Chapter 32

Negotiating Pressure Points

Louis Armstrong used to tell this story about his early days as a musician: “One night this big, bad-mouth hood crashes my dressing room in Chicago and instructs me that I will open in such-and-such a club in New York the next night. I tell him I got this Chicago engagement and don't plan no traveling. And I turn my back on him to show I'm so cool. Then I hear this sound: SNAP! CLICK! I turn around and he has pulled this vast revolver on me and cocked it. It looks like a cannon and sound like death! So, I look down at that steel and say, ‘Weelllll, maybe I do open in New York tomorrow.’”

I've always thought that pulling a gun on someone during negotiations is terribly impolite, so I'm glad there's no need ...

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