 The one skill that is valuable than a college degree I grew up in a society where degrees and school are worshipped. When children get admission to the university, their parents are so happy. The children themselves become proud and arrogant because it's a big deal. When a child graduates from university, his mother cherishes that graduation photograph than a gold and a father sits down on the round table with his friends and brags about the fact that his child has finished the university. It's a big deal. But when I was growing up, I started asking myself, what should education look like? Should we think that university degrees are an indication that someone is educated? Should we worship the PhD holders and the professors of our world because they are the most educated? I have a different idea and that is, education should be about what you know and how you use what you know to get what you want out of life. In other words, the end result of education shouldn't be the degrees but the skill because it's your skills that make way for you. And that's the reason why, in this video, I'm going to be sharing with you what I consider the most valuable skill in the world. I honestly think that this skill is far more valuable than any college degree. If you're new here, consider subscribing so you won't miss other interesting videos like this. Now here's the thing, your most important asset in life is your ability to get what you need from other human beings. Your ability to get whatever you need from other human beings is very important because like every one of us, you are limited. Because you have limited resources, limited time, knowledge and everything else, you can only succeed fast in life if you know how to get what you don't have from other human beings who have it. If you're able to get everything you need from other humans, how great will your life be? Then, the most valuable skill in the world is the negotiation skill because it's your negotiation skill that gives you the strength to get whatever you need from other humans. Successful people are not genius In the year 2008, Barack Obama contested with John McCain and other third party candidates like Ralph Nadeir and Bob Barr. Obama was able to raise approximately $779 million, John McCain raised $384 million, Ralph Nadeir raised $4.5 million and Bob Barr raised $1.4 million. You think about this, even if these people were to compete in business, Obama obviously had more resources to fight with because he was able to raise more than two times the money McCain raised and about 600 times the money Bob Barr raised. But how did these people get these resources? And why does someone get 600 times of what another get? The ability to move people, the ability to persuade people, the ability to influence people to make sacrifices for you. This is not only in politics, it's in fact how we live our daily life. Every day of our life, we live to negotiate with and persuade others to support or make sacrifices for us. We have to negotiate with our spouse, children, friends, colleagues, boss, investors and business partners and we do this every day. And that's the reason why our ability to get what we want from other people is the major factor that determines how far we'll go in life. In everything, even though you have nothing. About 11 years ago, I read a book by James Allen. The book is titled, Creating Wealth. In this book, Allen shared his experience about how he claimed that he could buy a piece of real estate property without money, even if it was taken to anywhere in the United States without his contact or any money with him other than $100 to keep his body and soul together for the day. James Allen was taken up on this challenge and he did buy a piece of real estate property without any money with him. But how did he do that? Well, Allen was able to buy a piece of real estate property because he knows how to negotiate. While growing up in a poor family, I knew that if truly I want to be successful, I'll have to learn how to get whatever I needed from whoever has it. I read every book that came my way and one of those books that really helped me is You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen. This book taught me how to negotiate and get what I need and when I tell you that this book taught me, I don't mean to say that I have the knowledge from the book. No, I actually use the knowledge I gained from this book to raise myself from zero to who I am today. Take for instance, there was a time in my business life when I needed an apartment for my business and I had no money. Yet, I was able to get the two apartments I needed just by negotiating for it. I'm not saying this is possible everywhere in the world but many things are possible that we will never try. I've started many businesses without my own money. I even got $10,000 from someone who didn't know where I lived. We met online and I was able to get him to invest $10,000 in my business. We are good friends today. Now, I'm not saying that you can get an apartment without money, neither am I saying that you can get a stranger to invest $10,000 into your business. What I'm saying is that if you know how to get what you don't have from the people who have it, your life will change very fast. Your life will change because you'll have the resources you need to achieve your biggest dreams and the way to get all you need from those who have it is by mastering the art of negotiation. I'll give some tips about how you can be a great negotiator but before then, let me clarify something and that is money isn't the only thing you need from people. Sometimes you need either people to use their time for you, to partner with you on a project, to join your movement, to borrow you a book or even help you walk your dog. Some Negotiation Tips 1. Don't appeal to people's mercy Don't ever make the mistake of begging people. Nobody wants to have mercy on you. People are extremely selfish and the only way to get them to make sacrifices for you is to show them how making sacrifices for you will actually help them in return. What is in it for them, they can't lift a finger for you. 2. Gather your information If you're a man trying to marry a lesbian is a waste of time. Trying to get what you need from the people who don't have it is a waste of time and that's why information is very important. We must first ascertain that the person we want to get something from is likely to have it. We then should also try to know who they are and what they want. If for instance we know the cost price of a particular item, we may know how to negotiate for it. If we know that someone is a lover of fast food for instance, we may have better success trying to get him to invest in our fast food business than in our mobile apps. 3. Always have some options Negotiation becomes very easy if you have an option. If you have an option, you'll be relaxed and not be in a hurry to make commitments. You'll talk as if you have nothing to lose and this will make you a great negotiator. 4. Don't ask for little If you ask for 3, people will give you 1. If you ask for 100, people will give you 60. If you ask for 1000, people will give you 500. I don't mean that you should lie, I simply mean that you should think big. For instance, when I wanted the man I earlier talked about to invest in my business, I sat down and imagined that I had every dollar I needed. If you have every dollar you need to start that business, how much could that be? Maybe $300,000 or maybe $50,000 That's the amount you should ask for. You are not likely to get all you want but if you ask big, you'll get big. 5. Read You can negotiate anything by Herb Cohen Over the last 10 years, I have recommended this book more than any other book because I know that if you can learn how to negotiate, you can have a better life. Try and find this book and read it as fast as possible. In conclusion, those who are poor in life become poor not because they don't have resources to make them rich but because they don't know how to get what they need from the people who have it. Learn how to get what you need from those who have it and you'll be a successful person. Thank you so much for watching our videos. Are you between the ages of 15 and 40? Then we invite you to join our new channel which was specially created to share with you inspiration and life's lessons to succeed in life. We call it Under40 TV. Kindly look at the description box to join the Under40 TV. 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