(This is the first of a 3-part series)

I want to start off by saying that T. Boone Pickens is one of our great American entrepreneurs with a heritage of great success.  Over his extensive career, he has shown great leadership. He is an example of true entrepreneurial achievement.

What we have seen over the past 2 years with T. Boone is a fantastic pursuit of a great dream – which is what every entrepreneur has in one way or another. What T. Boone has done with the Pickens Plan and his larger-than-life wind project idea has been very exciting.

As entrepreneurs, we all take risks.  The risk is that we have to get our idea and our concept across to the public so that we can present our idea.  When we do this, we are putting a thought out there for raising support, raising capital, or raising attention to our project.

T. Boone had a multi-level plan to where he was going to build a wind farm, he was going to carry his own power into Dallas-Fort Worth through those transmission lines, and using the same corridor, he was going to carry water from the Panhandle back to the Metroplex.

As an entrepreneur, when you’re putting these ideas out there, you’re taking a risk, very similar to Kenneth Musgrave, one of our great entrepreneurs from Abilene.  Kenneth did the same thing with the Hendrick ranch.  Kenneth was attempting to purchase a large-scale ranch and he was using the media as his promotion.  All of us the media in this way:  to raise capital or attention for our project, to promote our idea.  What Kenneth Musgrave was doing was promoting that he had struck this deal and his intentions were to cut up the property and sell it off – but with the current economic conditions, he was forced to back out of the deal.

On both of these fronts, you have an entrepreneur putting ideas out there but problems came up.  With T. Boone, the credit markets are simply not in a condition to support a large-scale project like he was promoting.  WIth Musgrave, he put his project out there, and he had the interested buyers who wanted a piece of what he had put together, however the financial crisis has put that plan on hold.

The problem with these two projects is not the idea – their ideas are good, but at this time, they are just not going to go forward.  It’s the risk they take.   They put their ideas out there in a very public way.  The risk they take is that their idea is either a great success or it fails, or it just doesn’t work out to the level they had hoped.

It’s the same thing for the entrepreneur wanting to start a donut shop.  He puts some significant money into the equipment needed to make donuts. Then he puts an ad in the paper saying that he’ll be selling donuts on Monday morning.  He is taking a huge risk by doing that – is it going to succeed, fail or just not measure up simply because of negative market conditions?

Such entrepreneurs are great men and are to be commended.  We need more people who are willing to take a risk and put great ideas out there.  The measurement of a great entrepreneur is not the accomplishment itself, but the risk he is willing to take to accomplish great things.  As well, you can always measure success by how an entrepreneur picks himself up when he fails.

Next in this series, we’ll talk more specifically about the economy.

- Randy W. Hill, Texas Entrepreneur

A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to purchase another ranch, the Noodle Curve Ranch, in Jones country in an area northwest of Abilene. We knew that the area was known for big deer – fantastic deer hunting.

Jim Allen, our ranch manager, got everything set up for us, all the deer blinds and feeders were in place.  We went in a did some sight prep, clearing some paths – but also leaving the terrain as untouched as possible, leaving very little footprint on the land itself.  On opening weekend, I was with my dear friend, John Bracket.  His son Landon was hunting in the north blind.  He had called his dad to say he had seen a very large buck.  John wanted to be with his son when he shot a deer, so Landon didn’t shoot.  They were able to get some video footage of that monster buck.  Right then, I determined that I would hunt that blind to see if he returned.

Over the next week, I repeatedly hunted the blind, but I didn’t see the deer.  I heard 5 gunshots one night.  Every time I would hear a gun shot, my heart would sink, wondering if someone in a neighboring ranch had shot that big buck.

We went back out again this past Saturday morning.  I met Jim at 4:45a and made the 52 mile drive to the ranch in Jones County.  We got into the deer blind about 6:15a.  Within 30 minutes, there was a lot of deer activity and i ended up getting a shot about 30 minutes later.   There’s something special about finally shooting a monster deer, a true trophy white tail and having someone there with you to enjoy it.

After I got the shot, I sat in the deer blind for about 2 hours, thinking back about all of the great experiences, the great places over the past 25 years that I’ve been fortunate to hunt and fish.  I thought about those memories and all those occasions.  All of those trips were with good people – some fun times.

It was kind of ironic to me – after I thought about that.  I have traveled long distances looking for that perfect shot.  I love adventure as much as anybody does.  But here I had killed a monster deer within close proximity of home.

(Click on image for larger version)

But isn’t that similar to the way we are?  We are hunting and searching for something and we go to great lengths and great distances to find something.  It all came back to me that so often what we’re really looking for – Jesus – is right before us.  He’s close to us.  We can reach him quickly.  We have access to him.  Yet, when I reflect about the great distances I’ve traveled and how much time I’ve spent fishing and hunting, looking for that perfect catch or that trophy shot,  I realize as well how little time I’d spent on my knees praying.

Often times in life, we go to great distances and great lengths looking for something, to find something and we search the ends the ends of the earth to find it.  We buy things that we think are going to bring us happiness.  But in reality, so many people never really find that true trophy – never really reaching what we really want out of life.   Sharing adventurous experiences with good friends is part of what I think God thinks is important in life.  And I believe it’s important to have a common bond of faith between us.  And really, it’s ultimately all about Him anyway.

- Randy Hill