Bob Buford

Bob’s business success came from his work with Buford Television Inc., a family owned business that started with a single ABC affiliate in Tyler, Texas, and grew to a network of cable systems across the country. Until the company’s sale in 1999, Bob served as the Chairman of the Board and the CEO.

In 1984, Bob launched Leadership Network, a private operating foundation that seeks to accelerate the emergence of effective churches by identifying, connecting, and resourcing innovative church leaders. He is also the Founding Chairman of the Board of Governors of The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management.

With a desire to help high-powered marketplace leaders convert their faith into action and effective results, Bob launched Halftime in 1998. Halftime inspires business and professional leaders to embrace God’s calling and move from success to significance.

Bob is author of four books titled Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance, Game Plan: Winning Strategies for the Second Half of Your Life, Stuck in Halftime: Reinvesting Your One and Only Life and Finishing Well: What People Who Really Live Do Differently. He has also played active roles in Young Presidents’ Organization and World Presidents’ Organization and serves on the board of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard.

He and his wife, Linda, live in Dallas.

Bob Buford “Unplugged”

Our team spent some time with Bob working on a ministry project. During our time together, we asked him some questions about his life as a successful entrepreneur. You can see more of Bob in one of the video resources on the right.

What inspired you to write Halftime?

Bob Buford: I wrote Halftime because I have been given so much wisdom from Peter Drucker and others, and I saw so many people who came to the point in their lives where they were saying, “been there, done that, what’s next?” There is that kind of question at some point in your life if you are fortunate enough to be successful…I felt like I had worked through that pretty well and I saw a lot of people not working through it so well, so I wanted to write down what I had learned from others.

How do you encourage fellow Christian entrepreneurs who are struggling to let God have complete control of their lives?

Bob Buford: …People are very much into self-control and they worry as I did, that if you ever release your life to God’s service and to doing God’s will…something really bizarre is going to happen. What I’ve found is that God uses people exactly the way he built them. Your ministry is very much likely to grow out of your history and out of the person that you are…I think that when you set out to serve the Lord…I think that you need to remember that God is not going to hold you accountable for gifts which he didn’t issue you in the first place.

Ultimately, what do you seek to accomplish with your life?

Bob Buford: My great mentor, Peter Drucker, says that each of us needs to get our mission statement…so I challenge anybody to attempt to do that. That is what gives your life focus and purpose. I have a t-shirt with “100x”, which comes from the parable of the soil in the Bible. I want to be the soil that the seed fell on and multiplied a hundred times over and the only way I can do that is to begin to invest in the lives of others...it’s the way Jesus did it; he invested Himself in Peter, James and John...that investment affects my life today.