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T. Boone Pickens' book: The First Billion is the Hardest

June 2008 issue of Fast Company magazine published an interview with Texas Oil Tycoon T. Boone Pickens. For those who don’t know him, T. Boone Pickens is a corporate raider of 1980s, an American Billionaire, and founder of Mesa Petroleum.

Article mostly talked about his new $10 Billion Wind Farm venture. It is interesting to hear from a person who made his money from traditional energy sources such as oil and gas talk about alternative energy. He was honest to say that his purpose is to make money; environment is secondary. He is predicting demand for oil will keep going up and prices will follow. To the question why Mr. Pickens is turning his back on oil, he answered “Foreign oil is costing us $500 billion a year. In 10 years, $5 trillion goes out of the country. It’s the greatest transfer of wealth from one area to another in the history of the world”. Mr. Warren Buffett says about $2 billion is leaving the US everyday, so it will be $730 billion a year. If we attribute $500 billion of $730 to oil, I guess the rest is non-oil goods.

Regarding ethanol, he says ethanol is a political issue. Senators representing corn states want to keep their farmer buddies rich and happy, therefore they will always support ethanol (irrespective it is smart or dumb idea). Reminder: Mr. Charlie Munger said “turning food into gasoline is the dumbest idea ever”.

Buy T. Boone Pickens’  book “The First Billion Is the Hardest: How Believing It’s Still Early in the Game Can Lead to Life’s Greatest Comebacks.” from Amazon.

On Saturday, May 3, 2008 I attended Berkshire Hathaway 2008 Annual Shareholders Meeting at Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska along with approx. 31,000 other shareholders including international shareholders from 40 foreign countries.

CNBC’s Warren Buffett Watch has done an awesome job live blogging morning and afternoon Q&A sessions with Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, so I don’t need to post my notes here. They also have other good postings about the meeting. So check it out.

I took some photos. Please see them below.

Warren Buffett before the meeting at the Exhibit Hall greeting shareholders and talking to media:

Here I am inside one of the jets that belongs to BRK sub – NetJets (fractional jet ownership business) pretending to be a businessman who is reading something important:

Outside the jet:

Warren Buffett with soap opera star Susan Lucci touring books section of the exhibit hall:

Oh, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger met with International Shareholders after Q&A and signed autographs. They signed my dollar bill. I will post this image later when I scan it.

Chander who was also present at this year’s meeting posted a nice article:

55 Learnings from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger