The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future

by T. Boone Pickens, Arthur Morey

With a Plan for Reducing U.S. Oil Dependency

It’s never too late to top your personal best.

Now eighty years old, T. Boone Pickens is a legendary figure in the business world. Known as the “Oracle of Oil” because of his uncanny ability to predict the direction of fuel prices, he built Mesa Petroleum, one of the largest independent oil companies in the United States, from a $2,500 investment. In the 1980s, Pickens became a household name when he executed a series of unsolicited buyout bids for undervalued oil companies, in the process reinventing the notion of shareholders’ rights. Even his failures were successful in that they forced risk-averse managers to reconsider the way they did business.

When Pickens left Mesa at age sixty-eight after a spectacular downward spiral in the company’s profits, many counted him out. Indeed, what followed for him was a painful divorce, clinical depression, a temporary inability to predict the movement of energy prices, and the loss of 90 percent of his investing capital. But Pickens was far from out.

From that personal and professional nadir, Pickens staged one of the most impressive comebacks in the industry, turning his investment fund’s remaining $3 million into $8 billion in profit in just a few years. That made him, at age seventy-seven, the world’s second-highest-paid hedge fund manager. But he wasn’t done yet. Today, Pickens is making some of the world’s most colossal energy bets. If he has his way, most of America’s cars will eventually run on natural gas, and vast swaths of the nation’s prairie land will become places where wind can be harnessed for power generation. Currently no less bold than he was decades ago when he single-handedly transformed America’s oil industry, Pickens is staking billions on the conviction that he knows what’s coming. In this book, he spells out that future in detail, not only presenting a comprehensive plan for American energy independence but also providing a fascinating glimpse into key resources such as water—yet another area where he is putting billions on the line.

From a businessman who is extraordinarily humble yet is considered one of the world’s most visionary, The First Billion Is the Hardest is both a riveting account of a life spent pulling off improbable triumphs and a report back from the front of the global energy and natural-resource wars—of vital interest to anyone who has a stake in America’s future.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Business, Biography, Nonfiction, Finance, Audiobook, Autobiography, Economics

Audio

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Thomas Boone Pickens Jr. was a legendary energy executive and one of America’s best-known entrepreneurs.

Reviews

[Pavel Annenkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

О ЧЕМ КНИГА:
Автобиография американского миллиардера, сделавшего своё состояние на нефти и слияниях и поглощениях. Пикенс очень уважаемый в США бизнесмен. Он потратил большую часть своего состояния на благотворительность(2 млрд $) и постоянно вкладывал время и деньги в развитие страны.
Пикенс написал эту книгу когда ему было практически 80 лет. Очень вдохновляет его энергия, желание работать и строить бизнесы всю свою жизнь, а также его позиция, что после сорока всё только начинается.

КАКАЯ БЫЛА ЦЕЛЬ ЧТЕНИЯ:
- Вдохновится биографией интересного человека, который работал до последнего дня(он умер в сентября 2019 в возрасте 91 год) и прожил насыщенную жизнь.

ГЛАВНЫЕ ВЫВОДЫ:
- Маленькая сделка и большая сделка займут одинаковое количество времени. Но в большой сделке есть намного больше шансов для неожиданной удачи и заработка.

- «Когда я покинул Mesa Petroleum после 40 лет работы, главным капиталом в новой компании была вера, что наши лучшие годы ещё впереди.»

- Стать учеником в зрелом возрасте не так уж и плохо. Главное не затягивать на долго с этим жизненным периодом ученичества) Так Пикенс говорил в 68 лет после потери MESA Petroleum.

- Возраст - это просто число.

- Once you slow down, it’s hard to start up again.

- Только мы сами можем устанавливать себе лимиты на то, сколько времени оставаться активным в бизнесе.

ЧТО Я БУДУ ПРИМЕНЯТЬ:
- Никогда не буду останавливаться в развитии своего бизнеса. Если это сделать даже на время, то я потеряю хватку и контакт с реальностью.

ЕЩЕ НА ЭТУ ТЕМУ:
Felix Dennis «How To Get Rich»

[Scot · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book, for me, was a great introduction to T. Boone. After seeing Pickens on commercials and several news spots throughout the recent election, I wanted to know more about his business career and to gain a deeper understanding for the motivation of his "Pickens Plan". The book answered some questions but now I have more than I started with. After a brief history of his business career, the book was a call to action to reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil.

There are staggering facts and large numbers thrown around often enough it seems clear we have no choice but to act quickly. We are in this situation because over the last several decades there has been much talk but sadly, no action. No leadership. The upside of the down economy should open the ears of many to learn what needs to be done and move in the right direction for a brighter future. This will require individual sacrifices. Now is the time for more leaders. People are listening. I know I am.

I am going to see him speak about the “Pickens Plan” in Phoenix on Dec. 18.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok, any book that follows one you cherish as I did Sue Miller's work is at a disadvantage. This book had nothing to lose by it's unenviable position in my bedside reading. The book was written by a self-important rich guy. He makes several points: work hard, trust your gut, exercise, donate to charities, and purchase wind turbines. There I just saved you the trouble of reading it. Nothing more in depth than that.

The bit about natural gas fueled vehicles, eh, makes sense when you realize the author holds a whole lotta natural gas reserves.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

T BOONE PICKENS is a legendary name tbh. Interesting to read reflections… to describe him simply as an oil billionaire would be factually and spiritually wrong. This is a fascinating book to get a snapshot of what one part of the energy debate looked like in the 2000s. A helpful benchmark to measure and see what has changed and what hasn’t since then.

As memoirs go, it’s fairly honest. Given when it was written it’s remarkably prescient. The energy plan he presents was directionally correct, but for the wrong reasons and with some majorly wrong strategies. For somebody who so prides himself on seeing what the future looked like, he failed to anticipate the two biggest trends in the ten years after he wrote this: 1) the shale boom and natural gas surge and 2) the solar cost curve nosedive. In the long run though he was maybe right, given what we’re seeing with energy scarcity and demand today. Still, it’s insane to see a texas billionaire so unabashedly support renewables, nuclear, and conservation… imagine! He even calls for a gas tax! Perfect encapsulation of how energy and climate systems change doesn’t have to be so partisanly coded.

