He came out of the conference room feeling desperate. He lost a huge part of his fortune in this negotiation and he cannot forgive himself for letting it slide. Why on earth he prioritized Hack and HHVM over Public speaking and Influencing Men in Business, he thought.
He cannot change the past and must get over it. To avoid repeating his mistake he decided to focus on learning soft skills. In particular:
- Expressing thoughts clearly both in speaking and writing
- Negotiation
- Talking high level about technical topics
- Showing empathy
- Gaining control over emotions
This is not an exhaustive list and people should prioritize the skills they need by asking for feedback from others.
It doesn’t matter whether you can solve the P = NP problem unless you have soft skills to evangelize your solution.