Jim White found himself with a teaching job for the farming community of McFarland, located in the San Joaquin Valley of California. A consummate advocate for the young people under his watch, he saw cross-country running as the pathway to raise expectations and expand horizons.

It would become his mission, and one to which he was passionately devoted. Imagine his reaction when the father of three of his highest potential runners told him, “Mr. White, your running team is like television; it is not essential.”

Priorities

In that moment, two viewpoints about what is and isn’t essential collided. Dealing with questions of what is central and what is peripheral places us in a dilemma of competing perspectives, values and experiences. It is a recurring question that reveals itself in every dimension of our personal and professional life.

My earliest recollection of being asked to make hard decisions that required a thoughtful prioritization of options was in a sixth-grade team-building exercise where we were handed a list of 50 items and told to prioritize the top 10 that would be required for survival if we were stranded on a remote island.

All I remember from the discussion in Mr. Cymbal’s class is that there were strongly held positions, not all of which seemed to be reasonable, that fueled the heat of the debate. I have absolutely no memory of which items made the top 10, much less in which order they were prioritized. Nonetheless, some version of that exercise seems to pop up in all sorts of scenarios where tough decisions need to be made.

Ranching is an ongoing process of sorting priorities —acknowledging that some choices necessitate a shorter time horizon, while others offer the benefit of long-term planning and implementation. 

On the ranch

Ranching, too, is an ongoing process of sorting priorities — acknowledging that some choices necessitate a shorter time horizon, while others offer the benefit of long-term planning and implementation. Keeping clear that which is a need vs. those options that, while appealing, are wants that should be ignored or at least deferred, is important. In essence, good decision-making at its root is understanding the trade-offs.

We typically have a fairly good idea of what is to be gained, or at least our expectation of gain. The costs, however, may be more challenging to sort out. The purchase price may be clear, but then there are all the other considerations. Does the choice at hand limit future options? What about the cost of maintenance? Do we have the time and patience to learn a new gadget?

Is our choice based on our values and vision, or driven by some measure of comparison or fear of being left out? At the heart of a trade-off is determining whether the new thing, process or purchase will be useful in the long run or simply a convenience.

The infinite game

That tough conversation between Jim White and Paul Diaz was uncomfortable in the moment, but was resolved when they recognized that there were multiple factors in play and that prioritizing was not a process of playing to win with a finite mindset. It isn’t only work or running, but rather choosing to play the infinite game — a game where the Diaz brothers could contribute to the family’s income while still training for success on the cross-country course. Success that would ultimately open doors of opportunity that would allow David, Damacio, and Danny Diaz to build successful lives on the foundations of their experiences in the fields and as athletes.

Sorting the wheat from the chaff requires the mindset of those two men, one a dedicated father and the other a passionate advocate. Both recognized they were focused on an essential process, laying the foundation for the success of the next generation by finding a path that blended discipline, responsibility, hard work and dedication to timeless values.

Funny, the television was never part of the equation.

Editor’s note: In “Outside the Box,” a regular column in both the Angus Journal^® and the Angus Beef Bulletin, author Tom Field shares his experience as a cattleman and his insightful perspective on the business aspects of ranching. Field is director of the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he holds the Paul Engler Chair of Agribusiness Entrepreneurship.