Opening scene:
Private investigator Lew Harper lies awake in bed. He stares at the ceiling.
His alarm goes off. He knocks it with his fist to turn it off.
Harper gets out of bed, pushes the still-on TV out of the way, and pulls up the blinds on the windows.
It becomes clear that Harper’s bedroom is actually Harper’s office. He isn’t sleeping there because he was working late, but because he doesn’t have a proper apartment.
Harper goes to the fridge, gets an ice pack. He walks over to the sink, dumps the ice in, and fills it up with water. He puts his head in the ice-filled sink and holds it there.
Finally, Harper goes to make coffee.
He folds a coffee filter. He folds it again. He gets ready to put coffee into the filter but — the coffee can is empty.
Harper hangs his head in defeat.
Then he thinks for a minute. He doesn’t like what he’s thinking. But what to do?
He goes over to the trash can and opens it.
There’s yesterday’s coffee filter with yesterday’s coffee, looking up at him.
Should he? Shouldn’t he?
He does.
Harper takes yesterday’s coffee out the trash. He makes a new coffee with it. He takes a sip.
And, in a moment that launched a giant Hollywood career, Harper shudders from how bad the coffee tastes.
So now, let me ask you, how do you feel?
Let me change how you feel for a moment, by sharing with you a really repulsive negotiation lesson. It comes from negotiation coach Jim Camp, who said:
“The wise negotiator knows that only one person in a negotiation can feel okay, and that person is the adversary.”
I’ve read this lesson 100 times. I accept it on an intellectual level. But I still find it impossible to accept emotionally, and that’s why I say it’s so repulsive.
Camp advised his coaching clients to make their negotiation adversaries feel okay. To make them feel smart, important, respected.
“Fine,” you might say, “that’s pretty obvious.”
That’s what I said too.
But the part that’s not obvious is that Camp says that okayness is a positional good. If you have it, then I can’t have it. And vice versa.
That’s the part I still can’t accept.
Whether or not Camp’s 100% right, the truth remains, if I make myself a little unokay, you will feel more okay.
And as proof of that, let me finish up the Harper story.
Harper was the first screenplay ever written by my favorite screenwriter, William Goldman.
The movie went on to be a big success. It launched Goldman’s career in Hollywood. It led Goldman to dozens more movies, a couple Academy Awards, and even a few million dollars.
None of it would have happened had Harper been a flop. But Harper was a success from that opening scene. Goldman wrote about the reaction of people who saw Harper when it launched:
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Whenever anyone talked about Harper to me in the weeks that followed, that was the moment they they remembered — drinking that horrible stuff. And the laugh that went along with it, that was a laugh of affection.
What that coffee moment really turned out to be was an invitation that the audience gladly accepted: They liked Lew Harper.
From that moment forward, the script was on rails.
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In entirely unrelated news:
Yesterday, I asked readers what todo items are waiting for them that they are dreading. I got a number of people responding with dreadful todo items.
In situations like this, whenever I get a number of good responses, I always like to repeat the offer. There’s sure to be people who didn’t see it the first time or who got pulled away before having a chance to respond.
So here goes:
What’s one thing on your todo list for today that you’re dreading?
It can be big or small. Important or trivial. The only thing that counts is that you’re not looking forward to doing it.
Let me know. Maybe I can figure out or find a solution to help you get rid of this troubling todo item. Thanks in advance.