An open question i’d love to do the math on: accounting for the amount of net new oil assets he discovered and developed, alongside the wind energy and natural gas uptake he pushed, vs. the average environmentalist - who did more to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and reduce emissions?

Also, the reconception of shareholder rights he pushed for changed a lot about corporate america and I would love to read a more thorough history or criticism of that.

[Noah Kagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

i wanted more boone-isms and crazy stories. he had lots of random stuff like his workout routine which idgaf so prefer that would be cut. overall fun stuff just not as pow pow of wild stuff that he did which i think he could have included. Had bunch of blah blah. Just tell me cool stories..¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Harry Harman]

There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go, if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit. —Ronald Reagan

dauber was down

Mesa Petroleum

renewed appreciation for my family and endeavor to build the best relationships I possibly can

reveal the managerial and team-building techniques that have enabled me—especially recently—to enjoy an unprecedented level of success

Action, that’s what’s important. In this book, I don’t just identify the problem; I offer answers.

“Elect me president, and America will become energy independent!” Every candidate says it, and once they’re elected not one does a thing about it. The cost of our failure to secure this vital life-line is staggering. By importing foreign oil to meet our ever-increasing demands, the United States is transferring close to $1 trillion a year (assuming a price of $150 per barrel) to foreign nations that, with few exceptions, don’t really like us. It’s the greatest transfer of wealth in human history, and it has to be stopped now. We need a plan to radically reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and we need leadership able to carry it out. Otherwise, we risk losing our status as a superpower.

determination and ingenuity can yield the solutions we seek

Booneism #1: Don’t rush the monkey, and you’ll see a better show.

“Your wife has been in labor a long time, and she can’t deliver. I’m worried about her. You can save your wife or your baby, but not both,” Dr. Wallace said. He pleaded with the doctor to try the first Caesarean section in that hospital’s history. “Well, Tom, I’ve heard about a C-section, but I’ve never done one,” the doctor said. He pointed to the book on the table. “All I’ve got is a page and a half and one picture in that medical book to go by.”

My father was in the oil business. Outgoing, generous, a great storyteller, and a gifted poker player, he arrived in Holdenville at age twenty-five. He was a lawyer but soon realized that law was nowhere near as exciting as oil.

They came from an era when a job was viewed as a privilege, not a right. I grew up during the Great Depression, but our family always had food on the table. My grandmother had a large vegetable garden, and each night she served fresh or canned vegetables. Some nights we had meat to go with the vegetables, and some nights we didn’t, but we were never hungry.

As soon as I was old enough, I started mowing lawns, which I did until I could take on a paper route at age twelve. I began on a street grandly named Broadway of America with the smallest route in town: twenty-eight houses with a penny-a-paper profit per day. When other routes came open next to mine, I talked my supervisor into letting me take them on. Within five years my route grew from 28 papers to 156 and I had saved close to $200, which I hid in a hole under the floor in my closet. It was my first experience in the takeover field: expansion by acquisition.

In 1927 a major oil field had been discovered in Seminole, a sleepy little town just down the road from Holdenville. Instead of playing it safe with land deals, he started investing in wildcats, which were wells drilled by independent oilmen in uncharted territory. Successful wildcats came with big payoffs— but at great risk.

high school basketball coach in Amarillo, T. G. Hull. He told us to play all out but not to dwell on either successes or losses. He taught me that when the game is over, it’s over.

“What kind of master plan did you have back in your early career?” people ask me. I was married and had a child when I took my job with Phillips; the master plan was simply to get everybody fed.

One of the geologists asked, “If you could lock in a salary right now for the rest of your life and work until you’re sixty-five years old, what would you sign up for?” What would I work for without raises until I turned sixty-five? “Twenty-five thousand dollars,” I said finally.

I was twenty-six when I went out on my own in 1954, the youngest independent geologist in the Texas Panhandle. I used the $1,300 in my Phillips thrift plan as a down payment on a 1955 Ford station wagon and started out as a consultant doing well-site work for $75 a day.

At the end of my first year on my own I had put together seven drilling deals in addition to my consulting work. I knew I was not going to get rich on $75 a day. But if I could put enough deals together, I could make a decent living and accumulate some equity. Maybe then I could get rich.

Two years later I formed my first oil company with two investors. They put in $1,250 each for half the stock and established a $100,000 line of credit for our new company. I gave them a $2,500 note for my half. The company was called Petroleum Exploration Inc. (PEI). Then I hit the road again to find more investors willing to finance a drilling program for a group of wells.

One day a geologist friend said, “You’re getting pretty unpopular with the other geologists here in town. You never come over to the Embers and have a drink after work.” The Embers was a bar three or four blocks away from my office. “Yeah, it’s a tough time for the industry, but I don’t think the Embers at three o’clock in the afternoon is the place to solve anything,” I said.

“I’m heading home,” I said. “You guys hang around here and somebody’s going to get into trouble.” I wasn’t trying to be self-righteous, but a couple of years later, three of the five guys there told me that my comments had had an impact on them. Stay away from the temptation. Temptation scares me to death.

Now, you may ask, “Gosh, Boone, are you so rigid that’s all you ever did?” No. I played golf and I hunted on the weekends. I’ve been drunk, but never two nights in a row. I was a normal, red-blooded American guy. Only I decided early on to concentrate on business and home and to omit the distractions and temptations that mess up so many lives.

In 1962 I got PEI a very low-risk prospect in the Panhandle. We had a good run and drilled ninety-eight straight oil wells in Hutchinson County. By now our small company had grown to twenty-three employees and three hundred investors. In 1964 we went public and changed the name from PEI to Mesa Petroleum. The name came from the tabletop mesas that rise from the plains of the Texas Panhandle. We were debt-free and a public company. We made a $435,310 profit on revenue of $1.5 million our first year. I thought it was a very good start. By 1968, revenue had grown to $6.2 million, with profits of $1.4 million. I felt we needed to grow faster. This could be done either by making a big discovery or by acquisitions. We didn’t have the prospects to make a big discovery, so I began looking at possible companies to acquire. In early 1968, I found a good prospect, a diamond in the rough. Based on reserves, Hugoton was fifteen times bigger than we were. But Hugoton had a no-growth structure and wasn’t set up to get the best price for its gas. We were. It was a perfect match.

