Sharks are not evil. But they're single minded and very, very hungry. On
land, they take the form of bosses, businesspeople, colleagues, family,
and sociopathic neighbors. In the world of former governor of New Mexico
and US ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson, they have taken
the form of the most powerful people in the world.
He's engaged in high-stakes, face-to-face negotiations with Castro,
Saddam, the Taliban, two generations of North Korean leadership, and
many more of the world's most infamous dictators--and done it so well he
was known as the "Undersecretary of Thugs" while with the Clinton
administration. Now the 5-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee tells these
stories--from Washington, DC, to the Middle East to Pyongyang--in all
their intense and sometimes absurd glory.
How to Sweet-Talk a Shark is a rare, candid, and entertaining glimpse
into an insider's world of high-stakes negotiation--showing Richardson's
successes and failures in some of the world's least friendly places.
Meanwhile, listeners get frank lessons in the art of negotiation: how to
prepare, how to size up your opponent, how to understand the nature of
power in a standoff, how to give up only what is necessary while getting
what you want, and many other strategies Richardson has mastered through
at-the-table experience--and from working with other master negotiators
like Presidents Obama and Clinton, and Nelson Mandela. These are
takeaways that anyone can use to negotiate with the power brokers, deal
makers, and, yes, the hungry sharks in their own lives.
