In this monologue, Patrick Bet‑David explains why working under exceptionally skilled individuals—whom he calls “killers”—offers unparalleled learning opportunities. He describes how being present in high‑stakes negotiation rooms, even as an observer, provides insight that can’t be taught in a classroom. He outlines a systematic approach to preparation: detailed debrief sessions where teams anticipate objections, leverage points, and blind spots, followed by role‑playing scenarios (including being asked to step out of a meeting) to build confidence and adaptability. After the actual negotiation, he stresses the importance of immediate debrief, constructive feedback, and personalized follow‑up actions such as sending tailored gifts based on personal details (e.g., a birthday present for a prospect’s daughter). He argues that this hands‑on exposure, combined with mentorship from top performers, can accelerate one’s learning by a decade, far beyond formal education.
Chapters
The edge is working under somebody that's a killer. And you're able to get behind closed doors. Not just the front, because the front is an act. But I want to get in the room with five people who are negotiating. For example, like, let's just say we're about to negotiate a big deal. Typically, if we're doing a big negotiation deal, we'll debrief, debrief before to prepare. And we'll say, okay, guys, what do you think he's going to say? What do you think she's going to say? What do you think is going to be their concerns? Let's write it down. Da, da, da, da, da. What do you think is going to be their objection? What do you think they're going to want? What do you think they're not going to want? Where do they have leverage? Where do we have leverage? How are you going to answer this? How are you going to answer this? Boom. Anything I'm missing? What's my blind spot? Is anyone. What do you think about what he just said? Do you agree with them? Do you agree with her? So if you're in these types of meetings for a thousand times, and then we go into the real meeting, then when you're in the real meeting and the guy says, hey, Louis, do you mind if we ask you to step out? And you're like, yeah, no problem. Because we've role played it. What if they ask you to step out? Totally fine. You don't, you know, you want me to step out. We would role play. Don't be offended. Just very nice. Absolutely. Get up and walk out because it shows we're not insecure, we're not worried. Oh, wow. They were comfortable about it. Hey, Patrick, do you mind if you step out? Totally fine. I'm going to go in and use the restroom. Shows confidence. They're okay with not being in the room. And then after the meeting. Okay, so how do we do? You did this, you did that, you did this. This was good. I like the way you said this. How do you think you could have said this better? Maybe you could have said this. Do you think I like what you said? Fantastic. Okay, great. What's the next step? We're not going to follow up. We'll wait for 48 hours, and then I'm going to send the email. First they ask for this. Make sure you send that. Send them a box of this. Remember when he talked about his daughter has a birthday coming up? Let's make sure we send that birthday present. Go on. The wife's Instagram account and see what she likes and send them that gift. Boom, boom, boom. Okay, great. We move on. Okay, so that situation you're in, you know how much inventory that is? You're not going to get that in a college degree or an MBA. You go get two, 300 case studies. So that's the guy then. Okay, the 24. Finding someone you respect that you want to go work with and learn from. Get into the right circle and go work under a killer, by far. Accelerate your amount of learning by a decade. It's not even close, right?
