What did Aristotle Onassis mean when he said...

There's a popular quote floating around on the web (on thousands of web pages) - by Aristotle Onassis. According to this quote, he said

"The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows."
- Aristotle Onassis

What do you think he meant?

Did he mean know something about markets?
About products?
To have knowledge to blackmail others with? (Okay, just kidding about the last one....) :)

I'd love to hear your opinions. This is something I've been pondering since last night....

- Dien Rice

Aristotle Onassis (AO) had many examples of this...

He knew his father would ship tobacco to Brazil (I think it was).

He knew he didn't have ships when he won the shipping contract. Others didn't, otherwise they would not have given him the contract.

He knew about the "ship sale" at which he bought the ships to ship the contracts he had.

Moving away from AO... Coke knows their recipe, Pepsi theirs. KFC has "secret" herbs and spices. Mikey D's special sauce.

When I give a quote, no-one knows how I arrive at my price. Stumps my competition. Stops customers trying to figure it out. If you don't quote an hourly rate to anyone, no-one can second-guess you. No-one can dispute a fee.

Retailers know where to get goods that consumers don't know. Because the consumer doesn't know where to get the goods they are forced to buy them from the only supplier they know - the retailer.

How you make decisions is something no-one else can know.

What your plans are. Imagine if Trump let it be known which NY real estate he was looking to acquire in the future. Or letting others know what his plans are for the package of land he is putting together. Or how he has his downside covered.

I think AO was hinting at playing your cards close to your chest. Keeping your business to yourself.

Michael Ross


Get informed. Get an edge. Get The Great Ideas Letter

... it also means getting into emerging market trends early ... before the crowd shows up and starts to move prices higher in a big big way.

Conversely, it also means getting out of dying trends early ... before the crowd goes into a selling frenzy and push prices lower in a big way.

In other words, getting good information early is to know what others do not yet know.

Robert Campbell


Timing real estate trends for greater, safer profits

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your reply - it was an excellent one.

My own thinking about Aristotle Onassis's saying, "The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows" had been mostly limited to knowledge about products (sources) and markets (hungry buyers). However, I see that there could even be other dimensions to it....

Interesting topic, thanks for the illuminating reply. :)

- Dien Rice

It reminds me of this...

"The most valuable commodity I know of is information. Wouldn't you agree?"
- Gordon Gekko, from the movie "Wall Street"

It seems that Gordon Gekko and Aristotle Onassis may agree!

Another "Wall Street" quote...

"I took you in.

"A nobody!

"I opened doors for you.

"I showed you how the system works, the value of information, how to get it!"

I'm not suggesting we all go out and do some insider trading - and join Martha Stewart in the hot soup she's cooking for herself. But it does show that perhaps this principle - the importance of certain kinds of specific information - is pervasive, if you want to make money.

(Of course - as the movie "Wall Street" points out, there are legal and illegal ways to get and use information, and it's better to stick to the legal ways, and I'm sure Martha Stewart and ImClone founder Sam Waksal would agree.)

- Dien Rice

> "The secret of business is to know
> something that nobody else knows." -
> Aristotle Onassis What do you think he
> meant?

I think this quote is essentially about market efficiency and competition.

It all comes down to the fact that you're not the only person in the world trying to make a profit. Thus if you know something that leads to a profit but others know it too, it will likely result in a more efficient market, greater competition, and lower profits.

So let's consider a ficticious example.

Let's suppose that you know that Yoyo's are going to make a come-back in popularity. Armed with this knowledge, you set up a business selling Yoyo's to profit from this knowledge.

If nobody else knows it, and you're correct, you'll probably make a fair bit of money. If everybody knows it, and it's correct, you'll probably make less because the market will be flooded with people trying to sell Yoyo's.

I think this is a pretty important principle when it comes to business. It also applies to investing, of course.

For those of you that don't know, I am part of the investment team of an Australian funds management group called PM Capital. I've linked to a recent article about us below in case anybody in interested.

When I look at stocks, one question I always ask myself is what do I see in this stock that the market doesn't? In other words, what value am I adding?

Perhaps I think I have a better insight because I've done more thorough groundwork research that others have overlooked. Perhaps the market is focused on short-term factors that don't have a great effect on the long-term outlook of the business. It could be a range of factors.

If I can't answer this question, however, I am less likely to invest in the stock. If the reason you like a stock is echoed by all the analysts that follow the stock and the media generally, chances are its already priced into the stock and the prospects aren't as good.

Thus, I think the quote applies equally as much to investing as it would to business.

- Thomas.




PM Capital Absolute Performance Fund