Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Which is the better businessman? First the guy that starts with nothing, makes a bundle, never loses any of his money and therefore doesn't have to do it twice, or the person who makes a bundle, loses it, and then does it all over again? I won't try to argue either point. This may be one for the philosophers. Regardless, T. Boone Pickens falls into the latter group.

I've been familiar with Mr. Pickens for years. As a teacher of economics and marketing, I saw him mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Business Week, etc. Anyone studying manufacturing/energy knows his story. However, in The First Billion is the Hardest we're introduced not only to Mr. Boones back story, but his vision for the future, at least as that vision relates to energy. I, for one, think T. Boone Pickens is dead on target and absolutely correct when he says we can't drill our way out of the current crisis. We have to think our way out of it. We certainly got into the current mess by not thinking. Follow the "Booneisms" and you'll win every time.

The signs have been obvious for more than 30 years. America's energy policy has been short sighted to say the least. I do think that there is a reason for us to drill and explore new fields even though I understand that as far as "energy" is concerned we need to look to other solutions as Mr. Pickens points out. We mustn't forget that a barrel of crude oil isn't simply used for fuel. Yes, we get gasoline, heating oil, jet fuel, diesel, etc. from crude oil. But a large percent of a barrel of crude oil (about 55%?) goes for other uses. Petroleum based products are used everywhere. You can't sign a check (ink and the plastic in the pen), put on underwear (elastic and synthetic fibers) eat a salad (chemical fertilizers), buy a pair of safety lens glasses, without giving a nod to OPEC. The fact of the matter is that even if no foreign oil went to energy uses we'd still be beholding to the Middle East. Our economy along with every other economy in the world relies on petroleum to create a huge spectrum of products.

Mr. Pickens' solutions for the energy situation we find ourselves in are absolutely part of the solution to those problems. However, we need to drill if we want anything approaching independence from our current petroleum masters.

Sorry for the editorial.

The First Billion is the Hardest is an entertaining read. It is easy to see why this dynamic, thoughtful, and insightful man has managed to survive the ups and downs of the American marketplace. He continues to be a leader at a time when most of his peers have retired to a rocking chair.

This is a must read for any American interested in solving the energy crisis.

Having seen this gentleman on TV a lot in the last month or so, I was intrigued by his confident certainty that we could become energy independent quickly and easily. I kept wondering who in the world he was.

Reading his book, I now know that he is one of the most brilliant businessmen in our history. He has lived a jam-packed life full of business accomplishments, many of which have benefited all of us. At the age of 80, after much success and many personal heartaches, he's taking on our country's oil fiasco with a plan that I believe can work. Mr. Pickens' natural gas solution for cars seems like a brilliant way for us to become energy independent quickly, using our most abundant energy source.

I find this man to be one of the most inspiring and interesting Americans I have ever encountered. He has created success after success, and I trust the solutions he suggests for our country. This is an amazing book written by an inspiring American, whose life among other things, clearly demonstrates that chronological age is irrelevant.

The title, "The First Billion is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future", is misleading.

"The First Billion is the Hardest" suggests a discussion of making money, but it doesn't build upon this theme at all.

If you're looking for a detailed biography of Pickens' oil career, this is your book. All but one chapter are dedicated to the high-risk career T. Boone Pickens has lived - with all of the triumph and agony that came with it.

If you're looking for details on America's energy future or the Pickens Plan, this is not your book. You're better off going to his website www.pickensplan.com. Only one chapter mentions this.

Yet another misleading feature are his "Booneisms". These are inserted throughout the book like Donald Trump with his leading lines, except Trump's are actual tidbits of great information or motivation. You could flip through Trump's books reading only his quotes and really come away with something. Boone's, on the other hand, are meaningless. Booneism #19, for example, is "We're catching 'em faster than we can string 'em". It may be a Texan saying or something, but doesn't stand on its own as anything worthy of highlighting.

In summary, the book offers a mildly interesting read but certainly no take-aways on business, billions, oil, and very very little on "America's Energy Future". I commend the man for taking a high-risk leap into wind power but, again, it's better stated on his website than in his book.

The subtitle of the book is a good indication as to why this book reads like a disjointed two mini-books that were patched together. However hard the author tries, the connections his narration attempts in connecting his rise (and fall and rise) to fame to his thoughts on energy plans comes across as forced, at best.