I went to New York with Wales Madden, one of our directors, to meet Hugoton’s president, Mike Nicolais. Over dinner Nicolais said that he had backed away from three previous mergers, but he added that he would still consider one under the right circumstances. I invited him to Texas, and he accepted. I gave him a tour of Mesa’s operation and showed him how much we had grown in just a short time.

When I dropped Nicolais at the airport, I told him, “I hope we convinced you that Mesa and Hugoton would be a good fit.” A week later he called and politely declined. I made up my mind that I was going to try a takeover.

Dow Hamm, who was executive vice president of Arco, told me something I’ll never forget. “Boone, you will spend just as much time on a big deal as on a little deal. In big deals, there’s always serendipity. You’ll find a lot of lagniappe.” That’s a term folks in my part of the country use for a bonus or fringe benefit.

We took a small position in Hugoton’s stock for $1.3 million. We didn’t have the money to buy more, so we did the next best thing: made an unsolicited offer of Mesa securities for Hugoton stock, one share of a newly created Mesa preferred stock for each share of Hugoton common stock. It was an unusual offer, but one that showed the street we were serious. In a few weeks our activities upgraded the market value of Hugoton from $77 million to $137 million, an all-time high. We had mustered enough money to bring our ownership stake to 17 percent. It was enough to make us the company’s biggest shareholder, and management was starting to take us seriously. On October 23 the company tried to do an end run by announcing a merger with Los Angeles–based Reserve Oil and Gas Company. What a dog. The company was a loser. It was a lucky break for us. Reserve’s earnings were only 34 cents a share, compared with our $1.83.

“Let me help you. Hugoton’s proxy material shows that you own one hundred shares.”

TODAY MERGERS AND acquisitions are commonplace, shareholder value is a hallmark of well-run companies, and chief executives are scrutinized by their shareholders, the media, and the SEC. There was a time in the 1980s when excessive perks by executives went largely unreported. These executives ran their companies like private fiefdoms, all at the shareholders’ expense.

There was no worldwide shortage of oil; OPEC was simply withholding it from the market. The situation reached crisis level when the shah of Iran was deposed and Iranian production nosedived.

up to their armpits in cash.

Even though the companies were producing less oil, the higher prices led to record profits, and some of the firms deluded themselves into thinking that the profits were due to their leadership instead of increases caused by OPEC.

Mobil paid $1.86 billion for Montgomery Ward as part of its plan for diversification. It was a disaster. When a 1984 issue of Fortune focused on the seven worst mergers of the decade, four of them involved big oil companies. Money management was something I learned early on. Waste was a big deal in our family. My grandmother saw to that. She was a frugal woman.

grandmother told me: “Sonny, next month I’m going to send you the electric bill and let you see how much these lights cost.” It was my first exposure to a lesson that has guided my career: Always think like an owner. I have been frugal in my businesses, always keeping in mind that shareholders are the owners of a company, while members of management are employees.

Most had spent their entire working lives in one organization. my mind is the difference between success and failure: taking risks. They also didn’t seem interested in opinions other than their own.

bureaucrats

Booneism #3: Far too many executives are more concerned with the four Ps—pay, perks, power, and prestige—than with making profits for shareholders.

We sold off Mesa’s lucrative properties there in a seller’s market for $600 million. It was a pretty good return, considering that we had gone to Canada in 1959 with just $35,000.

We had increased our reserves for eighteen straight years, but this was getting increasingly hard to do. I was intent on growth, but there were fewer and fewer opportunities. My calculations showed that by 1985 we would need an annual exploration and development budget of $1 billion to replace reserves.

You can solve your problem by making Mesa smaller: spin off some of the company’s reserves to shareholders. We would create a royalty trust that would represent 90 percent ownership in some of Mesa’s oil and gas properties, and the cash flow from production would be distributed to the shareholders. Thus, our reserve base—the oil and gas properties that Mesa retained—would be smaller, making replacement of reserves easier. When Mesa Royalty Trust was announced in June 1979, our stock price was $54. When the trust was approved by shareholders that October, the price was $86. It was obvious that management was doing a good job for the owners. It was some time before anyone followed our lead.

BY THE EARLY 1980s, I had been working on an idea for some time, and it would change everything for Mesa. I figured it was vastly cheaper to look for oil and gas reserves on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange than to explore for them in the Gulf of Mexico or some other untapped frontier. We created a plan to go for broke. We would seek out the most vulnerable, undervalued, poorly managed big oil companies, then target one and make a major investment in that company. We would push the management of that company to do what they should have been doing in the first place: returning value to their stockholders. There was a steep discount in the value of these companies when measured against their underlying assets, in this case, oil and gas. If management dug in and refused, we would mount a takeover attack and either force them to make changes or get control of the company and do it ourselves.

Its stock sold at about one-third of the value of the underlying assets. Cities’ CEO, Charles J. Waidelich, had been with the company for thirty-one years but owned very little stock.

“Why don’t we try a bear hug offer?” A bear hug is a ploy that puts pressure on a target company’s directors. It is not a hostile offer. It’s made to the company’s board rather than to the stockholders, and it’s contingent on board approval.

In 1983, Gulf had 400,000 shareholders, 40,000 employees, $20 billion in assets, and $30 billion in annual revenues. Based on our analysis, we figured they were worth $80 to $100 a share. Yet the stock was selling in the high $30s because of the company’s management and reputation.

We gave the Gulf deal a code name: Barrel Cactus, after a plant in my office. We drew our entire credit line in advance, so the bankers couldn’t detect a pattern of buying and borrowing. We bought Gulf stock through Bear Stearns, headed by one of Wall Street’s best brokers, Ace Greenberg. Ace and I were old Oklahoma friends. Money was transferred in aggregates of up to $50 million from numbered bank accounts around the country in a coded system so we wouldn’t attract attention and drive the stock up prematurely.

