TY - BOOK AU - Pickens,T.Boone TI - The first billion is the hardest: how believing it's still early in the game can lead to life's greatest comebacks SN - 9780307395771 AV - HD 9570 P594f 2008 U1 - 338.7/622338092 PY - 2008/// CY - New York PB - Crown Publishers KW - Pickens, T. Boone KW - Petroleum industry and trade KW - United States KW - Industrialists KW - Texas KW - Biography KW - Success in business N1 - Blood, guts and feathers -- "A big deal takes as much time as a little deal" -- Starting over -- The bottom of the canyon -- Loading the boat -- It's all about the team -- Long oil -- Giving -- Water -- "Roll up the maps!" -- Wind N2 - At 80, T. Boone Pickens is a legendary figure. Known as the "Oracle of Oil" because of his uncanny ability to predict 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 executed a series of unsolicited buyouts of undervalued oil companies, reinventing the notion of shareholders' rights. When Pickens left Mesa at 68 after a downward spiral, many counted him out. What followed was a divorce, depression, and the loss of 90 percent of his capital. Then he staged one of the most impressive comebacks in the industry, turning his remaining $3 million into $8 billion in just a few years. Today, Pickens is making some of the world's most colossal energy bets, staking billions on the conviction that he knows what's coming. Here, he spells out that future in detail.--From publisher description UR - http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0813/2008010661.html ER -