The First Billion is the Hardest by T. Boone Pickens - 2008

VERY GOOD — Tight binding. Crisp exterior. Clean, unmarked pages. NOTE: Very minor scuffs to foredge, back board (touched up). Please inspect photos closely for condition details.

This text is featured in the Easton Press series Signed First Edition. Published in 2008, bound in handsome Hunter Green leather, and SIGNED by the author on the presentation page, this numbered edition, 215 of 1050, would be a worthy addendum to your collectibles library. Included is a Certificate of Authenticity and biographical insert.

Specifics of this series from the Easton Press website:

• Fully and tightly bound in genuine leather.
  22kt gold accents deeply inlaid on the "hubbed" spine.
  Heavy duty binding boards... .
  Superbly printed on acid-neutral paper... .
  Sewn pages – not just glued like ordinary books.
  ...moiré endpages and a satin-ribbon page marker.
  Gilded page ends.

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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.

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T Boone Pickens was a self-made Texas oil tycoon, energy entrepreneur, and long-time resident of Dallas. He most recently was the chairman and CEO of BP [Boone Pickens] Capital in Dallas, a hedge fund focused on energy investments. Boone was also the largest shareholder in a company called Clean Energy, which provides natural gas for fleet vehicles such as semi-trucks, taxis, and law enforcement.

With a degree in Geology from Oklahoma State University, Pickens started out working for Phillips Petroleum in 1954. It all started for him in 1957, when he founded a company that later became Mesa Petroleum using a $2,500 loan. He led Mesa for 30 years developing it into the largest independent producer of oil and natural gas.

In the 1980s, Pickens was known as a "corporate raider" who advocated for shareholder rights. In 1997, Pickens founded BP Capital Management, a hedge fund making investments in the energy sector. In less than a decade, he had earned more than a billion dollars from it. For years, he generously contributed to causes and foundations in North Texas and across the country. His philanthropic impact reached almost $2 billion through innovative matching initiatives, his company said. Thomas Boone Pickens passed away on September 11,2019 at the age of 91.

The above text was taken from, respectively, Crown publishing (via Google Books).