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I'm CTO and co-founder of a company that is in the legaltech space and spend a lot of my time thinking about how to fix contract issues. I've idolized and watc

I'm CTO and co-founder of a company that is in the legaltech space and spend a lot of my time thinking about how to fix contract issues. I've idolized and watched this video many times. Here is the truth of most everything in business: Asymmetric power structures. Walmart is offering you a deal, but they don't allow strikeouts in their contract. You must sign the boilerplate. You do it because a deal with Walmart will change your life and you accept the risks. My point is that very infrequently do two sides of a contract have equal leverage. I ran my own consulting company for 10 years and even as we grew there was always a bigger fish that we really wanted and even needed to survive. The other way of looking at it would be who has "fuck you money?" or the "willingness to walk away". Sometimes both sides do, but a lot of the time, only one side does. While I find this video satisfying, I'm not sure how much it actually helped me because as soon as I have the leverage, definitely, I'll make the terms the way I like them, but the opportunities have not been as frequent as I would have hoped. Somebody is always twisting my arm or I'm twisting their arm.

noir_lord 8y ago
The power in any relationship lies with the one who can tell the other to fuck off and make it stick.
Xylakant 8y ago
> Walmart is offering you a deal, but they don't allow strikeouts in their contract. Even a shitty contract is still better than none. At least I know what I agreed upon. If I have to take the job despite a shitty contract, I’d have to take the job without any contract, too. And that would be magnitudes worse with an opponent whose goal is to screw you over.
shalmanese 8y ago
This shouldn't be the case, the entire point of negotiation is to try to get to a place of equal leverage. Imagine this as a thought experiment: Walmart hands you a contract in which they have plenty of other suppliers they could go who would be eager to take your place if you reject the contract. In this case, Walmart is leaving money on the table and what they should have done is hand you a contract with lower prices that fewer companies are willing to compete for which gives you more leverage but gives them better terms.

noir_lord 8y ago

The power in any relationship lies with the one who can tell the other to fuck off and make it stick.

Xylakant 8y ago

> Walmart is offering you a deal, but they don't allow strikeouts in their contract. Even a shitty contract is still better than none. At least I know what I agreed upon. If I have to take the job despite a shitty contract, I’d have to take the job without any contract, too. And that would be magnitudes worse with an opponent whose goal is to screw you over.

shalmanese 8y ago

This shouldn't be the case, the entire point of negotiation is to try to get to a place of equal leverage. Imagine this as a thought experiment: Walmart hands you a contract in which they have plenty of other suppliers they could go who would be eager to take your place if you reject the contract. In this case, Walmart is leaving money on the table and what they should have done is hand you a contract with lower prices that fewer companies are willing to compete for which gives you more leverage but gives them better terms.