David Chu

“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued. . . . Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.” —Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning”
― Timothy Ferriss, Tribe Of Mentors: Transformative Wisdom From Icons and Innovators to Help You Navigate Life's Challenges

“Develop a specific alternative as a fallback if the negotiation fails. If you can’t walk away, you can’t say no. Too often, cooperative people leave themselves without choices at the bargaining table. They have no alternatives planned if negotiations fail. Coaching note: your preparation must always include plan B. Life will go on if there is no deal, so find out what your alternatives are, work on improving them, and bring a clear vision of them with you to the negotiation. Remember the lesson of Janie Rail in chapter 6. Build your own railroad if you have to. There is always an alternative.”
― G. Richard Shell, Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People

“Gently push back, at least for one round. Cooperative people are programmed to say yes to the first reasonable proposal someone makes. To improve, you need to practice pushing back a little. A simple question that works well is: “Can you do better than that?” If the other side says no and you feel you can sustain the process for another round, ask for help understanding why that is the best they can do. If their answer makes no sense, share your confusion. You will get farther with a little polite persistence than you will by quick surrender.”
― G. Richard Shell, Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People

“In markets, you gain leverage by your power to walk away. Inside organizations, you gain leverage by having control over key items such as resources, decisions, budgets, information, and the like.”
― G. Richard Shell, Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People