Gulf’s management responded with righteous indignation but no real firepower.

golden parachute (special compensation for an executive fleeing a company)

white knight (an individual or company that rescues a target company in a takeover fight and almost always added security to the CEO)

shark repellent (extreme measures like changes in bylaws to keep a takeover at bay)

poison pill (a strategy to make a target company unattractive and ward off a takeover)

he is a real-life J. R. Ewing. I was inaccurately portrayed as a greenmailer or a Gordon Gekko. Unlike Gekko, I did not believe that “greed is good.” I simply believed that shareholders were being shortchanged by management. I introduced the concept that reigns supreme today—shareholder value.

coup de grâce

a clear violation of the legal principle stating that all shareholders must be treated equally.

The vaccine is as bad as the disease.

vindication

the Unocal test for boards of directors

war chest

I was in the crosshairs.

“Sonny, these are the kinds of things that you will never forget,” she said. “I can assure you, the next time you bid on a job, you’ll give a lot more thought to it.”

married Darla Moore, a tough-talking, savvy bankruptcy specialist who had become the highest-paid woman in banking after joining Chemical Bank. married Darla Moore, a tough-talking, savvy bankruptcy specialist who had become the highest-paid woman in banking after joining Chemical Bank.

making an equity infusion into Mesa.

In addition to his equity, Richard would get four seats out of the seven on the board. I controlled three seats, meaning Richard could outvote me with his four.

I sent her a letter. “Darla, thanks for a great article. Next time I see you in New York, let’s have a drink at The Plaza. I want to tell you the story about the scorpion and the frog.”

good cop, bad cop

letter of intent

Things got squirrelly pretty fast.

Mesa has operated worldwide and drilled more than 4,800 wells with a success rate of 75 percent. We went to Canada in 1959 with $35,000 and sold out 20 years later for $610 million. We have produced more than 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas— the equivalent of 500 million barrels of oil. We have distributed nearly $2 billion to stockholders in dividends and distributions. As I look back on

[Rahul Sibal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first question, that arises is why did I read a energy resources billionaires' memoir? For which I would recommend reading my review of Hard Drive - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The second question is what piqued my interest in the man? I would recommend reading his "Farewell Letter" which he instructed his employees to upload after his death - https://boonepickens.com/?p=2343

To digress, the letter to some extent reminded me of myself - the joy, and pleasure derived from guiding juniors, and putting them on the right path. His letter revealed that irrespective of whether he, and his efforts would be forgotten, he was invested in the progress of the generations after him. He reminds of that warm, focused uncle who believes and take pleasure in mentoring his juniors, who takes pleasure in providing them opportunities, and seeing them grow. I know because I have felt that way. That said, people of T Boone's character are rare, almost in the imaginary realm of fiction.

As I have stated before, reviewing the individual is different from reviewing the autobiography, see review of Ford's autobiography, where I explain the difference - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Moving on to the autobiography, I would rate it 3.5/4 out of 5. There is so much to learn from the man from the perspective of an (a) Individual, (b) Businessman or © Society. Some lessons are obvious.

For instance, in today's society, given the pop word "passion" - there has been a growing acceptance of (a) taking time to choose one's path, (b) being okay with being financially insecure - until one finally finds their "ultimate passion" and so on. I prefer, obsession to passion, see the following link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2xSl...

For Boone, there was an element of midwestern practicality in his decisions. He needed to provide for his family after he graduated, so he did the following:

"By this time in my life, I had mowed lawns and thrown papers. I’d worked on a drilling rig as a roughneck, on the railroad as a fireman, and in a refinery. Hard work was nothing new to me. “What kind of master plan did you have
back in your early career?” people ask me. I was married and had a
child when I took my job with Phillips; the master plan was simply to
get everybody fed."

The above extract, is to an extent, an indictment of me, and some of my friends who are not yet financially solid (and yet, there is no spouse dependent on us, so its not that bad, but we should nonetheless be contributing to the income of our parents). It reinforces my view to get financially independent, and sorting all issues before getting into a relationship/married, so that there does not arise a situation where someone is dependent on me, and I am not secure. It is fine, if you consciously take the decision to risk financial Insecurity, but it may be wrong to impose it on your spouse. Boone didn’t have that luxury to get married late, since people got married much earlier than we do now. But it also, a point to understand about Boone the man (not the auto), that unlike Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and so on, he didn't have the luxury to choose his field, his sector and so on. The schools he attended didn't have new cutting edge technologies or subjects. For instance, Gates' school (Lakeside), was one of the few schools in the country to have a computer at that time, which is why we he got interested in computer science. Naturally, some of Gates' success is attributable to the fact that the sector he choose - software returned disproportionate returns compared to other fields. However, for Boone, his father told him to become a Geologist, so he become a geologist, no discussion. He then ensured that he was obsessed with the field, irrespective of whether it was his passion. I respect that.

He belonged to the rare breed of billionaires, such as Gates (and unlike Larry Ellison) who were to an extent, agnostic to luxury purchases. No doubt, he was wealthy, and in his later stages did expend on a private plane, 65000 acre ranch, and so on, but tomorrow if he were to lose his wealth (as he several times), he had the capacity to adjust his expenses accordingly:


"Someday I would challenge Big Oil, but right then I had more
pressing needs. I had to make a living. I was twenty-six when I went
out on my own in 1954, the youngest independent geologist in the
Texas Panhandle. I used the $1,300 in my Phillips thrift plan as a
down payment on a 1955 Ford station wagon and started out as a
consultant doing well-site work for $75 a day. Those days were too
few. My back was against the wall. When I was doing well-site work,
I often slept in my car and shaved in service stations. At the end of
my first year on my own I had put together seven drilling deals in
addition to my consulting work. I knew I was not going to get rich on
$75 a day. But if I could put enough deals together, I could make a
decent living and accumulate some equity. Maybe then I could get
rich."

