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By PASCAL FINETTE

The Heretic is a free dispatch delivering insights into what it takes to lead into & in the unknown. For entrepreneurs, corporate irritants and change makers. Raw, unfiltered and opinionated.

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Jan 12th, 2015 Share: Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Forget The Rulebook

True story: Deep in the Brazilian jungle, in 1915, two US fruit companies were trying to acquire a highly valuable lot of 5,000 acres of farm land. The problem was — there were two different locals who each claimed to own the land (and no records to prove who truly owned it).

The bigger of the two companies (United Fruit) deployed hordes of lawyers, turned over every single piece of evidence they could find and were ready to pay whatever it takes to win.

The much smaller rival, Zemurray, knew that they didn’t have the money, people and other resources to even remotely compete with United Fruit in this endeavor. Flexible, fluid and defiant, they just met with both of the supposed owners and bought the land from each of them.

Zemurray paid twice, for sure, but it was over. The land was his.

Forget the rule book, settle the issue.


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