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.

Disproportionate Distribution to Investor Base = Stealing from Company.

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.

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

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

Tugboat M&A Advisory Services = When an M&A firm takes on a sell-side assignment for the sole purpose of keeping the company afloat by scripting out a six month process to stall the activist investor holding the fulcrum security.

Value-added Investor = Comes to emergency board meetings.

When The Conservative Case Is Not Achievable = In the health club industry when you receive membership information that is very low, you would expect it to be the memberships (including couples, family plans ~2x the number) rather than the actual number of people.

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.

QUOTES

  • The more you say “NO”, the better your life will be.” – Peter Moore 01/21/26
  • “I’m the only problem I am responsible for.” -Duff McDonald, author of Tickld. 
  • “If you are seeking to put your money into venture capital deals, a little advice from my experience: You are investing in “adventure” and not “venture.” You will mostly get lost on this ride and your investment will “go puff” SOONER than later. – Pete Moore
  • “Burnout isn’t a badge. It’s a broken system. The highest performers don’t run harder. They build better systems. What you need isn’t more drive. It’s rhythm—a cadence that sustains energy, not drains it.” -Brandon Hance
  • “If your inner compass is off, no amount of strategy will feel like winning. It’s like being a quarterback with a perfect spiral, headed toward the wrong end zone.” -Brandon Hance
  • “You don’t need to prove yourself. You need to remember yourself. The deeper you understand yourself, the clearer everything else gets.” -Brandon Hance
  • “Something a no-skin-in-the-game boutique co-owner/operator said about me (to my nephew) after saturating her with literally 20 different actionable tips (1 of which already put 43 people in a Spin class. Their regular attendance? 3-5.) And the quip to my nephew? ‘Well you’re stuck with him!’ Meaning: She doesn’t want my advice, is lazy, and will be out of a job in 30 days.” -Pete Moore
  • “Do you want to double-down on shit or scoop up some really tasty ice cream?” -Pete Moore on M&A acquisitions.
  • “The mind’s power to rationalize has no limit.” -Peter Holt
  • “Everybody is telling you everything you need to know and nobody is listening.” -Peter Holt
  • “We are prisoners to our own ASSUMPTIONS and slaves to our EXPERIENCES.” -Peter Holt
  • “We suffer more in our imagination then our reality.” -Seneca
  • “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” -George Elliot
  • “Our life is what our thoughts make it.” -Marcus Aurelius
  • “Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.” -Carl Jung
  • “Care what other people think, and you’ll always be their prisoner.” -Lao Tzu
  • “A fool is known by speech, and a wise man by silence.” -Pythagoras
  • “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” -Confucius
  • “The quieter you become, the more you’re able to hear.” -Rumi”
  • “I WANT recognition and compensation, but I don’t NEED it for my ego or for my revenue goals.” -Pete Moore
  • “You can’t have artificial intelligence without intelligence!” -Pete Moore
  • “I know I have to have it, but I don’t need to own it.” – Sean McManamy HealthFitness
  • “Nail it before you scale it!” –Jeff Riney, COO of The St. James, to Pete Moore.
  • “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.” -Pete Moore
  • “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?!” -Pete Moore
  • “SPAC stands for ‘Special Purpose Acquisition Company’ but should be called: Special Purpose Arbitrage Company.” -Pete Moore
  • “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.” -Pete Moore
  • “There is typically not much “FUN” in “FUN-DRAISING.” -Pete Moore
  • “Mediocrity is merely a failed attempt at being really good.” -Pete Moore
  • “If you have Integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have Integrity, nothing else matters.” -Pete Moore
  • “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” -Peter Brockway
  • “An entrepreneur must first determine his/her personal objectives before determining the objectives of his/her company.” -Pete Moore
  • “There is no substitute for execution and thoughtful planning.” -Pete Moore
  • “I have never met an entrepreneur who didn’t have hockey stick projections.” -Pete Moore
  • “Know what you know and recognize what you don’t know.” -Pete Moore
  • “Those who take power have power, those who ask for power never get it.” -Pete Moore
  • “You cannot swim too long upstream like a salmon when the water is streaming against you.” -Pete Moore
  • “Create something of significant value and at some point in the future, someone will pay you for it.” -Pete Moore
  • “Have fun doing what you do or move on.” -Pete Moore
  • “If raising capital was easy, every company would have plenty of it.” -Pete Moore
  • You need “CAPITAL” if you are playing a game called “CAPITALism.” -Pete Moore 
  • “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.)” -Pete Moore
  •  “Don’t let irrational players affect your confidence” -Pete Moore