7 Dark Roses - Free Audio ebooks

It wasn’t until 1956 that the Hotel Pierre Marques

finally opened at Revolcader

o Beach. When it did, the

luxurious resort hotel proved

to be all I’d anticipated and

its instant success exceeded all hopes—another

“impossible” project that was 100-percent possible from the

beginning. There have been many others—large and

small—before and after.

Back in the 1920s, a drilling bit that twisted off in a hole

generally was a serious, expensive headache. Days, even

weeks, were spent fruitlessly “fishing” for the bit. Mean-

while, the hole could not be drilled deeper, costs continued

to mount up and frequently the oil for which one was

drilling would be drained off by nearby wells.

“Fishing” was accepted as the only possible remedy for a

twist-off; there seemed to be no feasible alternative. Then,

in 1927, a company in which I held an interest had a twist-

off on a Santa Fe Springs, California, drilling site. Several

weeks were wasted while the crew “fished” for the bit.

Thinking any possible new approach better than none, I

went to a stone yard hard by

the nearest cemetery, where I

bought a six-foot-long marble shaft and had one end cut to

taper. Returning with it to the drilling site, I told the

drillers to throw it down the hole—which they did.

The simple expedient worked. The heavy granite shaft

slammed the bit out of the way. Granite whip stocks have

been used successfully in similar situations on innumerable

occasions since then. In the oil industry, they’re called

“Paul Getty Specials.”

In the 1940s, it was considered impossible to drill hori-

zontally in the oil fields. I was far from convinced that it

couldn’t be done by a newly developed technique utilizing

flexible curved tubing and a mud pump. Shortly after

World War Two ended, I had experiments carried out on

one of my properties.

The techniques was improved and refined in the course

of these experiments and soon proved entirely practical and

efficient. As a result, horizontal drilling is now fairly com-

monplace. Many once-difficult and costly drilling problems

now can be solved quickly and economically.

Even as recently as 1957 many

experts and observers in

the oil industry maintained it was impossible to build an

automated oil refinery. Tidewater built one that same year

in Delaware and it has astounded even its designers by its

trouble-free efficiency ever since.

In very recent years, various

“authorities” have held that

the oil-tanker market is glutted, making it impossible to

operate a tanker fleet profitably. Getty interests maintain a

large tanker fleet, find it quite possible to operate it at a

tidy profit—and have more super-tankers on order.

All top businessmen I know have made their biggest

strides up the success ladder because they were able to see

the possible in what others rejected or ignored as the

impossible. And, I add hastily and emphatically, they

managed to avoid taking large steps backward because

they

generally

were able to recognize the impossible and

give it a wide berth. I emphasize the word “generally”

because everyone makes some mistakes. No one’s record is

perfect.

I’ve spent more than one large sum drilling thousands of

feet into the ground in the belief it was possible I would

strike oil—only to bring in a bone-dry hole.

I’ve sold more than one lease because I thought it

impossible

to find oil on the property—and then learned to

my sorrow that the next leaseholder thought otherwise,

drilled a well and brought in a producer.

I’ve made many other mistakes and miscalculations—

more of them than I’d care to remember on days when I’m

wearing a tight collar. There

aren’t any 1.000 batters. If

there were, baseball wouldn’t be much of a game—and if

businessmen always made the right decisions, business

wouldn’t be business, would it?

The point I’m driving at is that the successful

businessman is the one who makes the right choice

between the possible and the impossible more often than

not. The seasoned businessman does not arrive at such

decisions by haphazard guesswork. Nor does he decide one

way or another because he has a hunch or a clairvoyant

premonition. A great deal of careful thought and

consideration goes into resolving the problem of the

possible versus the impossible.

No, there aren’t any inflexible rules or money-back-guar-

anteed formulae for determining whether something is fea-

sible or not. If there were, the question would never come

up. However, there

an ordered, logical method by which

any given business situation can be studied and weighed—

and by the use of which the risk of error is greatly reduced.

Confronted by the perverse imp of the impossible, the

veteran businessman organizes his thinking and examines

all aspects of the situation with meticulous objectivity. He

does this by asking himself a

series of questions, the most

important of which follow:

What—precisely and in detail—is the situation, proposi-

tion or issue under consideration?

What is at stake—what are the costs, what are the mini-

mum and maximum the company stands to gain and lose?

Are there any precedents and, if so, can they be con-

sidered valid and applicable in this instance?

What do other parties—buyers or sellers, brokers, com-

petitors, customers, etc.—stand to gain or lose either way?

What are the

known

obstacles and difficulties the com-

pany faces if it goes ahead—and precisely how can they be

overcome?

What other difficulties are likely to arise—and if they

do, what resources are available and what steps may be

taken to cope with them?

Are

all

the facts known—could there be any additional,

hidden pitfalls?

How long will it take to accomplish the objectives or

goals in question if it is decided to proceed?

Would the company stand to gain more by devoting

equal time and effort to something else?

Are the personnel who would be responsible for handling

the matter fully qualified and dependable?

Once he has the answers to these questions, the

businessman weighs them in the balance to determine

whether the undertaking is possible or impossible. If the

scales tip heavily in one direction or another, his choice is

not hard to make. If, on the

other hand, the plus and minus

factors tend to balance, then he must use his judgment,

sense of proportion— and even his business intuition—to

decide.

The veteran businessman mentally goes through this

check list of questions automatically whenever there are

any doubts about the practicality of a business situation.

The young executive or beginner in business would do well

under such circumstances to sit

down with pencil and paper

and actually list the questions and his debit-and-credit

answers to them. The tyro is likely to obtain a clear—and

sometimes entirely new and different—view of the problem

confronting him if he sees the pro and con arguments and

the various pertinent factors sp

elled out in black and white.

He’ll thus have before him a detailed inventory of the

advantages and disadvantages, the potential rewards and

potential dangers of all the elements forming the complete

design.

Examining the over-all picture, the novice is very liable

to see angles and aspects, fl

aws and strengths, expedients

and alternatives, and potentials and pitfalls, which had

previously eluded him or which he hadn’t given much

thought to before. Once it’s all in front of him, he is like a

chess player who studies his own pieces and those of his

opponent on the board, then g

oes on to plan his tactics and

strategy and anticipates the opponent’s countermoves.

The chess analogy may well be carried further. Like the

chess player, the executive or businessman can foresee

which moves will “take pieces” from his opponent and

which will cause him to “lose pieces” of his own. He’ll be

able to make a reasonable guess as to whether a certain

gambit or attack will confer an advantage on him or his

opponent. But, be this as it may, eventually he must make

his decision. Is the situat

ion possible—or impossible?

Should he play, forfeit, or resign the game?

In business, as in chess, the final choice always and

inevitably depends on the most important of all factors in

any situation—the judgment of the individual concerned.

Possible—or impossible? When yo

u are in business, it’s

up to

you

to decide.