The capitalist
T. Boone Pickens was a showman with a plan
TBoone Pickens Jr., the colorful Texas capitalist, has died at 91. His life is a movie. Or maybe it is a miniseries. The man was a force of nature: oil tycoon, a major American philanthropist (donating $165 million to his alma mater Oklahoma State University and by one estimate as much as $2 billion to his chosen charities in total) and the father of the hostile takeover.
Interestingly, most of his takeover attempts didn’t work out. (His attempt to take over Gulf Oil forced a merger, layoffs and a lot of Pittsburghers their jobs.) His own oil company was ultimately taken from him.
Like all great capitalists, he failed as often as he succeeded (his average winning percentage was slightly better than a mediocre baseball team), but he somehow always came out on top.
And, like all great capitalists, he was part showman. He dabbled in politics and, naturally, thought about running for president. But he always had a grand vision for his current business or cause and for his country — a diagnosis and a plan of attack. He never thought small.
Other than his charitable giving, he leaves two important bits of intellectual legacy.
The first is that the United States should be energy independent, and that this is possible if we use natural gas and wind power. America, he liked to say, could and should be the Saudi Arabia of both.
The second legacy of T. Boone Pickens was his championing of value for the shareholders of companies. The owners of an enterprise, not
just the managers, he said, have to matter.
Thanks to Mr. Pickens, shareholders never have to be bystanders again.
He once predicted a “transformation of corporate America,” in which the focus would shift from size to outcomes and on creating value for stockholders and consumers rather than power for moguls.
If that new day never fully arrived, Mr. Pickens’ brand of populist capitalism at least became more possible.
Mr. Pickens was also famous for his folksy aphorisms. One of his best was: “A fool with a plan can beat a genius with no plan.”
With his passing, and the passing of Ross Perot, Texas and business have lost two colorful icons. Both men were inspirations to all who seek to be self-made — untamed and irreducible individuals at the end.