The Real Deal by James Caan

For those who watch Dragons' Den TV series, you may find this book interesting. Very inspiring.

Enjoy reading,

David

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The Real Deal

by James Caan

• The thing I’ve noticed over the years is that if you study the world around you and ask the right questions, the decisions make themselves: you just go on the journey and see what happens.

• I started my first business with no money and no support in a broom cupboard with only the Yellow Pages for company they are genuinely surprised. Anyone can start a business the way I did. All it takes is a good idea and the determination to tell people about it. It just requires you to be willing to start out on a journey even though you don’t know the destination.

• appreciation of a ‘win-win’ formula.

• ‘Successful business’, he taught me, ‘is not about good transactions, it’s about good relationships.’

• I now understood the principles of running a business, and I knew that if you didn’t have a unique selling point, a USP, then you were going to be dead in the water.

• Don’t listen to your friends; don’t read what the papers say: just look at the facts and assess what you really want.

• I am very comfortable asking questions and I don’t have the kind of ego that worries about whether people think I’m smart or not. So with every situation, my routine is the same: What do you do? How do you do it? What do you charge? How does it work? How will I know if your work has been successful or not? What would I measure you with? I’m very comfortable being direct or inquisitive, so I just ask.

• The other thing I learned to do in negotiations was always to ask one final question when we shook hands: Are you happy with that deal?