After Reading Best Offer Wins - 9 Lessons I Learned About Negotiation, Leverage, and Decision-Making

After Reading Best Offer Wins - 9 Lessons I Learned About Negotiation, Leverage, and Decision-Making I picked up Marisa Kashino's "Best Offer Wins" expecting a light thriller about the crazy real estate market, maybe something to entertain me on a weekend. What I got instead was a masterclass in everything you should NOT do when negotiating, making high-stakes decisions, or pursuing goals that matter to you. The book follows Margo Miyake, a 37-year-old publicist who becomes increasingly unhinged in her quest to secure her dream home in the Washington, DC suburbs after losing eleven bidding wars. What starts as determination quickly spirals into obsession, and then into something much darker. Here's the thing—while I was reading, I found myself initially rooting for Margo. She seemed like someone who'd been beaten down by an unfair system, someone who deserved a win. But as the pages turned and her tactics escalated from questionable to disturbing, I realized I was witnessing a cautionary tale about what happens when we lose sight of who we are in pursuit of what we want. The brilliance of Kashino's novel isn't just in the page-turning suspense or dark humor. It's in how it holds up a mirror to our own ambitions, our own breaking points, our own willingness to justify increasingly questionable behavior when we convince ourselves the stakes are high enough. And that's what made me start thinking deeply about negotiation, leverage, and decision-making in my own life. Grab a copy of this book now!