That is something to learn from the autobiography. Boone could have lived a comfortable life, and not skimmed on his expenses, but he knew that he wanted to take a risk, and get into the oil business for which he needed funds, so he reduced his expenses to the extreme, although he ensured his family lived comfortably. Sometimes comfort, and the desire to have a standard of living, can be impediments to taking the risk one needs to take. There were two aspects of Boone's life that were insightful, or "Boonesisms" as Boone would call it, which were especially relevant to me since they are my weaknesses. The First was a, very obvious point, - "Tough Times Do Not Justify Indulgence". I have always resorted to hedonistic tendencies (junk food, youtube), when confronted with serious problems. Boone, through his life showed that it was the wrong approach. See below:

"One day a geologist friend said, “You’re getting pretty unpopular
with the other geologists here in town. You never come over to the
Embers and have a drink after work.” The Embers was a bar three or
four blocks away from my office.
“Well, you guys are going over there at three o’clock in the
afternoon. That’s not after work,” I told him.
He didn’t think that was funny. We were in a pretty rough period in
the industry, and all of us were struggling. “We’re all having a hard
time,” he said.
“Yeah, it’s a tough time for the industry, but I don’t think the
Embers at three o’clock in the afternoon is the place to solve
Anything ,” I said."

It’s a simple point, but it has forced me, to take attempts to make this an automatic/habituated heuristic that whenever I face tough times, I align towards action, and not indulgence.
Second, I belong to, or at least identify with a certain kinds of individuals - Lincoln, Obama, and Mulla, and so on, who are introspective, and analytical to a fault. The upside of such behaviour, is that you make better decisions, but the downside is that you make decisions late usually with consequences. For this reason, I have consciously decided to read about, and learn from individuals who were decisive, who could act, and did act based on the limited information possible, individuals such as Roosevelt. T Boone belongs to this type. Theodore Roosevelt, in his autobiography notes:

"Nine-tenths of wisdom is to be wise in time, and at the right time

Similarly, Boone advises: Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader. Don’t fall victim to what I call the “ready-aim-aim-aim-aim” syndrome. You
must be willing to fire

I see many similarities in Roosevelt, and Boone. Both mentally tough individuals, not averse to comebacks, intense focus on physical fitness, incredible self-belief, decisive and the disdain towards extravagance… basically those "tough love" and "GET YOURSELF TOGETHER MAN!" kind of individuals. Of course, Roosevelt was in a league of his own. There are several other things to learn from Boone - mental stickiness, staying away from temptations and so on. Given his focus on physical fitness, the guy lived till the age of 91. Of course, the downside of having Roosevelt and Boone's personality type is the absence of self-reflection, impatience and haste in decision making.

Boone had incredible lessons for businesses too, in fact many of us takeover attempts are studied in business school. Unlike India, where companies suffer from principal costs, in the US, there used to exist, and to some extent still exists, agency costs, in other words the company suffers because of a misalignment of the incentives of the company, and the executive management. In India, due to concentrated shareholding, the significant shareholder/promoter and the CEO/management are the same, and hold significant power because of concentrated shareholding. This power sometimes results in corporate governance issues, which could be classified as "principal costs". Despite this, in India, at least the meant is invested in the financial growth and health of the company, given their stake.
On the other hand, in the US (especially in Boone's time), the CEO/management and shareholder's were two distinct entities, due to dispersed shareholding with several institutional shareholders individually owning about 10-11% stake each. The management does not own significant shareholding, and therefore, there existed no incentive on the part of the management to assuage or consider shareholder concerns, and to ensure that the company realised its potential. Of course, Boone did not know these exact economic terminologies that I have described, but he understood the meat of it. He accordingly initiated takeover attempts of companies 10x, 5x the times of his companies, so that these oil companies would improve their act, reduce oil wastage and improve profitability. In this context, the term "raider" was unfair since he never intended to liquidate and sell the assets separately. Of course, whether his actual plan was to actually takeover and improve the companies, or to simply "greenmail", I don't know since none of the takeovers, happened, although it forced the entrenched executives to improve their act and increase value for shareholders. To judge Boone, from the perspective of today, when corporate theory is moving from shareholder duties, to stakeholder duties is unfair, especially because the alternatives during his time was not between shareholder primacy, and stakeholder primacy, but between executive entrenchment and shareholder primacy. There are significant problems with the stakeholder model, which Prof. Umakanth has written on. I have also written some articles, which tangentially explore these issues. It is also important to note that stakeholder duties, nonetheless encompass shareholder duties, so even then Boone's actions played a significant role in establishing a need for shareholder duties in the first place,............ now whether shareholders are to be given primacy (shareholder primacy model), or are merely one of the several constituents , such as employees, workers, environment to be given consideration is a separate issue. The problem of "agency costs" which Boone sought to tackle now, has been somewhat solved in the US now, given the advent of dual class shareholding structures. No doubt, this would increase principal costs at the expense of agency costs, but I feel the Indian structure of incurring principal (and not agency) costs is the more effective model from a long term stand point.

Many individuals, in the comment section of hacker news, have disregarded his life legacy, merely because he was associated with oil. There are several issues with this. First, if oil is so tainted, then why not stop the production and sale of oil? That’s because civilization would collapse. Do we have airplanes that run solar/wind currently? No. So no air travel. What percentage of the power supply of developing countries CURRENTLY comes from renewable? Insignificant. So these countries would surely collapse, with no energy for hospitals and so on. The question is not whether we have alternate technologies. The question is whether alternate technologies, can today completely substitute oil, if its production were to be stopped? The answer is no. This is also an example of the difference between the rational left (Bill Gates who I admire) and the extreme left (AOC). The former is actively investing, experimenting and focusing on alternate technologies, so that such technologies can someday take up the mantle, and be considered a substitute. The extreme left is focused on stopping oil production, and making it more expensive, which would inevitably result in disaster. Remember Boone was born in the 1920s.

Second, he was "associated" with, but not a proponent of oil. He believed in Peak Oil theory, the belief that all existing oil reserves have been found, and there aren’t many significant reserves that have been left untapped. In his opinion, oil reserves will soon exhaust, and therefore it is imperative to find alternate sources since the (a) availability, and (b) price of oil will be beyond reach. He therefore bet long, on oil as well as natural gas, and made significant money. I don't see anything immoral in putting your beliefs to the test, and making money of it. Given the impending energy independence crisis, he rallied, focused and invested on alternate technologies and put his money where his mouth is. He focused on getting vehicles compatible with natural gas, a much cleaner fuel. Sometimes, he failed but at least there was an effort. At least he took action, unlike today's journalists, and "activists" (Greta). He invested significantly in natural gas, and wind. For his views on the future and sustainability of each individual future technology, please read his book.

