Candidate presenting a market-value proposal to an executive at Astra Global

You Have Leverage. You Just Haven’t Found It Yet.

“Get a competing offer first” — that’s the advice everyone gives before a negotiation. It’s also the advice that quietly teaches you that you have no voice until someone else validates you.

In 15 years of negotiation consulting, I never once saw a deal with zero leverage. Less than we wanted, sometimes. Zero, never.

Here’s where I’ve found it, in the moments it wasn’t supposed to be there

Woman questions her ambition; man says, “You earned this opportunity! Don’t let self-doubt overshadow your drive.”

Someone Worse Than You Already Did It

Someone less than you has done it. Wealth, business, that leap you’re scared to take — the room is full of people less prepared than you who went anyway. I almost didn’t apply to my Executive MBA. Nearly let a story I never checked make the decision. Start before you’re ready.

The N-Word, a Child, and My Neighborhood

On an ordinary walk, I found a slur scrawled on a parking meter—and recognized the child who wrote it. In a quiet, upscale neighborhood where I’m the only Black resident, the silence broke. What followed was a difficult but human conversation. One moment. One word. A world of questions.