FinEngr Meets T. Boone Pickens!

With a title like that, it’s hard to transition…  Let’s just say Thursday turned out alright.

During a charity event, I was leisurely flipping through an “original facebook” (i.e. the printed program of event attendees) to see if anything caught my eye.

Mr. & Mrs. Blahblah

Mr. & Mrs. Blubbityblah

MR. & MRS. T. BOONE PICKENS

If only the last name was provided, I may have easily glanced over the entry. But low and behold, there he was, a few tables away. Once the idea sunk in, I got REALLY excited.

Grabbing my fiance after dinner, we rushed over for an introduction. This was one chance I didn’t want to miss out on.

Although very brief, the dialogue went something like this:

FinEngr: “Mr. Pickens, as an engineer, it’s an honor to meet you. You’re sort of an investing idol for me… then something else I can’t recall.”

TBP: “You’re an engineer? said a few more things…”

FinEngr: “Yes sir”…stumble over words… try to make some intelligent comment relating to his interests in nuclear & wind energies.

TBP: “Whatever we do, we need to do it here. That damn OPEC will kill us.”

Some other things were mentioned, but I was too awe-struck at that point. As planned, my fiance chimed in, “Can we get a picture!?!”

After that, we shook hands again and bid farewell. He closed with, “Congratulations on the wedding. Stay close to this one, he’s going places.”

Unfortunately, I think he thought I arranged our attendance to the event and she was my arm candy for the evening. Actually, it was the other way around. The whole event was her own workings, I just had to look pretty. ;)

SHE DESERVES ALL THE CREDIT FOR THIS INCREDIBLE NIGHT

AND SHE KNOWS I OWE HER BIG TIME! :)

To tie everything together, there’s a little lesson related to personal finance here. Notice the underlined phrase: “whatever we do, we need to do it here”. Letting the idea regurgitate in my mind, I thought about the underlying theme (over a healthy glass of bourbon). Drawing out two, here’s what I took from it.

Maintaining Control

One of the most limiting factors to growth can be relinquishing control and acquiescing to the controller. This process removes you from participating in your own future. Of course, there will be things which we may never control 100% or may have no choice in, but each time we choose to give away a little bit more it puts us at risk in the long term.

Reinvesting in Ourselves

One of the fears I’ve heard with improving solar’s technology has been losing control by not reinvesting in ourselves. If massive R&D projects are conducted, but not followed up on the manufacturing side – the future of the industry will be lost to elsewhere. It would be great for the manufacturing country, but not the research country because future developments will come from the back-end (reconfiguring and modifying the existing design).