In 1996, in his sixties, he departed the company he led for 4 decades (Mensa), was clinically depressed and had lost significant money for his company, which resulted in its takeover, and his eventual exclusion. He was also going through a divorce. At this stage of one's life, one would find it appealing to quit and retire. But he bounced back, remarried, made money with peak worth of 3 Billion, and spent most of it in philanthropy, in his home town. To be at the state, he was, to change business at that age, and relearn a new field, takes significant mental strength, strength which recent events have revealed to me, I may not have. I also admire him, because of my roots as a Mumbaikar, to work for work's sake, something you will hear in India, mostly in Bombay. It doesn't matter that there is no financial need, but Boone's just like most Mumbaikars just wanted to work, and contribute to society. He considered that his life goal was to make money, and then distribute it. I agree, that’s mine too. Money for money's sake is useless.

Many a times, a memoir/autobiopgrahy reveals a lot about a man, by showing what it focuses on, but also, what it DOESN’T focus on. He speaks about his career trajectory, his transition between several businesses, and his focus on alternate technologies and America's energy independence. But he didn't elaborate about his relation with his children, and his wives. He married 4 times, and divorced 3 times. Surely something in his personality, which he didn't explore which resulted in this. Articles written about him, by people who knew him reveal that he focused on his career, to the extent of not having time for his children, which caused estrangement. These are not his only negative qualities, the fact that he doesn't mention or even acknowledge these aspects of his life in his memoir, reveals that probably he is not that self-reflective. But to be fair to him, articles published after his death reveals that he took significant steps to repair his relationship with them. Of course, that is not an excuse for his past behaviour, merely something to be considered. That said, the book is excellent, and the man, on a cumulative analysis did more good than bad, and hence I respect him. His donations to hospitals, and O University, are admirable. He is absolutely adored in that university, as the following university trubute on his death shows - https://twitter.com/i/status/11784705...

His efforts to get horse slaughter banned in Texas is admirable. Of course, he still continued the practice of Quail hunting, but at least he ensured societal progress w.r.t one species of animals, now someone else can focus on animals like Quails. In sum, he contributed a lot to his country. He had a dark side, but cumulatively he did much more good than bad, and there is much to learn from the man. This is not say that he is a balanced man, or someone to model yourself on. Learn his good qualities, and discard the rest. Einstein propounded the Theory of Relativity. But his recent personal travel diaries reveal that he did have xenophobic thoughts towards the Chinese. Now should the mere fact that he was racist towards the Chinese mean that we should reject the Theory of Relativity? I think not. The analogy applies here. For additional unbiased information on the man, see the following links below (some of these written when he was alive):

https://www.bloombergquint.com/busine...
https://archive.fortune.com/magazines...

He did not possess a work ethic like Gates, was not self-reflective and humble like Darwin, was not intellectually smart like Einstein, was not a marketing expert like Jobs, not imaginative like Tesla but yet I learned as much from the man, as I have from these individuals - to be reasonably hard working, be willing to take risks, decisive, focus on physical fitness and think about the society. In other words qualities which us mere mortals can emulate

[Library of · Rating 3 out of 5]

T. Boone Pickens was an American oil magnate and financier who made a career in oil exploration in the 1950s and 1960s and became a (in)famous corporate raider in the 1980s. In 2019 Picken’s net worth amounted to $1.4bn and he gave away almost as much during his life. The book was published in 2008 and is primarily a biography but also consists of a plethora of “Booneisms” that convey Picken’s life lessons. Pickens died in September 2019, 91 years old. He had suffered from several strokes had therefore a few years prior to his death closed down his fund (then with $335m in AUM) and put his “Mesa Ranch” up for sale for $250m.

“Be the eternal optimist. Act like the fella who fell off the top of a 10-story building…as he passed the third floor, said, ‘I’m not dead yet. So far, so good.’”

STRIKES OIL. Pickens grew up in an American middle-class family, trained as a geologist and then took a job at Phillips Petroleum. But the young Pickens did not like the bureaucratic big company and left after three years to start Mesa Petroleum. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was a “wildcatter” (one who searches for oil on unexplored land) and drove around the country and bought land from farmers. To grow, Pickens needed capital and in 1964 Mesa Petroleum was listed on the stock exchange.

HUGOTON WAS THE GATEWAY TO ACTIVISM. In connection with the IPO, the general view was that all American oil had been discovered. This led Pickens to look for value elsewhere – on Wall Street. He discovered that the market often valued oil companies lower than the value of their oil reserves. The twenty times bigger competitor Hugoton Production was looking undervalued and became the perfect target for Mesa. But Hugoton’s board members were not interested in selling and or implementing any changes to realize the underlying values. This did not stop Pickens who carried out his first “hostile takeover” and with newly issued shares acquired Hugoton in 1968.

CHEAPER OIL ON WALL STREET. After the success of Hugoton, Pickens was up and running. He realized that oil was significantly cheaper on Wall Street than in the Middle East or in the Gulf of Mexico. But Wall Street oil came with “strings attached”. This was the beginning of Picken’s activist career and the “corporate raider” era of the 1980’s. Together with peers like Carl Icahn and Michael Milken, the sleepy boardrooms around the country would be bluntly awakened and shaken up. The method was always the same. Mesa bought shares and began discussions with the board to realize values. If they were not prone to change, Pickens bought more shares and tried to take over the company.

“Keep focused. When you are hunting elephants, don’t get distracted chasing rabbits.”

GETS RICH AS A RETIREE. In 1996, Mesa became a target for other activists and Pickens was himself outmanoeuvred from his company. He had to buy out Mesa’s trading business, which he converted into the hedge fund BP Capital Management. He was then 68 years old and in order to run the business, he had to pass a financial certification test, a test he failed twice. With $30m from friends and $10m of his own money, Pickens was now a fund manager. After three years, the fund had lost almost all its capital. In 2000, he invested heavily in natural gas, was right, and was back on track. Thereafter the fund made a long series of successful investments in commodity futures which made Pickens a billionaire.

