In life you get what you negotiate

In life you get what you negotiate. Not what you need. Not what you want. But what you successfully negotiate.

Some truths pop out when you least expect them.

None of my students know how to negotiate. My students are a microcosm… A mirror of the whole damn world.

You demand, and sulk when you don’t get what you demand.

You expect, and you sulk, or yell, or attack when you don’t get what you expected.

Even the idea, the concept of negotiating is missing.

I have been no exception… Only lately have I started to consider that if I negotiate then the chances of getting what I want increase by billion-fold.

It started with my landlord.

My landlord reminds me of my mother: he is a screamer… So I was afraid of him. My behavior was the belligerent, resistant child’s who was beaten one too many times.

I live on the upper apartment of a two-family house. It used to be nice. But by the time I moved in, 16 years ago, it hadn’t been painted in decades, and the floor wasn’t refinished for exactly the same length of time. The roof leaked when it rained, and the stove was on its last leg. Then its burners died, one after the other, until there was one functioning…