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STEFAN AARNIO

40

Reason to Study Negotiation #3:

Negotiate or Others Will Take

Advantage of You

“Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation.”

—Richard M. Nixon

T

here are two types of people in this world: those who are good negoiators and everyone else who gets taken advantage. Ever since the dawn of man, humans have been taking advantage of

their weaker counterparts. A strong caveman would physically beat up a weaker caveman and rob him of his food, shelter, and women. Today there are laws against the physically strong harming the physically weak, but there is very little protection for the average person when it comes to negotiation. Instead of a big burly caveman knocking on your door to physically beat you up and take your food, we may have an unscruplous insurance salesman knocking on our door to sell us an overpriced life insurance policy instead.

We no longer have bands of raiders circling our towns looking to kill the men, rape the women, and throw the children into slavery. Instead we have predatory bankers who sell mortgages to people that cannot qualify. Instead of raiding your house for everything you own, a predatory banker can foreclose on your home by giving you a badly negotiated loan you can’t afford with poor terms and then throw you on the street.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. In the medieval