Dallas, Texas

"What's this?" looking over the short letter his youngest son had just handed him, Jock shook his head in disbelief before staring up at him and waiting for him to explain it himself. Surely Bobby wasn't doing what he thought he was doing. "It's my letter of resignation from my position at Ewing Oil", listening to his son's words, his annoyance and disappointment grew. Bobby was supposed to be the son he didn't have to worry about or have words with; he was supposed to be the one that was grateful for the position he was in in life and was happy to follow the path planned for him, which at this stage was dual employment at Ewing Oil and Southfork Ranch. "Why?" speaking with a mixture of hurt and annoyance, he questioned Bobby's decision, though as his son began to respond, he almost wished he hadn't asked; he wasn't sure he wanted to hear another whiny speech from one of his sons.

Despite his wife insisting he had intentions to and the circumstances just weren't right, the truth was that Gary had never been able to commit to anything, least of all hard work. Then there was JR, he was a hard worker, he had a brilliant business mind and he was extremely competitive and motivated by being the best, but he had had his fair share of complaints, brooding moods and had been involved in more than one malicious scheme motivated by jealousy and perceived unfairness at Ewing Oil. Lastly, there was Bobby, his youngest and dearest son; Bobby wasn't perfect, he'd complained about his lack of inclusion in family business before, but after a bit of discussion and negotiation, things had changed for the better and their personal and business relationship had returned to its usual, positive state. For the most part, Bobby had been the son he'd had to worry about the least and had been able to indulge and receive the most positive personal feedback from; he'd always enjoyed their relationship, it had been relatively stress-free and enjoyable; now though, after quickly reading his letter, he wasn't sure that that status quo was set to continue.

"Well daddy, it's written more eloquently in the letter, but I suppose the gist of it is that I tried, I struggled, we compromised and now I have made my decision. It doesn't make any sense for us to stand here and pretend that I'm a great oilman, because we both know I'm not. I'm good at socialising and promoting, but with the way things have been around here lately I haven't had many opportunities to do so with a captive audience. I'm useless to you here at the office when it comes to making decisions based on geological reports and other scientific data, and between you and JR I don't get anywhere near being able to make decisions based on costs and potential profits. We decided months ago that oil wasn't for me and I've just chosen to accelerate my transition from oilman to rancher. It was always going to happen; you and I both know that there's no way that I'll still have a job here at Ewing Oil when you retire and JR becomes the president. It's not fair and I wasn't happy about that reality when I first heard you had formally promised majority control and eventual full control and ownership to JR in the future, but I learned to accept it and live with it. After a lot of thinking, I'm actually happy with that decision too, because I know you intend the same for me with the ranch, that's why it's written in to our agreement that I will transition from oil to ranching and eventual management and ownership of the ranch business. I'm not shunning Ewing business or trying to anger you by not following the plan exactly, I'm simply moving things along a little quicker by standing down from splitting my time between two of our family businesses".

"I love ranching and I'm good at it, just like you and JR love oil and you're good at it; I want to have what you and JR have, a real satisfaction and pride in your work at the end of the day and I think I can get that from ranching much more easily than I can from oil. That's not to say I don't like oil, because I do; some of my favourite memories are from when we would take trips out to the oil fields before they hit, and I do enjoy my current role here at Ewing Oil. I really just think I am more suited for ranching and since we already agreed that I would take over the running of the ranch in a couple of years, I don't see any real harm in moving forward with that plan now. I don't expect to be running the ranch straight away, obviously there is a lot I still have to learn, but I want to devote my full attention to doing so rather than only half of my time. Please, read the letter thoroughly and try to understand where I'm coming from. I want this and I'd like to do it with your blessing".

Listening as his youngest son spoke, explaining himself further, Jock's mood began to change. At first, he had assumed that he was about to whine about how difficult and unfair life at Ewing Oil was, all while neglecting to acknowledge the amount of attention that had gone into his training and the amount of compromise and continued praise that came with his new, better suited position. As well as that, from the quick glance at the letter, he had assumed Bobby was jumping ahead and wishing to move into his future fulltime job at the ranch, but from his speech, he could tell he genuinely understood that he was in no way ready for that just yet and was planning on staying in his current role. He was annoyed that he had made the decision on his own, without consulting him first, and he was disappointed to hear that despite all of his and JR's efforts to be inclusive, Bobby still felt like he was being excluded from important decisions. His annoyance and disappointment now though were less severe now than a few minutes ago and if Bobby was as serious as his impassioned speech had made him sound, he was willing to listen and discuss it further. Bobby could be a hothead and there were moments when it was very clear he was the youngest son, the one who was used to getting his own way, however, he wasn't malicious and he probably did have a few good, well-intentioned reasons for why he was doing what he was doing; the least he could do now was listen. "Sit down", pointing at the chair in front of his desk, he waited for his youngest son to take a seat before he looked at the paper in his hand again and began to read, this time more carefully and analytically than his original perusal.

To be continued…