Morgenstern’s Maxims: practical wisdom on negotiating and startups distilled from decades of experience with category-creating businesses.
On Business Negotiations
- People (not spreadsheets) are the epicenter of every deal.
- An Expectation Unarticulated is a Disappointment Guaranteed.
- Propinquity counts.
- Deals (like the universe) tend toward entropy.
- The Seller’s Mantra is Certainty and Confidentiality.
- Exploration is not commitment.
- Time is the invisible but palpable enemy.
- Negotiating is Theater with Consequences and Results.
- God gave us one mouth and two ears; the ratio wasn’t an accident.
- It’s better to have some percentage of something than 100% of nothing.
On Startups
- Startups are time, cash, and emotion vampires.
- Cash is a proxy for time; time is a proxy for opportunity.
- When people are paying tulip bulb prices, and you own tulip bulbs, you should sell them.
- Being a Founder is a fact; not a job description.
- Startup pitch decks are venture capital haiku.
- All deals are personal, only Founders are more so.
On Life
- There are so many ways to be human.
- Never break a promise to your kid.
- Always let a sleeping lamb lie.
- In the end time and gravity win.