The first billion is the hardest : reflections on a life of comebacks and America's energy future / T. Boone Pickens.

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.