New York City
The day started with an 8 am “Executive Breakfast,” at which Boone and the Wall Street Journal’s Alan Murray had a conversation overheard by some 300 business executives.
Boone was introduced as the “Energy Evangelist, T. Boone Pickens,” which I like so much I am hereby stealing.
Boone outlined the Pickens Plan with Boone-isms like: “An economist is a guy who doesn’t have the personality to be a CPA.”
At one point Alan Murray quoted from Boone’s new book, “The First Billion is the Hardest,” by reading, “I was put on this Earth to make money.” Then he began to ask a question about it.
To prove that Boone actually knows what is in his book (unlike so many celebrity authors who may never have even read “their” book), he interrupted Alan and said, “You only read half of that sentence, the rest of it is… and to be generous with it.”
Murray opened his copy of “The First Billion,” looked at the page, and admitted Boone was correct—he had left off a particularly important, and defining, phrase.
After the breakfast it was back to the hotel for a round of radio interviews via phone. I believe Boone did about eight interviews, one after the other, each one living up to his new title of “Energy Evangelist.”
After lunch it was off to the first of two trips to CNN. This one was a lengthy taped interview with Ali Velshi which, we were told, would be sliced and diced and “used across all of CNN’s platforms.”
Then it was back into the car for a trip across the George Washington Bridge for a live interview with Maria Bartiroma on the set at CNBC. While we were waiting in the Green Room, the door opened and “Mad Money’s” Jim Cramer bounded in, stopped in the doorway, looked at Boone and said, “A real American hero!” And, just as he does on the air, Jim said it again, this time pumping Boone’s hand, “A real American hero!”
We drove back into Manhattan for an early dinner, then back to CNN for an appearance on the “Lou Dobbs Show.”
The producers had a live audience of about 75 people on the set. Here’s how Dobbs started the segment: “When Boone Pickens walked into our studio here, he was greeted by extraordinarily warm and welcoming applause.”
As the segment began, Boone told Lou Dobbs that the reason for the warm welcome was “As I made eye contact with folks, they believe I’m working for us; I’m working for America.” This caused the audience to break into applause again.
After the Lou Dobbs appearance it was back to the hotel for one last item—a teleconference with Boone and Carl Pope, the head of the Sierra Club. And about 10,000 Sierra Club members.
This was supposed to be a half hour phone call which, of course, went for 45 minutes.
Finally, the day ended—only to begin the next day with a 6:30 am trip to the airport en route to Albuquerque for a town meeting.