By Younas Chaudhary
Over each of the last 16 weeks, I have written weekly tips for succeeding in making deals and in improving your personal and business life. These tips grew out of my life experiences, and particularly my past 40 years in business.
Your responses, compliments, and insights have kept me busy and positively engaged, and for that I am grateful and thankful. Several of you expressed despair that you were too late in your journey to implement my tips. I would like to assure you that it is never too late to revise habits, change directions, and fix our shortfalls in life, as long as you commit to those improvements, work hard, stay persistent, and maintain consistency. Begin now and do not procrastinate!
So, what’s next for me? My desire is to continue writing blogs as long as I can recollect my useful life experiences to share with you, particularly since we all are endowed with common sense, a powerful trait that can help us achieve extraordinary things in life.
Meanwhile, here is a recap of my 16 blogs:
We began the blog series with the importance of doing homework before and while negotiating a deal. The three simple questions were these: (1) What do I want from the deal? (2) What will I gain from the deal? (3) How can I successfully close the deal?
Remember to take a few calculated risks, maintain intense focus, use data wisely, closely monitor and control your costs, and stay optimistic!
3. How to deal with the unexpected
Keep an open mind, work on your fears, and always be prepared to absorb new information and shift direction accordingly. A little bit of divine intervention will help as well!
Change has been my constant companion. With change comes surprise and discomfort, and we need to face such situations with grit.
There are no perfect negotiation tactics that will always secure a winning deal. This blog gives you 12 tips to generate winning negotiations if you put them into practice. With consistency and hard work, you can make winning deals!
6. Hard out: The defining moment in a deal
Identify your non-negotiables before negotiating a deal. You must be prepared to walk away from a deal if your principles tell you that it isn’t good for you.
7. Be authentic in dealing with lenders
An essential part of dealing with lenders is to “just be you.” Be authentic, be who you are, and be transparent, because lenders can be your most trusted advisors!
8. Sleep over decisions before finalizing them
Hasty, knee-jerk reactions frequently lead to regret. Unpack the different parts of an agreement and sleep over the decision. Your patience will yield great opportunities and high returns.
We all know that type, don’t we? If you are trying to make a sale, focus on helping your customers make a sound decision, rather than pushing your narrow self-interest and never be a slick salesperson!
10. Why advice matters: An immigrant’s view
Seeking third party advice has taught me patience and humility and has repeatedly protected our team from making hasty and unwise decisions.
11. Staying calm during negotiations
Negotiations involve difficult conversations, and when we get consumed by our short-term needs, we get emotionally upset, talk a lot, and forget the big picture. Be aware of that trap, and consciously avoid it.
12. The human behind the data is the key
A person’s analytical abilities, knowledge, experience, field notes, personal observations, and intuition play a far greater role in decision-making than fancy gadgets and automated software tools.
13. In life, time waits for no one
Learn why a sense of urgency sometimes can help change your life. Time is of the essence, and whether you are using emotional reasoning or logical reasoning (or hopefully both), you need to be ready and willing to make quick and fast decisions in your life!
14. I am blessed: The power of positive relationships
I learned to build relationships working with simple rural folks who were totally different from me. Keeping an open mind and positive attitude in building relationships can propel you to a whole new level of effectiveness in life.
15. 5 golden values that can help you in life
Five timeless values have helped me succeed in life, read the blog to find out!
With the simple steps mentioned in the blogs above, anyone can learn how to negotiate a deal and live life more effectively. These bits of advice are gleaned from decades of personal experience learned through the combination of my own instincts, plenty of external feedback, and an abundance of hard knocks! I learned through trial and error, and some of my best deals were made when my back was against the wall. I was forced to succeed or fail!
You can read more by purchasing my best-selling memoir “From Dirt Roads to Black Gold.” Note that 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of this book will help people in need through my foundation, the YBC Foundation.
Disclaimer
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article are my own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which I have been, am now, or will be affiliated. Further, I make no warranty regarding the accuracy or effectiveness of my recommendations, and readers are advised to consult other advisors as well as their own judgments in making business decisions.
YBC Foundation 