The power to successfully negotiate comes early in life. Ask any parent whose argument against buying that particular toy has been mercilessly dissected by the patient, well-reasoned logic of their 6 year old child if you have any doubts. The practice of negotiation is older than Methuselah and is used consciously and unconsciously almost every time we speak to one another, whether to buy something, to borrow something or even to beg something, such as those generally unfruitful efforts with the traffic police. The story line is pretty much the same in any case; one party wants something that the other party has the power to provide, and both parties want to the final deal to favor their own interest. Even that sacred act of marriage is only consummated after a usually tough round of give and take.

Those most successful negotiators will be the first to tell you that good negotiation is more art than science, and the act of negotiation is as good of a test of your character as any other. Emotions, ethics, empathy, tolerance, patience, perseverance, honesty and prepared are words that I most associate with negotiation. And while there are tomes of books and thousands of seminars that promise to teach you negotiation skills, my own experience and observation is the best lessons in negotiation can be found in Asia, and there are no better teachers than the hordes of housewives who daily browse through the street markets to buy fresh vegetables for dinner. Lets take an imaginary trip along with one such housewife and I think you will get the picture.

First, there is a very clear objective or preconception of what will happen. Vegetables are needed for dinner. The household favorite is spinach and that is what she looking for, but there are other vegetables that are also good, so if the spinach is not fresh or the cost is too high, kale or broccoli will do just as well.

Next is to consider how much time she has to buy the vegetables. The day is still young but she doesn't want to spend more than a couple of hours at the market, and lots of this time will be used up already chatting with friends and neighbors. Of course some of this chatting will be talk of who has the freshest and least costly spinach today.

Now she needs to decide where to buy the spinach, she needs more than one option to get the best deal. She already knows where to find the freshest and most tender spinach from her chatting and browsing.

OK, here it gets more difficult.

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