.

Rather, successful negotiations can be simply summarized as finding a way for both parties to win and feel good about it. This all starts from establishing a mutual understanding of where all parties are coming from. Of course in a negotiation, not everyone will always get what they want and you have to accept that coming in.

I used to think there was no better feeling than squashing an adversary. Nowadays, I get more excitement from working with an individual to create a win-win scenario.

At this point of Secfi, we’re fortunate to be in a position that we can cut prospective clients who are assholes out. We’ve all dealt with them and I’d much rather work with individuals who try to work with you rather than run you over. No one likes working with an asshole. I try my best to be the opposite of that person.