# Earned Secrets ## The Idea in Brief Some insights can only come from doing the work. Earned secrets are the proprietary understanding you develop through deep operational experience — not from reading, not from analysis, but from years of direct engagement with a specific domain. They're the reason someone can buy 200 newspapers during an industry's decline and make a fortune while others flee. --- ## Key Concepts ### What Makes a Secret "Earned" Earned secrets aren't clever observations or contrarian takes. They're hard-won understanding that comes from sustained operational exposure. Roy Thomson spent nine years running a single small-town newspaper before expanding. He surveyed 100 competitors. He understood small-town advertising economics from running radio stations. When he finally moved, he knew things others couldn't know without that experience. The earning takes time. There's no shortcut. You can't hire a consultant to give you earned secrets — the knowledge is embedded in the doing. ### Earned Secrets vs Enduring Advantage Earned secrets alone aren't enough. You also need structural protection — what Mark Leonard calls "enduring advantage." Thomson's earned secrets told him small-town newspaper monopolies in 15,000+ population towns had specific economics others misunderstood. His enduring advantages were the monopoly positions themselves, high barriers to entry, and applied technology to increase revenue and lower costs. The combination matters. Secrets without structural protection get competed away once others catch on. Structural protection without proprietary insight means you're paying fair value — no edge. ### Why Earned Secrets Compound Deep operational experience in one domain often transfers unexpectedly. Thomson's radio experience taught him that competing with government broadcasters (CBC) wasn't actually the problem everyone assumed. When others saw ITV's early losses in England as warning signs, Thomson saw opportunity in Scotland. That single insight — earned through Canadian radio experience — funded his international expansion. The pattern: what looks like unrelated experience turns out to be directly applicable, but only to someone who did the work. --- ## Implications **In acquisitions:** The best buyers have earned secrets about the targets they pursue. They've operated in the industry long enough to see what outsiders miss. This is why industry insiders often outperform financial buyers — they know which metrics lie and which problems are actually solvable. **In career decisions:** Time in a domain builds earned secrets. Job-hopping across industries trades breadth for depth. The question is whether you're building proprietary understanding or just collecting experience that anyone could have. **In market entry:** Before entering a new market, ask what earned secrets you'd need and how long they'd take to develop. If the answer is "years," you're either committing to that timeline or competing without an edge. **In valuation:** Sellers rarely price in their own earned secrets — they assume buyers see what they see. Buyers with different earned secrets may spot value the seller doesn't recognise they're giving away. --- ## Sources - Mark Leonard's presentation on Roy Thomson — Thomson's nine years running a single newspaper before expansion; the framework of "earned secrets + enduring advantage" - [[Tacit Knowledge]] — Related concept: knowledge embedded in practice that can't be transferred through documents - [[Process Power]] — Operational excellence that compounds over time and can't be easily replicated --- ## See in Notes - [The Halma Discipline](https://www.anishpatel.co/the-halma-discipline/) — David Barber's deep operational understanding of small industrial businesses; 70% bolt-on acquisitions in familiar fields - [Rehearsed Intuition](https://www.anishpatel.co/rehearsed-intuition/) — Pattern recognition built through experience; the library that runs below conscious awareness