“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” - William Faulkner

As we enter this holiday season, we are reminded of how thankful we are for our relationship with you and your families. In light of this, we would like to say thank you for your partnership with Weatherford Capital.

“Keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.” - Rudyard Kipling

Despite ongoing questions and concerns surrounding this year’s football season, I can’t help but feel it in the air. Believe it or not, the first Division I college football game of the 2020 season is less than a week away.

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” - Albert Camus, Nobel Prize-winning philosopher

Praxis, an organization we are very fond of and involved in, released a compelling essay Strategies for Winter: Redemptive Leadership in Survival Times. Although a lot has changed from a health perspective since this was published, we believe the leadership principles are insightful and transcend any one moment.

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." -Mike Tyson

"Iron” Mike Tyson was one of the most feared fighters ever to lace up gloves. What set him apart from other common brawlers of the era were his unconventional combinations, none of which were more dreaded than his right hook to the body, followed by a right uppercut to the head.

"Winning takes talent; to repeat, takes character." -John Wooden, Legendary UCLA basketball coach

College basketball fans may recognize this as the philosophy espoused by the late John Wooden. After 10 NCAA basketball championships in 12 years -- and a record 88-game winning streak -- there is no doubt Coach Wooden can be considered the greatest college basketball coach of all time. However, it’s only today, 45 years after John Wooden coached his last game, that we can truly appreciate how prescient he was to place as much emphasis on virtue and values as on talent and skill. At Weatherford Capital, recognizing how this lens supports long-term, sustainable outcomes, we espouse the same principles.

"It's one thing to be grateful. It's another to give thanks. Gratitude is what you feel. Thanksgiving is what you do." -Timothy Keller, New York Times bestselling author and pastor

We are explicitly told – 38 TIMES – to "give thanks" throughout the books of the Old and New Testaments. In light of this, and with Thanksgiving around the corner, my brothers and I couldn't help but reflect on how grateful we are for all the ways in which the Lord has blessed us this year.

“We are committed to stewarding our financial, intellectual, and social capital well for the common good in our communities.” -Weatherford

According to the latest Family Office Guide from EY, the consultant estimated that at least 10,000 family offices exist around the world, more than half of which were established within the last 15 years. During that same time, the number of billionaires nearly tripled, adding more than 1,500 worldwide. Much of this wealth creation is due to the significant gains generated across both public equities and private capital investments.

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.” -Dale Carnegie

Today, many believe science and technology, alone, will solve the world's problems. But while science can inform us what is possible and technology can increase productivity, neither can be counted on to tell us definitively if our actions are either right or wrong. Whether or not something is good or bad or supports or impedes human flourishing can only be determined by wisdom and empathy to appreciate any unintended consequences. Without wisdom, knowledge, profit and efficiency become ends in and of themselves, leading to an impersonal, transactional society in which people are treated as numbers, not individuals. To avoid this impersonal and transactional approach towards life we must seek to understand human nature, how human relationships work, suffering and death, and most importantly the character of the creator Himself.