Recently, Foster Friess, founder of Friess Associates and the Brandywine mutual funds, spoke at an iPriority-sponsored event on the subject of balance and priorities in our personal, professional, and spiritual lives. Foster has received numerous awards, including the National Charity Humanitarian of the Year Award, about which he remarked, "While my name is the official one on the award, they are really honoring an idea. That idea is that each one of us has the potential to be a channel of God’s love to others." Idealistic in theory, his words are realistic in practice.

To say Foster is a man of integrity doesn’t do justice to the depth of his spirit. While his demeanor and speech provide a glimpse into his character, his personal and professional practices speak volumes. Unlike many of us whose priorities change according to circumstances, Foster’s unwavering principles enable him to speak with a tender wisdom that reaches beyond the intellect. More than two decades ago, his experience and certitude locked his priorities firmly in place. For him it’s a no-brainer: God, family, business - in that order.

It was back in 1978, at the age of 38, that Foster, raised in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, found his true north. A big fish in the small town where he had grown up, Foster’s drive brought him financial success early in life. He had all the ingredients that make up the American Dream - career, marriage, family, and wealth. But this artificial exterior concealed a struggling marriage and an estranged relationship with his children. Finally, Foster realized that his drive to succeed served to damage rather than establish the life he’d idealized. He’d reached a point of boredom in his career, and his current top priorities - business and golf - weren’t satisfying his longing to be important, accepted, or respected.

Foster didn’t want to lose his marriage. He and his wife plowed through five different marriage counselors without a remedy. At the time, marriage counseling was a superficial solution to a much deeper problem in Foster’s life: himself. Gravitating toward the idea that his was an unproductive lifestyle, he came across a famous quote by Pascal: "Within each person is a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill." This quote was one of the catalysts that changed his life. As his ego wrestled to let go of itself, honest confrontation with himself led him away from the office and selfish ambition. Instead, he was led toward his family; toward a deeper meaning to life; to the notion that life is rooted in a Higher Power.

As his life transformed, Foster started looking at the world through a different set of lenses. His life’s journey seemed enlightened instead of stifled, and he felt freed rather than imprisoned. Foster’s dreams, his calling, his relationships, and above all, his love for others all became richer and more meaningful. Thankfully, Foster’s damaged marriage and his relationship with his children started to heal. In fact, August 18th of this year he and his wife will celebrate 40 years together.

This transformation not only changed his relationships at home, but it also caused a turnaround in his business practices. Today, he’s motivated not by personal gain, but by his calling. His purpose in life is not to earn something - money, approval, love, etc. - but to give something. Foster likes to say that we are not here to earn God’s favor but to return the favor. Foster’s call to make a difference with his financial success replaced his once all-consuming personal drive to achieve everything, which has had both business and philanthropic implications.

Friess Associates clients enjoy a long track record of investing success. The firm’s flagship Brandywine Fund gained 20 percent a year on average in the 1990s, winning it a spot on Mutual Funds magazine’s list of the "Best Funds of the Decade." The Wall Street Journal highlighted Brandywine as one of only eight funds with over $1 billion in assets to outpace the Wilshire 5000 Index by at least 15 percentage points in 1999 and 2000 - +53.5 and +7.1 percent. The 7.1 percent 2000 gain was particularly meaningful considering the Nasdaq Composite’s 39.3 plunge that year.

Perhaps the spiritual element in Foster’s business practices helps the company thrive. To ensure everyone is on the same page, Friess Associates hires employees who embrace the same priorities that changed Foster’s life - God, family, business. There is authentic interaction and communication among Friess teammates as well as an emphasis on team achievement versus individual success. Friess culture encourages cooperation versus competition in a business that normally breeds greed at the expense of others.

As his personal spiritual life changed, Foster sought to intertwine and impact his newly found spirituality in his professional life.

Enlisting the guidance of Sir John Templeton, Foster successfully implemented his new philosophies into the business model of Friess Associates. In other words, Foster strove to eliminate the need for attitude adjustments needed during the commute home. Consistent character attributes at work and at home make him someone who can easily be trusted. Determining priorities up front helps employees know their own boundaries as well as their boss’s. Discouraging workaholics and encouraging a balanced life, Foster expects his employees to choose their child’s soccer game over a business dinner.

Foster’s approach to the many challenges and hurdles he encounters in business and in life is reminiscent of Winston Churchill who once said, "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Such optimism balanced with realism equates to a culture of forgiveness in the workplace. The company practices this forgiveness on every level while still demanding productive results. Spiritual firepower enables Foster and his teammates to forgive, adjust, and move on. For instance, if an employee consistently fails in a particular area at work, Foster works with the employee to utilize his or her strengths while also developing skills in weaker areas.

That’s not to say Friess doesn’t disappoint or fail. He does. But contrary to American culture, he’ll own up to it and use it as an opportunity to make a positive change for the future. And he knows his boundaries. Failure in business is commonplace - as it is in life. As a recovering perfectionist, Friess continues learning the difference between excellence and perfectionism. As he put it, "Perfectionism abhors error while Excellence embraces it and builds on it."

Foster is known not just for his business prowess but also for his philanthropic pursuits. Because he uses his financial assets as a means to express and share his spiritual assets, he gives more than money - he gives love. Foster received the Humanitarian of the Year Award because he recognizes the unmet needs in people’s lives and strives to meet those needs generously and unfailingly. Foster’s philanthropic pursuits adhere to certain criteria that organizations he supports must meet. There must be connection to a spiritual message and they must address the most basic of needs. His passion to reach out to others who struggle financially births new lives for disenfranchised individuals.

Sensitive to the family dynamic, Foster’s approach to providing dental, vision and hearing care to kids without insurance is to reach out to the parents first. This empowers parents, as they remain the providers for their children, strengthening the parent-child relationship.

Believing in the premise that we should think small, Foster supports one-on-one mentoring programs, as they see the relational benefit. Foster often cites President George W. Bush’s reference to Mother Theresa in his inaugural address, saying that we must do small things with great love. In addition to the financial investment, Foster invests his time and skills into building relationships that count. Foster’s support of smaller, private, faith-based initiatives reinforces the philosophy that people are more effective than programs.

Foster Friess has aggressively pursued a meaningful balance in his life as a Christian. The effects of his spirituality and love now transcend his immediate family and friends through his charitable efforts. His small acts with great love aimed at building relationships, such as the support of a mentor or a parent providing for their child, are helping to rebuild a society that has declined in moral values. These are the building blocks and Foster Friess is laying them one at a time.