Do You Want to Be an Effective Negotiator?

Why you need to read “Never Split the Difference.”

Niall Leah
8 min readNov 17, 2022
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I was about to sign my life away for another year when a friend recommended this book to me. You see, I was coming to the end of my work contract at my school here in China, and my astute friend seeing that I needed help, pushed this book into my hands.

I was very impressed. Today I would like to share some of the most effective and straightforward takeaways I was able to put into practice.

Luckily, I was able to put what I learned into immediate practice. It was a massive help in the negotiation, and I am thrilled that I read it before I began negotiating.

I’m usually not assertive when it comes to negotiation. Honestly, I find it awkward to ask for more or say no to the first offer.

In this case, I felt like I had earned it. Still, I could never have imagined myself as the stereotypical tough negotiator banging my desk on the table and playing hardball with the numbers.

This book showed me I didn’t have to be. I could be myself and still push to get a better deal.

I renegotiated my working contract with a much better outcome than anticipated. I got everything I had set out to achieve and more despite being offered less and feeling…

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Niall Leah

An ex-pat from the UK living in Chengdu, China. I satisfy my endless curiosity about the incredible journey of humanity by reading, traveling, and writing.