Petey’s Leadership Guide: Chapter 3
Pressure Doesn’t Change You. It Reveals You. Anyone can act positive, uplifting, encouraging, when things are going well. When revenue’s climbing and customers are flowing in, everyone’s high-fiving. Even the grumps can manage a smile. And honestly, if someone’s still a pain in the ass when the sun is shining? Get the eff out! But […]
The World Is Breaking Apart (According to Ray Dalio)
Ray Dalio’s writing can feel like drinking from a firehose of history, finance, and geopolitics. His tweets, stories, website, books – they feel.. arcane. Academic. Exhausting . So I thought it might be helpful to articulate – in plain freaking English – what exactly he’s saying, and give concrete, easy-to-understand examples. Below is a breakdown of the latest. What […]
Tariffapalooza, The Investor Class & The Working Class
Welcome to Tariffapalooza. In just the past few weeks, Trump has proposed sweeping new tariffs on everything from Chinese electric vehicles to European steel, floated the idea of a 60% blanket tariff on all Chinese imports, and hinted at “universal baseline tariffs” for all trading partners. It’s a dizzying barrage of economic threats, sometimes tweeted, sometimes […]
Petey’s Leadership Guide: Chapter 1
Eating Shit, Humility, & The We/I Rule Let’s get something out of the way. First off—who the hell is Petey? That’s me. It’s a random nickname that stuck, it’s got 25 years of history, makes me laugh, and the old CFO at The Motley Fool still calls me that, so we’re rolling with it. Talking […]
Petey’s Leadership Guide: Chapter 2
Doing the Actual Work Alright, we’re flashing back again. It’s like 2005, I think. After two years as a cook and a butcher, my dad finally convinced me to use my finance degree and get into the “corporate world.” So I got a job as a low-level accountant responsible for accounts payable at a publicly […]
Why I Buy High, Buy Higher, and Never Sell: The Anti-CNBC Investing Strategy That’s Crushed the Market
Okay, let me start out by saying this: For 90%+ of people, investing primarily in index funds is the exact right strategy. Probably more like 95%, to be honest. The reason? Investing in the general market provides near-zero fees, broad equity exposure, and if history is any indicator, 8-10% per year, adjusted for inflation. And […]
Financial Zen & The Real Cost of Panic Selling
When the markets are tumblin’, the texts start a-comin. Like clockwork, my phone blows up with panicked messages – friends, family, former colleagues – all with that same anxious tone of financial dread… “If someone had cash on the sidelines, would you buy or just wait the weirdness out?” “With all the tariffs, won’t the […]
Up and to the Right
My first job was in 6th grade – I was a busboy at Sam’s Grill. My best friend Danny and I would bike there after school, clear plates, roll silverware, help the cooks deal dime bags behind the dumpster. Easy money. But man oh man, that first paycheck—the way those crumpled bills felt in my […]
After the Office
It was 2008. My first job out of grad school was in Old Town, Alexandria, right outside of D.C. With a shiny lobby, a few elevators, and an always-on security guard, it felt like a small step toward adulting and a step or two removed from the debauchery of my earlier years. And in contrast […]
7 Growth Tactics that Delivered (and the data to prove it)
For those not familiar, I led growth (and other functions) at The Motley Fool for a decade+ and have also been a part of other great growth & marketing teams. This blog post is mostly a refresh of a popular thread from a few years back, with updates where I have em’… Find what increases conversions Facebook […]