The first billion is the hardest : how believing it's still early in the game can lead to life's greatest comebacks / T. Boone Pickens.

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.

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.