Worth Riding the River With
July 11, 2026
“A cowboy don’t need a big crew, just a few worth riding the river with.”
I woke up this morning planning to write about something completely different.
Then I spent some time with my business partners at Halcyon Cattle Co. before and after work yesterday, and I couldn’t stop thinking about partnerships. Not contracts. Not transactions. Real partnerships.
There’s an old cowboy saying, “A cowboy don’t need a big crew, just a few worth riding the river with.” During the great cattle drives, river crossings were often the most dangerous part of the journey. Fast water could scatter a herd, sweep away supplies, or even cost lives. In those moments, nobody cared who talked the loudest or who had the fanciest gear. What mattered was having dependable people beside you, people you trusted when the stakes were highest.
The more I thought about that saying today, the more I realized it has very little to do with cattle and almost everything to do with life.
Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to experience some incredible partnerships in education, technology, and now ranching. They’ve all looked different, but the best ones have shared a few common characteristics. They weren’t built on convenience. They were built on trust, earned over time through shared experiences and a commitment to something bigger than either person could accomplish alone.
For me, every great partnership begins with shared values. Before strategy sessions, contracts, financial models, or even business plans, there has to be agreement on the things that matter most. How do we treat people? How do we make decisions? What are we unwilling to compromise? Whether it’s a company, a friendship, or a marriage, shared values become the foundation that everything else is built upon. They don’t eliminate disagreements, but they make it much easier to navigate them.
The second ingredient is belief. Great partnerships require belief long before they produce results. Sometimes that belief comes from years of experience together. Sometimes it comes from instinct.
When I first came across a Facebook post from the young family behind Sendero de Dios, they were simply looking for a place to expand their cattle operation. We didn’t know each other at all. There wasn’t a lengthy history or years of working together. We met around my kitchen table, talked about our shared vision, sketched out a plan, and sealed it with a firm handshake.
There was no guarantee it would work.
There was simply a conversation, shared values, and something in my gut that kept telling me these were the right people. Three months later, that instinct has only grown stronger.
I’ve learned that the best partnerships don’t just believe in each other; they believe in what they’re building together. Shared purpose has a way of making difficult decisions easier because both people are ultimately pulling in the same direction. When success becomes something you create together instead of something you negotiate over, the relationship changes.
Healthy partnerships also require investment. One-sided relationships rarely last very long, and I’ve seen plenty of those in business over the years. The strongest partnerships create value because everyone brings something different to the table. Sometimes that’s capital. Sometimes it’s expertise. Sometimes it’s time, effort, or simply showing up when the work gets hard. Whatever the contribution, both people have to be invested in the outcome.
Finally, I think the best partnerships are grounded in humility. One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about Halcyon Cattle Co. is that we’ve both become students again. I wanted to learn the cattle business from people who live it every day. They wanted to learn more about building and growing a business. Neither of us approached the relationship believing we had all the answers. Instead, we approached it believing we both had something to teach and something to learn.
At this stage, none of us are getting rich financially. But we’ve become incredibly rich in knowledge, perspective, and experience. Some partnerships pay you in dollars. The best ones pay you in growth long before they pay you in profits.
I’ve come to believe that the strongest partnerships aren’t measured only by what they produce. They’re measured by who you become because of them.
If you’re fortunate enough to find people who share your values, believe in you, pursue the same purpose, invest alongside you, and remain humble enough to keep learning together…
Those are the people worth riding the river with.
P.S. One question I’ve been getting quite a bit lately is, “How do I buy beef raised at Halcyon?” If you’re interested, Sendero de Dios has created a Join the Beef List for anyone who wants to reserve a future order. You can learn more and join the list here.