AGE IS NOT A REASON TO SLOW DOWN. Pickens knew he had long since begun his “end game” but never saw it as a reason to slow down. As most people get older, they slow down and become more satisfied. Pickens said it was a choice they made – and a choice he chose not to make. He had always been in a hurry and saw life as a battle against the clock. Pickens prioritized exercise during the latter part of his life “When you’re young, fitness is a sport. As you grow older, it’s a necessity”.

HOME & WORK – THAT’S ALL. Pickens was well aware of the many temptations that ruined the lives of so many businessmen – alcohol and infidelity. He knew that he was not stronger than anyone else, but by actively avoiding situations with great temptations, he knew that he could follow his planned course of life. He said “There is work, and there is home, and there aren’t any stops in between“. However, when all was said and done, the work seems to have received the most focus, as Pickens has had five marriages during his life. Pickens left behind five children.

[Scott Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story of the life and experiences of T. Boone Pickens. The biggest strengths of the book come in the last few chapters in which he discusses recent large ventures in water and wind energy and lays out his plan for a dramatic change in U.S. Energy policy. Though his energy plan is self-serving in that it would shift dependence in the transportation sector from oil to natural gas, an energy source in which his companies are heavily invested, it would benefit the U.S. by shifting demand from foreign, hostile sources to domestic, friendly ones. He claims that the U.S. could divert $1 trillion currently being sent overseas annually to oil producing countries to domestic natural gas producers, which in turn could help revitalize the US economy. In addition, creating a wind energy corridor in the Plains states to supplant electricity production previously provided by natural gas could reinvigorate the economies of rural areas.

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a huge fan of his philosophy on life. He's good at what he does, but I got the feeling that money is his first priority in life. I'm not sure I believe all the doom and gloom.

[BuenoBomb aka Andre Bueno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting story. Definitely enjoyed the read.

[InvestingByTheBooks.com · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this part biography, part political appeal, the reader gets to familiarize himself with one of the most infamous persons of the 1980’s corporate America. T. Boone Pickens is most famous as a corporate raider. He has enjoyed equal success as an oil baron and a commodities hedge fund investor - most of all though he’s a relentless entrepreneur and a passionate risk taker.

As a newly baked geologist he started his career as an employee in big oil. The bureaucracy soon drove his restless soul to quit and start his own energy exploration and production company called Mesa. Despite good traction the company a few years later was relatively small and as Pickens wanted to speed things up, he proposed a merger with the much larger Hugoton. Despite huge synergies the proposal to his surprise was rejected by Hugoton’s management who more than anything was watching over their perks. Not going to take no for an answer Pickens launched a successful hostile takeover of the company.

After this the ball was rolling. Mesa started to seek out mismanaged energy companies with steep stock market discounts to oil and gas reserves. They took an initial stake and then tried to persuade the company to undertake various value enhancing measures. If the management resisted they simply bought the company and implemented the changes themselves. Pickens was one of the first in a shareholder value movement. The mere threat of hostile take overs brought huge change to the productivity of the energy sector. Suddenly shareholders mattered. Ironically this phase of Pickens’ career ends with Mesa being overtaken and its CEO getting a pink slip.

Pickens did however get to keep the trading operation of the firm and out of this BP Capital Energy Fund emerged. Even though he missed his first two attempts to pass the National Futures Association exam and had a rough start to performance, Pickens used his and his co-workers intimate knowledge of the energy sector and turned a corporate trading department into a hugely successful long-short investor in oil and gas futures. The funds value soon outstripped that of the company from which it had been spun-off.

is covered in less than a quarter of the book and his trading career gets an equal allocation. The rest of the book brings up a large number of topics: philanthropy, how to lead teams, natural gas as fuel for vehicles, the local Texan basketball and football teams, the scarcity of drinkable water and his business ventures in selling water and managing wind parks etc. In the author’s own opinion the chapter on US dependence of energy from rough states is the most important. It’s basically a call for political leadership with effect to use all possible incentives to develop all domestic sources of energy – from coal to wind – to achieve independence from often hostile countries. The current optimism of energy independence thanks to shale gas hadn’t yet appeared on the horizon. Personally I would have wanted to read more about the takeover area. Also, at times the author appears painfully self-centered and fond of his image as a competitive underdog.

Private equity funds are today under increasing criticism for excessive greed and unethical bending of tax laws. Even though this might be justified we risk forgetting the service the LBO-firms did the US and later the European shareholders. By focusing on shareholder value they eliminated a huge waste of resources and created a productivity boom during two decades. T. Boone Pickens was one of the main architects.

“Boone” is in many ways like a Texan version of the Hank Rearden character in Atlas Shrugged, just that he stayed put and fought. I would love to say he won the war but given the increasingly politicized corporate governance agenda of many institutional owners, I’m not so sure.

[Daniel Ottenwalder · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first billion is the hardest
Don’t rush the monkey you will miss the show
Risk taking is in t Boone Pickens dna - his father was in the oil business. His family was thrifty and a job was viewed as a privilege.

The master plan as a young man was to feed his family when he graduated college he had a kid and a wife and worked at Philips as a geologist. His wife would ask him why don’t you quit? As he would complain about the waste and corporate beuacracy. So he did just that and worked as a consultant while trying to put a deal together to get some equity.

Learn to stay away from temptation because we eventually give in. He focused on work and home.

You will spend the same time on a big deal and small deal.

CEOs that have no shares care the same about shareholders as bamboons in Africa

There are three reasons we can’t do it 1 we don’t have the money and who cares about the other two reasons

The higher you go the more your asshole is shown

T Boone Pickens fell into a depression after Mesa the company he founded fell victim to the tactics he used for shareholder value creation. He states never having taken greenmail and that all his corporate raiding activity stemmed from trying to get oil companies running more efficiently and with better management.

To get out of his depression he took anti depressants and got back into fitness at 70. The fund he created after mesa was down 90% at one point which almost took them out of business.

Trading is all about supply and demand and sticking to the fundementals

Last few chapters are his ideas around shifting to natural gas, wind and what to do about water. It’s all about getting away from US’s energy dependence as it creates a wealth transfer.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can go anywhere if you don’t mind who gets the credit.

