Hi Reader,

Imagine you prepared for your negotiation carefully, picked your moment, and framed the ask cleanly. And they still said no.

Most people walk away from that thinking they did something wrong. They second-guess their phrasing, timing, the numbers that were discussed, maybe they shouldn’t have pushed so hard.

That instinct is understandable. It’s also a reasoning error that many people tend to miss or discount called “resulting.”

1. What “resulting” actually is

Resulting is when you judge the quality of a decision by its outcome.

The term comes from poker. Annie Duke, a Penn PhD and renowned professional poker player, is credited with popularizing the term and has written extensively about this logic trap.

You can make the statistically correct move and still lose the hand. Variance is real, and the cards that come next are outside your control. A bad bet doesn’t always mean you played your hand wrong.

Players who fall for this start deviating from good strategy after a loss. They let one bad outcome quietly corrupt and upend their entire strategy for the rest of the game.

2. Resulting shows up everywhere

In salary negotiations, resulting sounds like this:

“I asked for more equity and the conversation got awkward. I shouldn’t have pushed.”

“I countered and they seemed annoyed. I need to ask just once next time.”

“My friend’s offer got rescinded when they negotiated. That’s proof that all negotiations are too risky.”

Each of those conclusions could be completely wrong. The ask might have been correct, and the outcome might have been driven by factors you’ll never see: a budget freeze, an internal decision already made before you got on the call, a hiring manager having a bad week.

The same trap runs the other way, and that version is just as distorting:

“I shared my number first and they accepted, so anchoring early works.”

“I said I’m flexible on comp and they extended an offer, so my flexibility had them choose me over other candidates.”

Maybe. Or maybe the process you used quietly capped what was possible and you got a sub-optimal outcome. One good outcome doesn’t validate a process that might be costing you elsewhere.

(Note: if you don’t negotiate, you’re likely leaving money on the table, because companies almost never give their absolute best and final offer in their opening shot.)

3. The same trap in other contexts

A startup founder raises a round on mediocre terms during a hot market and concludes they’re a great fundraiser. The next cycle arrives, they run the same playbook, and it falls apart. The first round didn’t teach them what they thought it did.

A salesperson closes a deal after leading with a discount, then quietly adds “go in low on price” to their mental playbook. Three other deals that week lost margin the same way. They don’t connect the dots.

A manager gives someone direct feedback, it lands badly, and they stop giving direct feedback altogether. The feedback might have been right. The delivery might have been right too. One uncomfortable reaction doesn’t make the approach wrong.

In all three cases, the outcome is doing the reasoning instead of the person.

4. The better question to ask

After any negotiation, skip “did that work?” Ask instead: “did I make a sound decision given what I knew at the time?”

Did you assess your leverage honestly? Did you ask at a reasonable moment, frame it in a way that preserved the relationship, and stay grounded when they pushed back? If yes, it was a good decision. A rejection doesn’t change that retroactively.

If you’re job seeking, there's also a structural way to protect yourself here: apply to multiple roles at once. When you only have one live opportunity, every outcome feels definitive. Spread it out and a "no" becomes what it actually is: one data point, not a verdict on your entire candidacy and self-worth.

This is one of the things that separates negotiators who keep improving from ones who plateau. They evaluate the process, adjust when the process was actually flawed, and hold steady when it wasn’t. A principled ask that gets a “no” is just one round of the game. It’s not a reason to shrink for the rest of the game.

For what it’s worth: in hundreds of client negotiations, we’ve never had an offer rescinded because someone negotiated compensation. Not once. Part of that is the approach. We make sure every ask is cordial, well-timed, and strategic, because the way you negotiate is just as important as whether you do.

And if you're not sure whether your strategy is sound in the first place, that's exactly where we can help. We've helped hundreds of senior executives and mid-career professionals negotiate with companies of every size and type, and at this point there's basically no response from a recruiter or hiring manager that catches us off guard. If you’re job searching, book a free call with us to learn how we can help you add $100K+ to your job offers: https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call

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Best,

Gerta & Alex​
​Founders, YourNegotiations.com

P.S. Know someone interested in negotiations?

Send them our way and we’ll thank you with $250 for each person who becomes a client. No cap.

A quick intro or an email to alex@yournegotiations.com works.