Negotiation & Deal Making

Month five was a good confidence-boosting course called Negotiation & Deal Making.  Our Leadership Portfolio for this class was a choice of interviewing an experienced negotiator or dealmaker, or going out and conducting an actual negotiation on your own.  I chose the second of the two options, as I was conveniently involved in an international negotiation at that time.  A friend of mine, who is a boxing promoter in Boston MA asked me to join him in working out a deal with Rudy Gonzalez, Mike Tyson’s former bodyguard.  Rudy was trying to set up a fight in Tanzania Africa, which is where my friend Razza, the promoter in Boston is originally from.  The fight was between U.S. Heavyweight Roy Jones Jr. and Mexican Heavyweight Hector Macho Camacho.  The negotiations Razza and I had to deal with were between us and Rudy, us and the Universal Boxing Organization, us and Tanzanian government, and us and HBO.  Unfortunately, much to our disappointment, Rudy ended up making a few fraudulent deals in trying to put this together that we did not know about, eventually upsetting the two professional boxers, and prompted the cancellation of the fight all together due to legal actions taken against him.

Of course, I was extremely disappointed with the turnout after putting in so much time and effort with Razza dealing with international negotiations and promotions.  On the bright side however, Razza and I were free from any legal responsibilities Rudy brought on himself and we learned more from this experience than any business dealings I had ever been previously involved with up to that point.  When it comes to using both my strengths and weaknesses, this experience required them all.  I needed to have a positive attitude, a solid vision, and great people skills.  I also needed to problem solve, influence others, and attempt to create a positive change by bringing an internationally televised boxing title fight to Tanzania.  I hope that one day Razza and I can bring an event that big to countries like Tanzania, and I believe that we will be able to pull it off successfully based on our experience from this instance alone.