One of my former bosses used to say something I've never forgotten.
If you lose $10,000 on a job because you can't collect it, you'll need another $100,000 job just to recover that loss.
He was talking about protecting margins.
For years, I thought that was the lesson.
Looking back, I think there was another one hidden inside it.
Every meaningful negotiation represents months, sometimes years, of conversations, meetings, presentations, follow-ups, and gradually, trust.
By the time two people sit down to discuss the final terms, they've already started building something far more valuable than a commercial agreement.
They've already started building a relationship.
That's why I've never believed a negotiation ends when both parties sign the dotted line.
I think that's where it begins.
Early in my career, I judged every negotiation by one question:
Did we get the deal?
Over time, that question changed.
Today, I ask myself something different.
Did we build a relationship worth continuing?
I've never wanted to win the negotiation if it meant losing the relationship.
But there's a difference between negotiating firmly and negotiating in a way that leaves the other person hoping they never have to work with you again.
Growing up in India, I often heard the saying:
The operation was successful, but the patient died.
Sometimes I think the same can happen in business.
You can negotiate the perfect contract.
Walk away believing you won.
But if the relationship ends there, what have you really achieved?
During one of our negotiation exercises at UCLA Anderson, the objective wasn't simply to maximise the outcome.
We were expected to leave the negotiation in a way that preserved the relationship, even if no agreement was reached.
That resonated with me.
It reinforced something I had been learning throughout my career: sometimes the next opportunity is more valuable than winning the current negotiation.
Today, when I think about the negotiations I'm most proud of, I rarely remember the final commercial terms.
I remember the people.
The conversations that continued.
The customers who called again.
Because it takes months, sometimes years, to earn the opportunity to sit across the table from someone.
I've never wanted to waste that opportunity over one more concession.
That's a lesson I'm still trying to live up to every day.