I’ve been getting into a new series called Heroes that’s getting a lot of attention in the US. It’s like XMen but without the costumes. The idea is that these mutants are a bunch of ordinary people that discover that they have superpowers, and they need to get together to save the world from destruction.

One of my favourite characters is Peter Petrelli. When you meet him, you realise that he’s the kind of guy that puts everyone else’s needs before his. He works as a male nurse and seems focused on helping anyone who needs him. His older brother, Nathan, is the over-achieving, selfish, polished politician who their mother describes as the alpha male. Whereas Peter seems like he can hardly pay the bills, Nathan can literally fly.

At one point in an early episode, Nathan and Peter’s mother tells Peter that he needs to stop letting Nathan walk all over him, and that, in general, he needs to start putting himself first. That if he doesn’t take care of himself, no one else will. That he needs to be a little bit more selfish. In her words, “when you put everyone else first, you end up last.” It’s an interesting variation of the common “good guys finish last” theme.

Being a comic book story where the “loser” guys always have alter egos that are powerful superheroes, we soon discover that Peter is, in fact, one of the most powerful mutants on the show. He’s an empath, which means that his profound empathetic abilities allow him to coopt the powers of any other superhero just by thinking about the person. And the show hints that at some point Peter becomes the leader of the world, or at least of the mutants–kind of like Charles Xavier in the Xmen.

The show is really cool, but the line stuck with me, as last week we were negotiating with a business angel about his entry into the shareholding of Goa Internet Services. At the same time, my business partner and I had to make some important strategic decisions about the company’s future. And in such situations I always find myself wondering what’s the best strategy: Cold-blooded lawyer? Or friendly salesperson? Good cop? Or bad cop? Peter? Or Nathan? A lot depends on your negotiating power in a particular situation and on who the other party is. Probably a mixture of the two strategies is the best bet. The key is that you have to be able to read the situation. You need to be a bit of an empath, I suppose.

But if there’s anything I’ve learned over the last three years of being an entrepreneur it’s that, in business, you need to put yourself and your business first. It’s great if we can all end up friends, but that can’t be the priority. A business is not a social club. Sometimes you need to fire really nice people. Sometimes business partners end up not being complementary. And sometimes your best/most powerful ally is someone with whom you’d rather not have dinner. Learn to compromise, but never forget that your utmost priority is to protect your interests. Because you can be sure that the other party–whether your employees, your business partners, the banks, your investors, the government,etc.–are all putting their interests ahead of yours. And a lot of “friends” tend to disappear once the going gets tough. Good guys might turn out to be superheroes in comic books, but the real world is a bit more complicated. Be a little bit selfish. Think about yourself and your business first. And get it in writing if you can.