Huainanzi - Entry 50

Trey Smith

[There are ways to evaluate people.] If they are covetous, observe what they will not take.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

In many parts of the country, we find big corporations gobbling up the land. Areas that appear to be barren and of no use are scooped up for pennies on the dollar and we later learn that these big companies knew something -- inside information -- that wasn't readily available to the public. What initially looked like a wasteful purchase turns out to be a steal!

Every now and then a government entity will try basically to give away a property to a big company and, for reasons seemingly unknown, the company turns it down. When this happens, it is rampantly apparent that the big wigs KNOW something about the property that the rest of us don't -- it's heavily polluted or something of this nature.

When a company or individual always is grabbing things and they turn a blind eye to something they would normally grab, you should know that they possess inside knowledge.

To read the introduction to this ongoing series, go here.