"Let's send Richardson," President Bill Clinton once said, according to Bill Richardson, a former Clinton cabinet member. "Bad people like him."
Richardson, who is also the former governor of New Mexico and a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, has carried out high-stakes diplomatic negotiations with dictators, thugs, and other slightly more peace-friendly world powers, is also the author of How to Sweet-Talk a Shark: Strategies and Stories From a Master Negotiator. In it, along with his co-author Kevin Bleyer, he spins yarns about his negotiating successes--and a couple of cringe-inducing failures--with two generations of North Korean leaders, Fidel Castro, and Saddam Hussein.
I decided to ask Richardson for some lessons he's learned from those years of high-stakes deal brokering that could be more broadly applicable to any boardroom or dining-room table. He shared four.
1) Only take a gamble if it's your very last option.
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