Book Review: Why Do Smart People Make Such Stupid Mistakes by Chris Merrington: Never Chase Two Monkeys

The book Why Do Smart People Make Such Stupid Mistakes: A Practical Negotiation Guide To More Profitable Client Relationship by Chris Merrington has certain downsides. It seems to be focusing on promotion of author's consulting firm Spring 80:20 in the beginning, but then there is no harm in doing it, in my opinion. The other component is that this book claims some unrealistic charters like enabling you to make more money, increasing your profits, improving your overall relationships with customers, delivering more value, increasing your confidence in your business and work, and increasing your self-belief. If 207 pages can do all these wonders, probably it will be pure magic. But still there is no harm in learning key points from here and checking if you are able to achieve even a portion of it.

Apparently it appears that the author is boasting about what is mentioned above but gradually when I moved to its chapters, it makes sense as the experience shared is purely realistic that builds a trust within you to act accordingly and gain what the book claims to deliver. In fact, I got so impressed by the writing and presentation that I wrote an article on some key learning points for project managers from Why Do Smart People Make Such Stupid Mistakes: A Practical Negotiation Guide To More Profitable Client Relationship by Chris Merrington.

Eleven chapters are full of practical knowledge and wisdom meant to be just grasped and implemented in life. The title indicates it to be more useful for people in sales, marketing and revenue oriented functions in an organization but in real life we all work - either in individual or organizational capacities. And we all have customers to serve - internal or external. So this book is implied for everyone to gain a great amount of practical knowledge.

The first chapter of Why Do Smart People Make Such Stupid Mistakes: A Practical Negotiation Guide To More Profitable Client Relationship by Chris Merrington talks about the common mistakes we do in our life while dealing with our customers in wake of gaining more business. Author calls them as stupid mistakes and guides on how to avoid them while doing business. For instance, the first and foremost mistake that we do is to compromise with the price that we quote to our customers. Too much of price crumbling can create havoc rather than revenue in real life. Similarly lack of preparation while going to crack a deal will lead to a blunder.

There is a lot more to learn from this book, implement in real life and gain.