A Fool Remembers T. Boone Pickens
I found out about T. Boone Pickens' death today in the same manner a lot of others did: on Twitter. There was a bit of irony in that for me, considering that Twitter was how I came to meet him.
I met Boone Pickens because I wrote something about him that he didn't like. In short, I wrote that Pickens was dangerous to American energy companies. Long an advocate for the American oil and gas industry, Pickens didn't like what I had to say about his stance on OPEC and what he said the U.S. should do. So he sent me a private message on Twitter.
I was stunned, a bit (OK, a lot) nervous, and certainly starstruck. Pickens was a giant in the oil and gas industry, well-known as a corporate raider, and generally not someone who most folks would want to trifle with. Yet when we eventually spoke by phone a day later, the Pickens who confronted me about my description of his ideas as being dangerous for the industry he'd devoted nearly all of his life to was respectful and considerate. He didn't submit me to the verbal beating I expected.
Source Fool.com
