Crazy Rich Asians' Box Office #GoldOpen!!!
& How to negotiate your next pay raise, like a Mahjong or Poker Pro!
Yay! You, me + a lot of other people made Crazy Rich Asians the #1 movie in the U.S.!!!
Over $35 Million made at the Box Office over the five-day opening weekend, so it already made back its costs. However, this does not mean you shouldn't go see the movie next weekend, if you didn't go this weekend. Let's make this a blockbuster $100 Million movie!
If you saw it, what did you think? I loved it and the entire cast, of course! I must've celebrated a bit too much over the Crazy Rich Asians opening weekend, as I'm a bit under the weather this week, so I'm going to make this blog post shorter.
I went to see the movie with 12 other people, some family and some friends. (Secretly) I must admit, I saw Crazy Rich Asians at a screening about six months ago, and a few of my friends asked me what changes I remember. Here are two scenes (that won't spoil you from watching the movie):
The Bachelor Party scene was cut tremendously. The original seemed bigger and wilder and must've cost a lot of money, so it must've hurt to cut it down!
Maybe they cut the Bachelor Party scene down...to add more Ken Jeong!?! It was definitely one of the notes my husband and I made, at the screening. It seems a shame to have one of the funniest actors in only one major scene.
There are, of course, differences between the book and the movie. In the movie, Rachel Chu teaches game theory at NYU (my alma mater), so there are two major games in the book: Poker and Mahjong. Both of these games teach important life lessons. Mahjong is all about cooperation, negotiation, and strategy, while Poker is about strategy, statistics or really weighing your odds, and most importantly, in my opinion, reading and understanding your opponents. Rachel beats her opponent in Poker by understanding that he is cheap, just like my dad.
In the spirit of both of these games, I'm going to apply the game strategies to negotiating a pay raise. The latest statistics from the Harvard Business Review says that women ask just as much as men for a raise, but that they don't get a YES as much as men do. So, the next time you negotiate for that raise, consider these Poker and Mahjong game strategies:
Cooperation - make sure what you want aligns with what your bosses or potential bosses want. A negotiation goes much smoother and really doesn't have to be contentious. That's why it's called a negotiation, instead of "let-me-bully-you-into-getting-what-I-want." Instead, think of both parties co-creating the ideal scenario.
Strategy - Really understand where the pain points are at your current or prospective companies. Then, have a strategy to address those pain points.
Reading and truly understanding the other person's perspective will help you to address any and all objections.
Weighing Your Options - This can mean many different things, but I would like to take the time to encourage you to really weigh your decisions. What are your must-haves vs your would-be-nice to haves? Is flex time more important to you? If your employer won't budge on money, will they allow you to work from home once or twice a week?
Let me know your negotiation questions! Subscribe and write your questions in the comments below, and I'll give you my PRO tips on negotiating. It's one of my zones of genius!
As always, if you would like a free 1 hour financial assessment, go ahead and sign up on the main page here and then pick a time with the Schedule link! Oh one more thing...I was interviewed on the Bon Faire Life podcast, discussing the energy of money! You can find the episode (#2) on iTunes here. And for Android users, it's on Google Play here.
With so much love and gratitude,
