Crystal Wise
Taylor Sheridan
Taylor Sheridan was honored on Thursday over dinner at the Omni Dallas Hotel as one of six new inductees to the Texas Business Hall of Fame.
When it came time for him to speak, the creator of "Yellowstone" and "1883," among other notable works, demonstrated an unfiltered storytelling style — you might called it no holds barred — to his audience, who listened intently as their foie gras-crusted tenderloin of beef settled.
“I found my success in three distinct arenas: the movie business, the cattle business, and the restaurant business, three industries any of the esteemed entrepreneurs in this room will tell you to vigorously avoid,” he said to a crowded ballroom as 10 p.m. approached. “Success came in the movie business by applying something that is completely nonexistent in Los Angeles, and that is logic. I wish it was more complicated than that, but in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Yay, me.”
In the cattle industry, he said, he found success in implementing a belief that the industry’s future lay in vertical integration. Eliminate the middleman by delivering directly to the consumer, eliminating the rancher from becoming dependent on commodity prices out of their control. Moreover, the beef supply chain and the restaurant business have a comfy, “symbiotic” relationship.
“And I achieved all of this with a paycheck from a bunch of Hollywood vegans,” Sheridan said, his audience showing its full appreciation for the wit and witticisms of the actor turned acclaimed screenwriter and entrepreneur.
Sheridan was the last of the six to be inducted. He was introduced by good friend and Fort Worth businessman John Goff, who was himself inducted into the hall of fame in 2021.
The Class of 2024 was the Texas Business Hall of Fame’s 41st. Former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Richard Fisher, also a onetime candidate for the U.S. Senate, served as master of ceremonies.
In addition to Goff, other notable Fort Worth businesspeople in the hall of fame include, in order of year inducted, Charles Tandy, Sid Richardson, Amon Carter Sr., John Justin, Perry Bass, the Baird family, John Roach, W.A. Moncrief, and Tex Moncrief. You can find all the inductees here.
In addition to Sheridan, 2024 inductees included Michael Boone, Joe Gebbia, Kathleen Hildreth, David Miller, and former NBA star David Robinson, the tallest, though just barely, of the class.
Miller, a co-founder of EnCap Investments, which invests in the energy space, played basketball at SMU. He is also a graduate of Richland High School. Robinson, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, was the second professional athlete inducted. Roger Staubach, a fellow Midshipman who introduced Robinson, was the first.
Through the David Robinson Foundation, Robinson has raised close to $40 million for The Carver Academy, an independent school designed to serve pre-K through eighth-grade students in San Antonio. In 2012, TCA partnered with IDEA Public Schools as its first school in San Antonio, and the network has grown to 30 schools reaching over 10,000 students in San Antonio. IDEA also has schools in Tarrant County.
The IDEA network has 145 schools and 80,000 students.
“My guiding light for my career has been my faith in Jesus Christ,” said Robinson. “Every decision that I've tried to make, every plan that I've tried to lay out as a foundation has a trust that God has a plan for me.
“My goal as an educator has been to show young people that their lives are not some random collection of events and people, that they are uniquely created and uniquely empowered and gifted to do great things.”
In 2007, Robinson and Daniel Bassichis, formerly of Goldman Sachs, founded Admiral Capital Group, which is designed to carry out mostly philanthropic work.
Hildreth is a graduate of West Point. She flew helicopters in the Army. Hildreth was introduced by Pete Geren, the CEO and president of the Sid Richardson Foundation who is also former Secretary of the Army and the predecessor to Kay Granger in the U.S. Congress representing District 12.
Hildreth and Bill Shelt in 2003 co-founded Denton-based M1 Support Services, a provider of aircraft Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO), modification, flight training, logistics support, and supply chain management services to the U.S. Government for critical military aircraft and aviation programs.
According to Forbes, Hildreth is the richest self-made woman in America for 2024 with a net worth of $670 million.
Sheridan has been a driving force for the film economy in Texas and Fort Worth, specifically. Sheridan has personally lobbied government officials in Austin to pass legislation to make the state more film friendly.
Over the past eight years, the film industry has generated approximately $655 million in economic impact for Fort Worth. Furthermore, the industry has created more than 20,000 local jobs during the same period.
Sheridan owns and operates two Texas ranches, including the legendary Four Sixes and Bosque Ranch. He also recently opened the Four Sixes Ranch Steakhouse at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, a pop-up restaurant featuring Sheridan’s own Four Sixes Ranch Brand Beef, which retails premium quality beef sourced from the Four Sixes and a network of various ranches. He also has an ownership interest in Cattlemen’s Steakhouse in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
In a tribute video preceding his introduction, Sheridan, a Paschal High School graduate, described how his aspiring acting career floundered and he found a career in writing.
His secret sauce, he said, was outworking his competition, saying there are much smarter writers in Hollywood sitting around with a “much better half-finished script than my completed ones.”
Effort is the one thing you can control in a world and industry in which you have little control.
“Everyone receiving an induction tonight earned this recognition standing on the shoulders of an idea that lives at the cliff's edge of failure,” Sheridan said in conclusion. “Without exception, each of these inductees was warned against their endeavors, told all the reasons that they wouldn't work, or all the reasons that they weren't the individual suited to see those through.
“This is a room full of achievers who have learned the key to success is daring to fail, and the one ingredient you and you alone control is how hard you work at it. So, if I can give any advice to the future business leaders that are in this room, it's this: Let them say whatever they want. Then outwork them.”
As the director would say: And cut!