In the "reflections" theme, Pickens narrates in a very avuncular manner, the main events in his clearly illustrious oil&gas career...right from his Mesa days to his BP capital and Clean Energy Fuels (a stock which has been enjoying very robust performance in the past few weeks - coincidence or not). The events related to his mergers/acquisitions make a very interesting read, showing glimpses of a wide variety of characters in the form of CEOs, investment bankers, etc. Overall, this discussion is captivating and provides the reader with an interesting picture on the (relatively) earlier fragmented nature of the industry, thoughts on how companies should be valued (audited reserves), and even some actual trades he'd made. Pickens uses "Boonerisms" as a tagline to change topics or for chapters, and most are quite interesting and apt though sounding banal. There is a chapter on his 'management style' and thoughts on teams which is also a good read. One also gets a ringside view of the key people who are actually executing the strategies at his fund - so, a good clue on succession plans, perhaps.

The thread on energy plan is surprisingly a small section of the book (his website and recent TV ads have more details) and makes the well-known issues of US dependence on foreign oil, peak oil, need for alternative sources, etc. Even a casual observer of this field may not find any of the facts or hypotheses laid out new. The mixing of "oil and water" issues is a distraction to the main theme and given his investments in the field, very self-serving.

Republican energy wonks may actually be disappointed to see Pickens' list of myths on page 2 - on drilling in ANWAR, role of ethanol ("whoever sold this to Bush is an excellent salesman", he explains in a later chapter). Democrats' arguments on "Big Oil manipulating prices" also gets its myth status. For a lead funder of the (in)famous Swift Boat attacks on Kerry, Pickens come across as an equal-opportunity myth deflator. That is welcome. Perhaps thats the only redeeming quality of his energy plan - a sense of sanity, but not a whole lot of details. He does, however, put his money where his mouth is. Any reader interested in this field should keep a keen eye on position changes of the fund (using tickerspy.com, stockpickr.com, etc.).

Overall, an interesting read, but don't expect to develop dramatically new insights on the energy problem. His "reflections" do provide some interesting and worthwhile nuggets. One wishes if Pickens articulation of his energy plan and his reflections were treated separately - but then, he is not a person of patience but of action, and it shows in the book.

This book is almost two books in one. First, there is Pickens's retelling of the exciting moments and big deals from his life and the money he's made. For anyone interested in his prior deals at Mesa or BP Capital, this is the book for you. For someone more interested in his energy policy or ideas for a more energy-independent U.S., the last few chapters are what you're looking for (perhaps you've seen his recent commercials and want to learn more). While I found some chapters of the book to be lacking in substance and a bit cheesy at times, I agree completely with his energy ideas and respect him for spending his money, time and energy to try to improve the energy situation of this country. I could care less about which Texas county has the best quail hunting or the details of the Oklahoma State University football program, some of his hobbies mentioned throughout the book. But all in all, this is an mediocre, quick read and one gets the feeling that the author gained more from writing it than the reader will from finishing it.

It's very rare to read a book in 3 days, especially if you're talking shop. This book is one of them. I can subdivide this book into 3 parts:
Part 1: The first few chapters are a riveting tale of determination and success, where Boone recounts his autobiography. In my opinion this is the best part of the book. I read it in almost a day.
Part 2: Where Boone goes on and on about his philanthropy and football team. This is not an interesting part at all, although I believe the guy earned the right to gloat a little, so I'll accept it.
Part 3: Although not a very thorough plan and I question the motives behind it, it gives great insight into the Energy market economics.

All in all, If you're into investment and/or inspirational tales, this in my opinion is a must read. You can skip the few chapters of (gloating, football and philanthropy though and you wouldn't be missing a lot).

"I've been drunk, but never two nights in a row."
- T. Boone Pickens

T. Boone Pickens' memoir, The First Billion is the Hardest, is better than I thought it would be. Based on reviews I've read, I thought it would spend a lot of time on Pickens' plan to reduce U.S. oil dependency. I always find such discussions a bore. But that part of the book was only 10 of 250 pages.

Mostly, it's a memoir material, with some peeks into the future as T. Boone sees it evolving. The most interesting parts, to me, were some nuggets from his career, his views on natural gas and his large investment in water.

Pickens is in his eighties now, and he's accomplished an awful lot in his career. He started Mesa Petroleum with $2,500. Five years later, he took it public, and Mesa earned $435,000 in profits on revenues of $1.5 million. Not a bad start at all. After only eight years as a public company, Mesa generated $92 million in sales and $15 million in profits. It helped make him a rich man.

Along the way in the book, Pickens offers various "Booneisms" such as: "Chief executives who themselves own few shares of their companies have no more feeling for the average stockholder than they do for baboons in Africa." (That's one reason why the "O" - owner-operators - in CODE is important.) Or this: "As my father used to say, `There are three reasons we can't do it. First, we don't have the money, and the other two reasons don't make a damn.'"

He complains about the bureaucratic nature of Big Oil and its track record for dumb deals. "I've said that giving the good old boys of Big Oil excess cash flow," Pickens writes, "is like handing a rabbit a head of lettuce for safekeeping." Pickens points to Mobil buying Montgomery Ward as part of its plans to diversify. What a bust! In 1984, Fortune focused on the seven worst mergers of the decade. Four of them involved oil companies. I think big oil companies have gotten smarter since - or maybe just less dumb.

He also talks about his career in deal making, finding deep values in the oil patch and making millions taking them over. He eventually gets out of the oil business and starts BP Capital in June 1997. What follows is an incredible ride. By May 1998, the fund lost $24 million and had only $13 million left. By January 1999, it was down to $2.7 million - down 90%.

It was practically out of business. No one would've blamed Pickens for changing things or giving up. Some investors left him, but most stuck with him. It paid off big for those who stuck to their guns. In 2000, he rung up one of the best years anybody has ever had anywhere - up $252 million, a 9,095% gain! I love Pickens' grit and determination in all this, sticking it out and coming back.

Plus, Pickens offers peeks into the future.

Pickens is talking his book, as they say. He owns Clean Energy, which runs fueling stations for natural gas and builds more every year. Even so, he makes a good case. I was not aware, for example, that there are already 8 million natural gas vehicles on the road worldwide already. He also points out that 25% of all transit buses burn natural gas - a use that's growing 25% annually.

In addition to his stance on natural gas, Pickens writes that he is a large owner of permitted groundwater in the U.S. His investment here follows the same key principle he's used throughout his career: There is profit in scarcity.

Pickens owns land in Roberts County, Texas, a place so rich in water, he jokes it's the only place he couldn't drill a dry hole. It's not difficult to pump 1,000 gallons per minute. This land lies above the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest in the U.S., covering over 174,000 square miles across eight states.

Pickens plans to sell water to parched regions in Texas, like Dallas or San Antonio, where water supply is becoming an issue. "We can deliver water faster and more cheaply than any other option on the table," he writes. "It's not a matter of if, but when, and I'm betting it's soon."

I'm thinking along the same lines as Pickens on water, too. This all ties back to the agriculture theme, as well. In fact, The Economist recently ran a story called "Running Dry: The World Has a Water Shortage, Not a Food Shortage." It's a simple idea. As world populations and incomes rise, expect to see meat consumption also rise. Meat takes more grain and water to produce - exponentially more.

Review by a writer for Agora Financial, publisher of economic and financial analysis including Financial Reckoning Day Fallout: Surviving Today's Global Depression, The New Empire of Debt: The Rise and Fall of an Epic Financial Bubble, and I.O.U.S.A.: One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt.

I am half way done with this book and think that T Boone is awesome.
This guy is the guy next door and a working person like the rest of us.
If I had the cash(that I didn't need for years!) I would invest with him.
"Age is just a number"

GREAT READ....FAST PACED AND LOADED WITH COMMON SENSE.AN INTERESTING STORY OF SELF MADE TENACIOUS INDIVIDUAL.

The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future
Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

I love reading about people who have been successful, who have faced challenges and overcome them, earned a great deal of money and lost it, only to rise again, and if that is what you are looking for, this is a good read. It's not just a good read, it is inspiring and entertaining as well. He is certainly a man of determination and boundless energy who surrounded himself with dedicated, driven partners. Of 12 chapters, it is autobiographical in all but the last one, "The Big Idea: An Energy Plan for America.". I don't think it can be considered a business book, nor is it any kind of blueprint for making money. The outline of his national energy plan (to free us from our oil addiction) is interesting but not particularly new. This is a simplistic book, written in the first person, conversational style, and a quick read. But it is a book, too, that needed editing, and can be considered, an introductory overview and little more.