NEGOTIATION

YOUR SUCCESS IN business and in life will be determined by your ability to negotiate in your best interests in every situation. Negotiating is a key skill that affects everything you do or say, and almost all of your interactions, both personal and in business. If you cannot negotiate well on your best behalf, then you automatically become the victim of people who are better negotiators than you. You will always achieve a better income, or get a better deal, if you are good at negotiating. Life may be viewed as one long, extended negotiating session, from the cradle to the grave. Negotiation never stops. It is a major part of the business of living and communicating with others. It is the way that individuals with differing values and interests find constructive ways to live and work together in harmony. Your ability to negotiate successfully is essential to your success in all your interactions with other people. Negotiating has been going on since the beginning of civilization because humans have always had an interest in improving their relative position in life. Everyone wants to achieve more of those things that are good—happiness, wealth, position, love, security, status, prestige, and success. And people want to achieve their goals in ways that are faster and easier, and at the lowest possible cost of time and money. Every one of us is in a form of competition with many other people who also want to achieve the same goals, results, and outcomes. It is by compromising, trading, and negotiating that we balance conflicting and competing wants and needs to ensure that we achieve the best possible outcome for ourselves.