The Source of All Leverage

The ability to walk away is the foundation of every negotiation — without it, you are asking, not negotiating. Know your bottom line in numbers: minimum salary, minimum scope, minimum timeline. Vagueness destroys leverage faster than any bluff.

Walk-away power is about genuinely having options that make any single outcome less critical to your survival. Those options must predate the conversation — built ten moves earlier, not invented in the room.