Thomas Boone Pickens, Jr. (born May 22, 1928), known as T. Boone Pickens, is an American financier who chairs the hedge fund BP Capital Management. He was a well-known takeover operator and corporate raider during the 1980s. With an estimated current net worth of about $1.4 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 328th-richest person in America and ranked 879th in the world.

• Learn to analyze well: Assess risks and prospective awards because there is no substitute for good research. 
• Leadership is the quality that transforms good intentions into positive action; it turns a group of individuals into a team.
• Be a team player. 
• Be patient. Don’t forget the old adage, “Patience is a great virtue.” Pickens has noted how it was much harder to follow his own advice in this regard earlier in his career.
• Be realistic. Dream, yes, but don’t be a daydreamer. 
• Concentrate on the goals, not on the size of the organization. You can’t measure a place by size unless it’s a football stadium.
• Forget about age, which means giving young people a chance.
• Keep things informal. Talking is a natural way to do business. Writing is great for keeping records and pinning down details but talk generates ideas.
• Make sure as many people as possible have a stake in the game.
• Learn from mistakes. That’s not just a cliche. “It’s all right to get your fingers crushed in the door, but don’t let the same door crush them twice.” 
• Stay fit. No one wants to get old and feel bad! Physical fitness is an essential part of the best-run companies, for it has economic as well as spiritual and psychological benefits. 
• Practice moderation. Balance family life and work. The key is organization — there’s plenty of time for play, but plan it.
• If you’re organized, you’ll find time for everything. Take as big a bite of the apple as you want — that’s what’s great about America. 
• Keep success as well as failure in perspective and, most importantly, always play by the rules: Never think you have to cheat to win; there’s no need to bend your principles. As in sports, cheating to win is a hollow victory, at best. But most of all, you won’t feel good about yourself. 
• Whenever he hears talk about an ethics crisis in America, Pickens scoffs. “We don’t have an ethics crisis — if anything, it’s a leadership crisis,” he says. “It all goes back to the top. Leaders must lead by example.”
• Enjoy what you do. Word hard. Move quickly. Laugh a lot. If there is a screw-up, it’s a team screw-up.

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