Top of the mornin’ amigos! My snowpants are on and I’m about to dive into some powder (no joke – check it out below) at Big White so with that in mind, let’s get down to business. Week 5, let’s spin it!

• When Larry Fink speaks, people should probably listen. One might say he is a rather smart, successful fellow. He recently wrote a letter to the CEO of every Fortune 500 company advocating an end to quarterly guidance targets in favor of longer term, more responsible targets that have the future success and sustainability of companies at the forefront. “Shortsightedness” within companies, mostly publicly traded in this context, affects how companies operate and plan their growth strategies and it’s not always for the right reasons. Hitting quarterly stock price targets by propping up financials at quarter’s end (ie. accounts receivables) or via creative accounting practices (ie. mark-to-market accounting) for the sake of executive teams cashing in on stock options or bonuses does not necessarily foster a foundation for the long term viability of a business. Perhaps, if as Mr. Fink points out, compensation and growth objectives had longer term outlooks than maximizing shareholder value each and every quarter, many sectors of our economy would grow at more sustainable levels and operate within a narrower peak-to-trough bandwidth. In the context of Alberta and our energy industry, I think many of our publicly traded oil & gas companies could reap serious benefits of an approach to growth like Mr. Fink puts on the table.

• Are you currently putting yourself out there by publishing a few editorial pieces on LinkedIn in 2016 or experimenting with starting a blog of some sort? If so, this is as solid of a 30 minutes as you can invest in yourself. Daniel Roth, Executive Editor at LinkedIn, put together a great 30-minute video series on all the things one should consider when approaching putting pen to paper, or shall I say hands to keyboard. For anyone who has any sort of writing goal in 2016, this video series is worth checking out!

• A refreshing piece on the state of pipeline politics in Canada by Karin Klassen of the Calgary Herald. “We even marginalize ourselves in our own country. How amusing it must seem to our competitors, that in turning on ourselves, we implode our industry, unable to get pipelines built to supply even our own family... That Canada sits on the third largest oil reserves in the world, and we can’t even create domestic independence, much less an export industry, is not only an embarrassing failure, but one can hardly imagine that it’s prudent national policy. Yet here we are.” You might consider sharing this piece with fellow Canadians if you agree…

• John Scott. NHL All-Star Game MVP. You all know the story in mainstream media. Here’s the story of how things actually unfolded before All-Star weekend… I don’t think Gary was too happy this hit the Internet a day before the festivities took off. Kudos to The Players Tribune for bringing light to a feel good story that nearly didn’t happen.

• I’m not much of a sailor, never really have been. But as little as I know about the sport, The Volvo Ocean Race has to be one of the most rugged, gut wrenching and at times downright terrifying race on the planet. I couldn’t tell you a thing about the sport but this video shows how tough these sailors really are…

Song of the Week: If you feel like country music these days is moving away from the authentic roots that the greats like Yoakam and Strait planted, Sturgill Simpson is your guy. He’s old school and knows how to rock. Here’s “Some Days” by Sturgill Simpson…

Quote of the Week: “Beware of destination addiction. The idea that happiness is in the next place, the next job, or even in the next partner. Until you give up the idea that happiness is somewhere else, it will never be where you are.” – Robert Holden

Time To Shred,

Wilkesy