Good things are not widely circulated
Everything, at its core, is about building barriers. The goal everyone strives for is to create inequality and establish a relative competitive advantage.
Consider a sublet landlord who takes a property and their psychological bottom price to the first real estate agent. If the agent thinks the price is too good to pass up, the moment the landlord finishes paperwork and walks out the door, the agent will urgently message their inner circle of trusted buyers: "Who wants this?" Often, the deal closes the same day. But if that inner circle passes, what happens next? The agent pushes the listing to their fellow agents. Within hours, the property spreads across every agent in the city. Each agent then shows it to their own buyer networks—essentially, the most experienced buyers in town begin collectively evaluating it. Only if no one bites by then does the property finally go public, visible to everyone in the city.
That's why good deals rarely circulate openly. They're consumed internally, absorbed upstream in the information chain.
Businesspeople who've participated in bidding processes know this well: no one actually waits around for the results. When the bidding officially opens, the game isn't starting—it's already over. The winner is known from day one.
