Boone Pickens is a paean to American opportunity and a tribute to competitive grit, the entrepreneurial spirit, and just plain courage to follow one's convictions.
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From the Publisher
This is the autobiography of a man who turned a $2500 investment into America's largest independent oil company, Mesa Petroleum, in just thirty years. It is truly an American success story, tracing how Boone Pickens got from a little town in eastern Oklahoma to the towering buildings of Wall Street in exciting, unlikely, and sometimes painful stages. In 1983, to save Mesa Petroleum from impending disaster, he entered into a risky game, identifying undervalued, mismanaged companies, such as Gulf, Phillips, and Unocal, and making huge investments in them. His plan was to try to force the management to do something for their stockholders, including himself, and if they refused, he would try to take them over. His countless gambles paid off, adding a number of companies to his corral.
About the Author
Thomas Boone Pickens was born on May 22, 1928 in Holdenville, Oklahoma. He then moved on to Amarillo and attended Texas A&M in 1951. After working as a roughneck and in a refinery, he became a geologist for Phillips Petroleum, which he left in 1954.
He founded Mesa Petroleum in 1956, when he founded Petroleum Exploration with Eugene McCartt and John O'Brien. In three years, PEI had attracted a group of Amarillo investors and in 1958, discovered eight gas and one oil well in sixteen tries. In 1959, Pickens formed Altair Oil and Gas Company which explored oil in Canada, serving both as president and major stockholder.
The next years saw continuous growth, with the formation of Standard Gilsonite in 1960, and remarkable increase in both employees and investors. PEI eventually evolved to become Mesa Petroleum (after a friendly merger with Pioneer, a large Amarillo independent oil and gas company), also known as Mesa Limited Partnership, the nation's largest independent producer of domestic oil and gas and one of its largest gas producers.
Pickens also succeeded in oil futures, but it was his repeated attempts to take over companies much larger than his own that led to his and the company's greatest fame. By the 1980s he came to believe that acquiring other companies had become more profitable than oil exploration and production. His skill lay in an ability to identify undervalued companies and make a profit when outside parties and the markets recognized their value.
Mr. Pickens is a respected spokesman for business and industry. He has earned a national reputation for his innovative thinking and executive management.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Before Barbarians at the Gate, T. Boone Pickens was creating the game and paving the way.,
This review is from: Boone Pickens: The Luckiest Guy in the World (Paperback)
This is a great story about how a regular guy from Texas left a large company and the corporate America safety net behind and started his own company, which grew from a few thousand dollars that he started with in 1955 to a billion dollar company decades later. Boone shares the structure of his 1st company which he started with basically no money; for anyone wanting to start there own company this information is priceless. It went like this:
Two partners put up $2,500 and he signed a note for his $2,500. The two partners established a $100,000 line of credit for the new company and Boone would have to have them off the note within 5 years or he would loose control of the company. He was President of the company and ran the day to day operations. That's it, that simple, years later he's bidding for some of the largest oil companies in the world. Some great quotes: "It was up to me to find investors. Asking people for money is the most essential skill for a young dealmaker" "Undercapitalization affects 90% of the new businesses in America" "I had to adjust my dreams to fit reality-or could I somehow change reality to match my dreams?" "Issuing stock for capital is the most fundamental service Wall Street provides. This classic stock market function has given rise to the great Wall Street firms-and for that matter, to America's industrial might. Entrepreneurs need more capital than banks are willing to lend..." Boone told his attorneys he was going to stop them every time he did not understand something, and his attorney said, "You're paying us by the hour...this could get expensive." Boone replies, "It'll be a lot more expensive if I don't understand it now." By Kevin Kingston, author of: A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate: A True Story About the Ups and Downs From Wall Street to Real Estate Leading to Phenomenal Returns
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reissue,
By
This review is from: Boone Pickens: The Luckiest Guy in the World (Paperback)
I think this is the reissue of his original autobiography Boone. Just so readers would not be confused. So read reviews of Boone.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book/Man,
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This review is from: Boone Pickens: The Luckiest Guy in the World (Paperback)
Hard not to like Boone's charm. He is the man and continues to set the trend in spite of his age. Read this book for inspiration or for historical purposes.
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