You manage things not people. Leading people is like raising money. It’s easier to raise money if you dig into your own pocket first

Those who have a stake in the business tend to act like owners.

The higher a monkey climbs a tree, the more people can see his ass.

Every leader makes a bad call now and then you have to take the hit, learn from it, come up with a new plan and move on.

The last 3 or 4 reps of each set are what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain defines the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on.

A guy goes into a bar at 3 in the afternoon with his dog. “No dogs allowed here” says the bartender. First he’s a talking dog, second he drinks. Intrigued, the bartender said “ok let him in.” When the owner went to the bathroom, the bartender turned to the dog and strike up a conversation. After the conversation, the bartender turned to the dog and told him there’s a newsstand on the corner, it’s 3:15 and they close at 3:30, can you get me a paper? “Sure, put a dollar bill in my mouth and I’ll run over and get it” said the dog. After about 15 minutes the dog hadn’t returned. The owner went outside to check on the dog and saw him buying a donut instead. “George, I’ve never known you to do something like this” said the owner. “I’ve never had money” said George.

[Alok Kejriwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

IF you think that AGE is a barrier to success, READ THIS BOOK.

From the time I was 14, I worshipped 2 American Biz men - T. Boone Pickens & Carl Icahn. It was only logical for me to review T. Boone Pickens life story.

The 1st half is STUNNING. I had Goosebumps every page. Boone BEGAN his BEST years after he was 65! Before that, ALL he did was struggle, struggle struggle.

The best parts:

- "Booneisms" - Simple sentences that are mighty powerful. E.g. Booneism #9: My mother once told me, “Son, you talk too much. You should listen more. You don’t even know who the enemy is.” Booneism #12: When you blow away the foam, you get down to the real stuff.

- The details of his spirit to NEVER GIVE UP. (The story of how he failed many times at an exam until he passed. (Imagine passing IIT /CA entrance exam when you're 60)

- Magical stories - How his family reprimanded him for collecting a reward for returning a wallet. Their view? 'doing right did not warrant a reward'. How he grew up being VERY FRUGAL. (Squeezing toothpaste tubes)

- Deep wisdom : "Action leads to more action. One deal leads to another deal."

GET this book. Read 50%

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling here, it truly is a book of reflections. Most of the "learning" here is to encourage perseverance, stick-to-it-iveness and honesty in what one spends their life doing. While I wouldn't exactly recommend this book for specific and particular bits of "this is how to..." or "the secret of X is..." it was still a great way to enjoy a weekend drive. The Boone-isms are nice as well, spread throughout the book as a way of flagging when a particular lesson was learned and how he came to learn or apply it.

Have you heard Mr. Pickens lead an interesting life but don't know much in particular? Pick it up, I'd like to have a beer with him.

[Parker Dalton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this book 3.5 stars. Really interesting to hear his perspective on how he built his companies, the deals that were successful and those that weren’t, and how he uses investments to grow for making more money for shareholders and for giving it away to organizations he cares about. A big takeaway was how important fitness was to him even late in his life. It also struck me that despite all the money he earned he seemed to have retained a strong sense of empathy, humility, and purpose beyond himself. A very compelling look at his life and career.

[Kendrick Vinar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and easy read on another Texas business icon. On the whole, I wish he had gone several layers of detail deeper on his life, both business and personal. He skips through decades pretty quickly and omits details on what appear to be some pretty low moments for his business. This contrasted significantly with Ken Hersh’s much more revealing, less self-aggrandizing autobiography. Their different retellings of the Rainwater takeover of Mesa is fantastic. I look forward to perusing Hersh’s rendition again when I’m home.

3.3/5.0

[River · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of business memoirs, so I thought I'd give this book a try. While Pickens does provide useful insight into the complex world of business and entrepreneurship, I did not find the book as engaging as others I have read, such as "Shoe Dog" by Phil Knight. He uses a lot of jargon that is difficult to understand out without having a decent level of understanding of the workings of the oil industry.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bright. Hard-working. Flawed. He had been able to stake a few big bets due to some rich friends, fraternity connections. He acknowledges that they paid off after some big hurricanes hit those years. Idolizes Reagan. T-Boone has a (bipartisan) energy plan for the nation, but to inform it I wish he could have demonstrated deeper understanding of the history of his industry, especially what he keeps calling "foreign oil."

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boone the oil tycoon gives the details about the fossil fuel industry in his autobiography, The First Billion is The Hardest. Even though, I leaned a lot about the industry, I couldn’t help but dislike him. Also, after the monotonous story telling, I couldn’t figure out why it was difficult to make his first billion since he made it seem so easy...

[Tab Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

More about his time after Mesa, once he started his other ventures and his hedge fund. Talks extensively about his philanthropy and US energy policy. Overall, the book fell flat for me. I thought it would be more entertaining and interesting. It focused far less on business than I thought. I cannot put my finger on it but it rubbed me the wrong way.

[Naren Mohan Ramesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was an eye-opening take on the life of the supposed greenmailer, T. Boone Pickens. It gives a lucid explanation on how the billionaire works and how he made his buck trading, not creating equity value.

[Robert Orzechowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

T. Boone Pickens, aka “Oracle of Oil”, was a visionary businessman that, although being humble brought himself into the forefront of the global energy crisis.

His generosity and competitiveness in giving, in his mind, was as important as business.

Great American icon.

[Michael Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting stories and insights into the life and thinking of Mr. Pickens. He sure seemed to like risk! Worth a read. He references God a few times, but also uses some salty language. A good challenge to stay in shape and stay engaged.

[Esequiel Contreras Jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good insight into T Boone from his own words. What i like most is that he is not ashamed to admit his faults and most importantly when he said that for a decade he was his own battle.

[Fervent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boone does a good job describing his ambition, hard work, and great trading tales. Then he he makes some audacious forecasts, many which are way off the mark.

[Sharon Couch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! He has some terrific ideas. Got a little tired of hearing how great he is (although he is) by the end of the book.

[Alex Fleseriu · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it

[Vikas Suresh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly inspiring! A very sensible and a honourable man. Enjoyed listening on Audible.