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T. Boone Pickens Grows Up Around Oil

“Ever since I was 12 years old, I had money in my pocket,” T. Boone Pickens would always say. However, his early years had their obstacles. Pickens was raised on the flat plains of Oklahoma, but grew up around the oil industry. His father was in the oil business, leasing mineral and oil rights to different prospecting companies and his mother was ran the office that rationed food and goods during World War II.

Pickens Builds an Energy Empire

T. Boone Pickens started his own company in 1954 after working for Phillips Petroleum for three years. From that first company, he would start Mesa Petroleum in 1956. This would be his flagship company and eventually grow into the largest independent oil and gas company in America. In the early years, his company would make money by selling oil, gas and mineral prospects to larger companies, then retaina percentage of what the wells brought in. Finally, the company would find investors that allowed it to begin drilling their own wells.

Pickens is Never Done

T. Boone Pickens has such an analytical mind that it allowed him to see things that others could not see. His real skill lay in his ability to identify companies that others had undervalued. He would make a profit when the companies would get revalued and he would sell them off for a profit. Pickens could analyze the company's potential, and then be able to act on that analysis to make money. He used this approach to gauge an oil field, size up a company's worth or work a commodities contract.

Lesson #1: Concentrate on Goals

“If you’re on the right side of the issue, just keep driving until you hear glass breaking. Don’t quit," T. Boone Pickens says about concentrating on goals. You do not run a successful business without having clearcut goals for your employees, and yourself, to follow. From a young age, Pickens was never good at following the pack. He learned early that just wanting to be a leader was not good enough.

Lesson #2: Build a Team

“I built a team that’s really incredible. I’m a good team builder," T. Boone Pickens would say about his personal leadership skills. He believes that you cannot be successful without a good team around you. Since his greatest skill was seeing what others did not in business, he used this skill to recognize leadership in people.

Lesson #3: Learn From Mistakes

"Mistakes or losses are such beautiful learning lessons," T. Boone Pickens said one time. As he reflected on his life, Pickens remembers that losing is not always a bad thing. Learning from your mistakes is something that helps you build a stronger business. If a plan is not working, then change it. Everything will not always go the way you planned all the time. These are just a few of the things Pickens speaks about when he talks at business conferences.

Lesson #4: Practice Moderation

One thing that T. Boone Pickens likes to tell everyone is that they need to practice moderation. “Work eight hours and sleep eight hours, and make sure that they are not the same eight hours," Pickens says. You have to keep family life and business life in perspective. According to Pickens, the best way to do this is by being organized. There is always time for play, family and business, but you have to plan for it.

Lesson #5: Patience is a Virtue

T. Boone Pickens always preaches being patient. If you run too hard you are going to slow down at the end of the race. Since Pickens' high school basketball days and early years in business, he found that trying to do too much will cause you to fail. He says this was something that was hard for him to follow in his early career days, but he made a lot of mistakes because he was not patient enough. "When you look at my record over the last half of the 1900s, a pattern of on-the-mark calls emerges. Sometimes my timing was off because I was not patient, but my intuition was not."

T. Boone Pickens Quotes

T. Boone Pickens Quotes

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