Non-Negotiable Weakness

Anything you cannot compromise on is a weak point. Your non-negotiables are your biggest vulnerabilities.

There are two lessons here:

1. Minimize your non-negotiables. The more things you refuse to be flexible on, the weaker your overall position in life, your career, your relationships, whatever. You’ll always have some; make them count.
2. Protect your position. If there’s an aspect of your life that you simply need to be a certain way, then you need to take extra steps to ensure that, above and beyond what you’d need if it was just a “nice to have.”

Think about someone with a peanut allergy versus someone who just doesn’t like the taste of peanuts. The person with the non-negotiable is more vulnerable; the wrong salad can put their life in danger, and so they might miss out on delicious meals, etc. They also have to go above and beyond to ensure their meals don’t have peanuts – they eat at restaurants less, check more thoroughly, carry emergency meds, etc.

Now apply that to anything in your life. If your current salary at your job is a “non-negotiable,” then your position is vulnerable. You’ll put up with more that you don’t like rather than walk away for a lower salary with more satisfaction and happiness. So you need to protect yourself: If you truly can’t make a dime less, then you’re in a bad, vulnerable spot. If your current income is matching all your bills exactly to the dollar, think how vulnerable you are! You either need to reduce your bills (if you can – things like medical conditions or other factors can make that difficult), or find more income, even if it means giving up leisure time, etc. Otherwise, you’re so utterly exposed to even the tiniest hiccup totally destroying you. One stray peanut and your throat closes up.

So minimize the things that you can’t negotiate on, even if that means adopting a more flexible position overall – driving a used car instead of a new one so you don’t have to be as reliant on nothing ever disrupting your career progression is a wise choice! That way you can minimize the number of vulnerabilities you have to defend with outsized effort.

Avoid the peanuts, try the asparagus.