Book review: Trump Style Negotiation

No matter what you plan to do with your life, skills in negotiation are incredibly important. It's generally a field that's associated with business deals, but teachers with a room full of boisterous 8-year olds have quite a bit of negotiation to do as well. If you aspire to ever earn more than you do now, getting a raise will likely involve some kind of negotiation.

Looking to learn more about this art form, I started googling around for books on negotiation and saw some good reviews of Trump Style Negotiation: Powerful Strategies and Tactics for Mastering Every Deal, written by Trump's longtime lawyer, George H. Ross.

Full disclosure: I hate Donald Trump.

That said, this is actually an amazing book. With an emphasis on relationship building and fair play, Ross walks the reader through the various tactics negotiators can use: simple solutions, dead dog on the table, deadlocking, the crunch, and many, many more. You'll also learn about how to deal with difficult people" Ivan the Intimidator, Waffling Wilma, and Know-it-all Charlie.

Examples from mega-deals in real estate -- involving Trump and other high profile developers -- add color, making this a surprisingly breezy and enjoyable read. If you ever plan to negotiate anything -- and that's pretty much everyone -- you would do well to read this book. Don't let Trump's scary face on the cover scare you.