Glossary & Quotes

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Acquisition strategy = Current product/service is becoming obsolete and we need to find a company with better growth prospects than ours

Basically on Plan = Revenue shortfall of only 30%

Considerably Ahead of Plan = Company hit budget one of the last three months

Currently Revised Our Budget = Financial plan is a total disaster

Cyclical Industry = Posted a HUGE loss last year

Entrepreneurial CEO = Totally uncontrollable, borderline maniacal and insane

Limited Downside = Current situation can’t get much worse

Major Opportunity = Last chance to salvage the investment

Passive Investor = Calls company once a year to ensure company is still in business

Value-added Investor = Comes to emergency board meetings

Window of Opportunity = If company doesn’t get money by Friday, the company is dead

Upgrading The Management Team = Fired the CEO and entire management team because of poor performance

Niche Strategy = Market opportunity is so small, we are embarrassed to quantify

Disproportionate Distribution to Investor Base = Stealing from Company

QUOTES

  • “I’ve come to realize – and appreciate – that the best athletes/people/humans don’t necessarily last the longest because they gave it ALL, ALL the time.” – Pete Moore on the passing of Franco Harris (12/2022)
  • “Remember the closest exit may be behind you. If things aren’t working and you have tried everything you can think of, it is okay to exit and start anew.” -Pete Moore
  • “The Devil is in the details, and the details are owned by the Devil.  (Read your agreements!”) – Pete Moore
  • “Stay off my carpet!” – RGP
  • “Don’t try to be better every single day, it is exhausting.  (Just improve at a steady pace.”) – Pete Moore
  • “We aim to be the most prepared and the least distracted team on Game Day.” – Dave Aranda, Baylor Head Football Coach
  • “Even the smallest amount of shit mixed with ice cream will make the entire dessert taste like shit.” [Takeaway: Don’t merge turnaround/poor-performing businesses with blue-chip/valuable companies; it will ruin the entire entity very, very quickly.] -Pete Moore.
  • “Hope is not a strategy.” -Pete Moore
  • “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot, and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
  • “Income . . . is the desired OUTCOME.” – Dash
  • “Go Depreciate Someone Else!” – Tom Hammett, CP SD
  • “Your energy dictates which voice you listen to.” –Jonathan Roche
  • “If your path demands you to walk through hell, walk as if you own the place!” -Unknown
  • “If you aren’t failing, you aren’t doing anything particularly important.”
    -From the documentary General Magic
  • “When looking at new investments, focus on convincing yourself if a company checks off one or all of these boxes: (i) close to the money transaction, (ii) has best in class technology and/or (iii) has a deeply passionate community who believes in the brand.”
  • “Progress waits for no one.” -Early years of automotive industry.
  • “A lot of people claim they have a family office. The question to ask is . . .well, how much money is in it?!”
  • “SPAC stands for ‘Special Purpose Acquisition Company’ but should be called: Special Purpose Arbitrage Company.”
  • “Do you have a Peloton, do you have a Tesla . . . and now, wait for it, do you have a SPAC? Be careful about investing in SPACs that are taking companies PUBLIC who are unable to take themselves public. Always question what is really going on and scrutinize who is getting what and the associated fees.” 
  • “There is typically not much “FUN” in “FUN-DRAISING.”
  • “Mediocrity is merely a failed attempt at being really good.”
  • “If you have Integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have Integrity, nothing else matters.”
  • “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”
  • “An entrepreneur must first determine his/her personal objectives before determining the objectives of his/her company.”
  • “There is no substitute for execution and thoughtful planning.”
  • “I have never met an entrepreneur who didn’t have hockey stick projections.”
  • “Know what you know and recognize what you don’t know.”
  • “Those who take power have power, those who ask for power never get it.”
  • “You cannot swim too long upstream like a salmon when the water is streaming against you.”
  • “Create something of significant value and at some point in the future, someone will pay you for it.”
  • “Have fun doing what you do or move on.”
  • “If raising capital was easy, every company would have plenty of it.”
  • You need “CAPITAL” if you are playing a game called “CAPITALism.” 
  • “The stock market is the largest casino in the world. If you are in financial services, you are really running a legalized, global casino empire (with some rules.)”