The Real Deal - James Caan
Hustler, philanthropist and dragon. Jame's autobiography was fascinating. His life journey is an incredible one. The key pearls of wisdom that I found in the book where:
- To get the best out of people you have to create a stimulating team environment where people feel part of something, that's the key, building a great culture.
- If you squeeze the margin out of a deal there is no incentive for the other party to work with you and it may stop them being able to work with you in future. The best scenario is for a deal to be a win win for everyone involved.
- Everything that you want to know is out there in someone else's head. Never be afraid to ask questions, even ones that seem stupid. Nearly always there is someone more experienced than you in your team, or on your project. Consulting them in the right way will enable them to share the answers that you need to move forward.
- When discussing a deal ask two key questions: are you happy with this deal? How will we know if this deal is successful?
- James is a master at empathising. He created killer sales pitches by understanding how is prospective customer thinks and feels, then selling them a story that they can understand and want to hear. Sometimes he did this by somewhat bending the truth...
- Like many great entrepreneurs he is skilled at creating publicity stunts, where his companies gain massive amounts of media attention for free. A one day charity fundraising event he did generated the equivalent to over £1m worth of free media coverage.
