A reputation for keeping secrets is worth more than any secret you could tell.

Secrets are spent the moment they are told. Being the person things are safe with keeps paying, because people bring you what is actually happening instead of the version they tell everyone. That access is the real asset. Telling buys you a few seconds of someone leaning in and costs you the whole stream behind it.

Notice the pull to pass along something you were told in confidence, and let it go by. Have one line ready for when somebody fishes: you do not talk about other people’s business. Say it the same way every time and people stop testing it.