I was told recently by one of my sons the early story of FedEx. The company was running out of funds and was down to its last $5,000 which was not enough to buy fuel so its planes could fly. The founder took all of the money, went to Las Vegas and gambled it all on black jack. He won $27,000, the planes flew and the rest as they say is history.

It sounds a bit reckless but as the founder said 'What difference does it make? Without the funds for the fuel companies, we couldn't have flown anyway.'

​This made me think of the gamble of changing jobs and some career counselling I gave earlier this year to a professional who had both a chance to leave and an opportunity to stay. It's not an easy choice and of course depends on your personal circumstances and finances and the stage of your career you are at. I have during my working life so far both taken the gamble and stayed, and on another occasion taken the money and left. 

A good way to think about this is I suggest to imagine yourself three years in the future and looking back on the decision. Will you regret not taking the gamble?

Maybe on balance as  Deborah Moggach the author of the  Best Exotic Marigold Hotel writes "The only real failure is the failure to try."

We've probably all experienced it. Gone on an inspirational course about business development or marketing or management and come back to base to find (a) no interest from colleagues (b) no understanding that you have truly changed and (c) a cloying cynicism that discourages change and improvement.

I attended the Leading Professional Services Firms course in Harvard Business School some years ago and experienced just this. It is a remarkable course that teaches all aspects of running a firm and managing professionals through a series of case studies.

It pays to have done the case study because the Harvard professors teach by probing individuals to find out what they have understood, moving around an audience of 80 odd people so there is literally no place to hide. Then using a chalk and talk approach they capture the key lessons form the study.

It is an immense learning  experience and you leave Boston for your home country feeling positively evangelical, brimming with ideas for improving your practice all ready to proselytize and spread the faith - only to be met with the cold shower reaction described above.

​There is a danger that pretty soon all the learning will evaporate and the old ways will resume. How can this be prevented?

I suggest first recognising the problem and having a game plan for yourself and for persuading others to make a few simple changes towards better practice first. Form a network with others who have had the same experience and been on the course and share ideas. And maybe just bring the course to your partners in some way. In one firm I worked in we engaged one of the professors from Harvard to come to England and help us with strategic changes to our practice.

And above all don't give up. The lessons will be valid and sometimes just need to be remembered and reinforced.

I came across an example recently of overly aggressive negotiation. This is where a lawyer or procurement professional starts shouting across the table or refuses to let anybody else talk, always interrupting the other side and even their own colleagues. He or she insists on their view being heard and followed without any logical or business argument to support it and tolerating no alternative or compromise view. It's my way or the highway. 

It is for me the antithesis of good negotiation practice to behave in this manner. Firstly it is disrespectful and rude and secondly it rarely works even if it is consciously being adopted as a tactic. If it does succeed in forcing a particular viewpoint on a reluctant supplier or customer it invariably results in a poor contract prone to delivery failure.

This can happen where say one side in the discussion is represented by a professional adviser who takes advantage of the situation. Usually I find that if both sides are legally represented there is a measure of professional courtesy and respect however far apart the two sides are. This is helpful because it provides and avenue to pursue solutions even when the two clients are at loggerheads.

So how do you counter an aggressive irrational negotiator? In the first place recognise what is happening and react rationally and don't give in to bullying or react emotionally and shout back. Meeting hostility with hostility doesn't usually work and generally inflames the situation. Soft martial arts like Aikido work by absorbing the force of an attacker and turning this back on the aggressor. Staying calm but not being intimidated is a very powerful response.

It's better to let them run out of steam waiting politely for them to finish, though it may prove necessary to interrupt if you really can't get a word in edgewise. Then quietly suggest that it is pointless continuing if your viewpoint cannot be articulated and heard.  Be prepared if necessary to ask for a time out to let things calm down during which it may be helpful to point out to another member of the aggressor's team that his or her behaviour is not helping. Often their own team is embarrassed by such behaviour.

If they really won't change then call a halt to the negotiation and go away and question within your own organisation if you really want to do business with a company that allows or even condones such behaviour.

When I was being interviewed for my first real job as a lawyer in the City of London I was asked if I drank. This seemed to me a very tricky question at the time as not to drink might make me seem very boring but equally they would not employ an alcoholic.

So I answered "Yes in moderation". Oh good said the interviewer to my surprise, because you will need to be able to go out to and have a drink at lunchtime and still give cogent legal advice in the afternoon. I got the job!

The days of boozy office lunches, once a hallmark of the finance and insurance industries, are a thing of the past which is probably no bad thing in terms of alcoholic consumption. But what they did involve was face to face contact. More deals were sorted out over a pint of bitter at lunchtime than in the office.

Nowadays in business with email, texts, IM, conference calls and social media there are far fewer reasons for actually meeting anyone. In fact taken to its extreme there is no apparent reason to leave your home as many professional tasks can be carried out in home offices in our connected and wired world.

However we are essentially social animals and business at the end of the day is about human interaction. Some things can be sorted out remotely for sure and the electronic world has many advantages in terms of communication.

But  some things can only be done I suggest face to face, if not at a boozy lunch then in a coffee bar or in an actual as opposed to a virtual meeting. Really complex problems demand face to face time and this will always be true - even in a future where we are represented by an avatar as our online identity, or possibly by a remotely controlled robot! I'll take the pint of beer!

I have just returned to the UK after driving down to the South of France and back. The French have a great set of autoroutes with plenty of "Aires" to stop in and a channel on FM107.7 that keeps you up to date with traffic news.

What did strike me was how it helps if other drivers are courteous and let you out if, for example, you get stuck in the slow lane behind a lorry. Not everybody does, but some will and it reminded me that such good behaviour begets more. If a driver lets you out then you are more likely to do the same yourself.

And the absence of common courtesy can be damaging. I recall a professor at Harvard Business School citing the example of a boss who has too much on their mind and walks past a subordinate on the way to the coffee machine without  saying  hallo or acknowledging them. They immediately tend to fear the worst and think their boss has a bad impression of them or their work. In fact they are probably far from their manager's mind, but the damage is done.

The French are much better at these common courtesies saying "Bonjour" whenever they meet colleagues or friends and often shaking hands first thing in the morning when they arrive in the office.

Common courtesy goes a long way not only on the roads but also in the workplace. Nothing is lost by politeness and a lot can be gained. Apart from anything else it breeds more courtesy and makes the office a better place to be.