The parable of the banker: Back in the late 1990's when I was working as a bouncer in NYC I strangled a couple of thugs unconscious one night during a brawl. When things quietened down an older gentleman with a thick Russian accent approached me and asked if I would be willing to work in his club. Bouncers are always looking for extra gigs in case they get fired or have to lay low for a while at their main gig so A few nights later I went to check it out. It was a strip club way downtown in the financial district by the old World Trade Center. The financial district is a hive of activity in the day time but a ghost town at night, bringing in an odd assortment of powerful suits alongside derelicts. It was a small club of mostly Russian strippers catering to boozy traders and dealers – a very easy gig compared with my normal work. One night I had to toss a fellow out who had gotten a little too touchy feely with one of the ladies and caused a commotion. He went without a fight and I stayed at the door as he lingered in the street outside. We struck up a conversation as he seemed a decent dude and he talked about his work which if his story was true, he was very good at. He said to me, “There is only one skill I need to win in my game – I need to be able to look at a stock and see its true value, as opposed to its publicly agreed upon value. If I can see that most people undervalue it I will buy and I win, since it's true value is much higher and will be revealed in time.” As he walked off i wondered if a similar line of thought would apply to Jiu jitsu. Are there moves out there that are undervalued by most and whose true value would later be revealed so that anyone who invested in them early would profit? A few years later I started my study of leg locks for exactly this reason – they were priced at that time far below their true value. As you learn you might ask yourself, are there OTHER such moves out there waiting for someone to reveal their true value? Are the reasons why we currently consider some moves unworthy of study sound, or just a reflection of our limited thinking? The banker did very well with this approach – perhaps you can too.
