Negotiating Like Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller had a difficult childhood.  His family bounced between poverty and comfort because his father was a con-artist. The elder Rockefeller traveled the countryside of upstate New York selling patent medicine which was often simply “snake-oil.”  The Rockefellers didn’t  fit in the small New York village where they lived.Just like most small towns, everybody knew each other.  Gossip and rumor spread like wildfire. And the village scorned Rockefeller’s father who they correctly labelled a snake-oil salesman.  Whispers followed the family, they were excluded from social life and young John could not help but hear the vicious things the villagers said about his family.

Because they were ostracized, Rockefeller quickly developed a thick skin and a calm demeanor that helped him ignore the verbal barbs from the villagers who thought the sins of the father should blemish his son.Soon people began commenting on the boy’s almost Buddhist detachment from events that kept him from getting angry or flustered, even when his father committed the ultimate sin and abandoned their family.Throughout his childhood, Rockefeller built a fortress of calm.

And this fortress served him on his journey to remarkable success.When Rockefeller sat down to negotiate, it was impossible for people to emotionally manipulate him. Even when he sat in front of a hostile Congress who wanted to destroy the company he built, Rockefeller remained calm and composed during the crisis.Nothing could faze him. Read more of this post