Source: Hinshaw

1) The third guy makes all the money - in real estate, the first developer in a new submarket starts with bigger margins, but the length of time needed to make the market and the risks often kill the profit, and those guys regularly go under.  The second guy rides the coat-tails of the first, and doesn’t have the length of time issue, but usually still makes mistakes on the product, but the third guy gets the benefit of the market being established, and seeing the mistakes the first two made.  He generally succeeds.  Same is true for entrepreneurs – first it’s your own money, then debt if you can get it, then the guy who comes in last to put equity in gets to name his terms.  I’ve even seen this to be accurate with new product launches trying to “make a market”.  Of course, there are always exceptions. 

2) The negotiator with the most time wins – invariably the guy who has the most pressure to close will give up the most to make the deal work.

3) Commit everything to writing – partnerships, transactions, meeting minutes, whatever.  Handshakes have no memory.  The other guy’s partners won’t remember the agreement either when the guy you’ve been dealing with vanishes.

4) Everyone in a deal needs to share the pain – the guy without any skin in the game won’t hang around.  In fact, he’ll be useless.

Focus on the important things, the things in your business that will move the needle... and don't get distracted from the noise in the system..

Source: Maus
We got five bullets from Bob, apparently we'd given him something to dwell on during his most recent marathon.  The first is sort of a Sun Tszu rehash, so we'll have to punt that one as we're trying to collect new material.  The other four as submitted were:

• If the strategy appears complex and philosophical, it probably is. Best to keep a clear line of sight to what you want accomplished and how you will accomplish it.
• Getting 80% of the information, then making a decision and having folks rally behind "makes" the decision right -- versus boiling the ocean for the "perfect" answer and getting folks frustrated due to delays.
• No one will ever remember your wonderful spreadsheets or brilliant powerpoint presentations. What they will remember is the business decisions you drove and the outcomes, so ensure you are focused on how you communicate your analysis, getting folks to embrace the recommendation and having a clear execution plan.
• Focus on the important things, the things in your business that will move the needle... and don't get distracted from the noise in the system.. (and yes, there is always noise in the system at large companies).