Nevertheless, for many people, negotiation is a mystery. Most people never negotiate. You don't walk into a department store and bargain over the price of a shirt. You read the tag and you pay the price. Still, negotiation is worth knowing about.
Good negotiators follow just a few rules, and they make lots of use of a magic word.
Usually, the rules and the magic word work fine. Even when they don't, however, they save much physical and emotional wear and tear. You can't negotiate unless you know your objective. Nevertheless, don't ask for earthshaking solutions to ordinary problems. Realism is an important part of negotiation.