Effective Negotiators Embrace Mistakes

One of my friends has a quotation that he wants on his tombstone: 'Where there is no ox the stall is clean, but much strength comes by the ox.' If you want the strength of the ox then you will have to put up with a bit of muck from time to time. Mistakes are the fertiliser of success. We don't much like the constituent components of fertiliser. They smell, they are unpleasant, but they do bring growth.

Mistakes in negotiation are inevitable. In this book I have deliberately quoted personal examples of where I have got it wrong. That's because it's not that abnormal. We are not omnipotent - thank God! We cannot possibly win every single situation. But when we get it wrong there is a simple choice: do we resent the experience as an intruder or welcome it as a friend?

Every mistake I have related in this book has taught me something. Sometimes I get uptight but mostly I am grateful - it is another building block in the process of aspiring to be an effective negotiator.