So the end of the year is here and we are teetering on the edge of the so-called fiscal cliff. The Democrats are entrenched in their tax and spend mantra and the Republicans want just the opposite, thus a stalemate, impasse, deadlock, standoff, logjam, standstill, (choose your descriptor), has ensued.
Sigh… What a bunch of chumps. In forty years of business I was never sued and didn’t sue anyone. For sure there was some saber rattling and at times it came exceedingly close, but in the end it was always averted.
When I sold our software company the lawyers who represented the public company who purchased it all but called me a liar when I told them that we had no litigation past or present on the books. It is unheard of for a company that large to never have entered into litigation in 16 years of doing business.
So do you suppose that was merely good luck on my part? I like to think that it was due to my being willing to compromise, combined with an aversion to enriching attorneys, and a willingness to be reasonable.
Recently I’ve been embroiled in counseling some bickering employees. In mentoring one of our supervisors I told her that after being in supervision for over forty years now, I could say one thing with certainty, and that would be that there are always two sides to any story. If one wants to be fair and objective, both sides of the story have to be thoroughly vetted. When that process happens the solution is near certain to be found somewhere in the middle. Each side goes away with something and no one loses face.
It’s a mystery, a conconundrum if you will. Rarely is either side 100% right about everything, including, gulp, me.
Yikes! Did I just say that?
Hmmm…The very thought that I might be wrong about something is so-o-o-o-o-o distasteful. It’s just wrong…
I would like to think I could sit down in a room with some reasonable people and hammer out a deal in a couple of hours.
What if I started out the negotiations like this?
“So Mr. President let me get this straight, you want to tax the crap out of anyone and everyone who works hard, sacrifices everything in order to get ahead, takes risks, and believes in God and country.
Then you want to give their hard-earned money to your fundraising buddies who elected you, and divide the rest among all of those lazy scums who refuse to work, and would rather sit on their porches drinking wine and smoking pot bought with welfare money, unemployment checks, and food stamps.
And you want the government handouts to permanently keep coming to them, (and to add insult to injury you want to allow a few million additional illegal immigrants and their families to illegally enter the country). And you want to do all of this in order to perpetuate all of their respective Democratic Party block-votes to keep guys and gals like you in power forever.
Does that just about sum it up Barrack old buddy? (BTW is your middle name really Hussein?)”
Duhhh…Negotiating like that won’t work!
Rule one, when negotiating, don’t call a pimple head, a pimple head.
Why not say something like, “Your last offer was to increase taxes on those folks who make $400K. We offered to tax those who make $1,000,000. Heck Mr. President Sir, why don’t we meet in the middle, I’ll split the difference with you.
Next item…”
I suppose egos and politics would get in the way of such hokey common sense solutions. Instead we must enter into another recession and millions more Americans will hit the unemployment lines. Businesses and the economy will suffer, and the problems that we currently “enjoy” will just get worse.
See, I told you that Romney would have been the better choice… Oops there goes that pimple head stuff…
Jesus came up with the perfect negotiating strategy:
Luke 6:31
Do to others as you would have them do to you.