(And Why Entrepreneurship Is Mostly About What You Don’t Do)

This week, on a routine call with an investment banker, something interesting happened.

In the middle of explaining the progress of the Peanut Project — the capital stack, the sequencing, the investor traction — I saw it.

Clear as day.

A way to legally structure the deal that could have generated roughly $30 million in personal upside. I won’t bury the lede, as Private Equity (PE) funds crowd demand, I could easily seek term sheets — or proactively submit them — and insert a line that says I get a 5% fee (for basic math) of the proceeds.

PEs will be over-subscribed because they earn their fees when they deploy capital. Sure, there’s a cap of 30% on the franchise, but they can invest up to 100% in the stadium and “infra.”

So, basic math

  • 5% x $600,000,000 = $30,000,000 on the PE investment in the franchise,
  • 5$ x $1,500,000,000 = $75,000,000 on the PE investment in the stadium
  • 5% x $1,000,000,000 = $50,000,000 on the PE investment in adjacent infrastructure (eg. Sphere).
  • That’s $155,000,000 in fees. This is how Wall Street operates. If my counsel was editing this, they’d ask me to include “we reserve all rights,” but you get the idea.

If not?

I could make the Term Sheets binding if counter-signed, and not even require final, definite agreements which the PE funds could execute and act on subsequently to earn their management fees (and worse, agree to any and all terms, no matter how eventually onerous to the club — which we will cover in a follow-up post for brevity here).

Of course, eventually when I secure the key, principal anchor investor, he or she (or they, as it’s usually a professional working on behalf of said investor) would look at it, but in all likelihood, they may ask and inquire, but they would accept it as “industry practice,” and “industry standard.” Who, after all, does all of this pro bono?

No fraud.
No deception.
No gray area.
Entirely within market norms.

In fact, in many circles, it would have been applauded.

“Smart structuring.”
“Founders deserve upside.”
“Industry standard promote.”
“Value capture.”

And yet.

It didn’t sit right.

The Real World of Corporate Finance

In textbooks, ethics is about illegality.

In real life, ethics is about restraint.

There are mechanisms — perfectly legal — that allow founders, sponsors, general partners, and intermediaries to:

  • Insert structuring fees
  • Capture advisory spreads
  • Take placement commissions
  • Warehouse assets and flip them into vehicles
  • Create valuation step-ups
  • Engineer disproportionate promotes
  • Extract economics before value is realized

Every one of these can be legal.
Many are common.
Some are even expected.

But legality is not the same as virtue.

20% Is What You Do

80% Is What You Don’t

I’ve said this before.

Entrepreneurship isn’t defined by the bold moves you make.

It’s defined by the temptations you decline.

Anyone can rationalize $30 million.

You can justify it as:

  • Compensation for effort
  • Risk premium
  • Vision tax
  • Market precedent

And maybe it is.

But the deeper question is:

Are you building a platform… are you serving a purpose?
or are you harvesting it?

Why This Matters

The Peanut Project is not just about baseball.

It’s about:

  • Principles
  • Purposes
  • Civic Duty
  • Community
  • Stewardship
  • Alignment
  • Governance
  • Trust

If I want investors to believe I am focused on the mission, and I want other to conduct themselves accordingly,
then the structure must reflect that.

If I want the Academy & Study of Entrepreneurship to teach ethics in practice,
then the example must be real.

If I want students to understand how the world actually works,
then I have to show them the fork in the road.

White vs Virtue

This was not black.
It wasn’t even gray.

It was white.

Clean.
Lawful.
Contractual.

But it didn’t align with my internal compass.

That doesn’t make those who choose differently immoral.

It simply means:

We all draw our lines somewhere.

The Hardest Part

When you decline something like this, no one applauds.

There is no headline that reads:

“Founder Chooses Not to Extract $30 Million.”

Restraint is quiet.

But it compounds.

Trust compounds.

Reputation compounds.

And in long games — that matters more than arbitrage.

The Case Study

This moment will likely appear — fictionalized — in The Peanut Project: A Story of Will Power.

Because students should not just study success.

They should study temptation.

They should see how:

  • Structure creates opportunity
  • Incentives shape behavior
  • Legality does not guarantee alignment
  • Character is revealed in private

The Question

If you were in the room…

Would you have taken it?

Be honest.

Because this is where entrepreneurship gets real.

Now, was this all altruism and charity? Stand by. Incoming missile.