Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshiped.
Calvin Coolidge

Well, another milestone is upon us.  We just birthed the Permian Basin Division (PBD).  We expect some great things out there.  Not just revenues but personal growth of people.  Good people, people learning how to think through problems, making good decisions, planning out their actions.

I am expecting great things out of our Manager of PBD, Latio Fernandez.  Latio started as mechanics helper on the yard but Operations Manager Jerry Santos and I saw more out of him than just that as time went on.  He’s excited, a little nervous, but mostly excited about this opportunity.  He is not only changing states by moving to New Mexico, he’s changing time zones.  What won’t change is his work ethic.

On top of this I am having everyone write out their job descriptions and present them at the next staff meeting.  I will even be writing mine.  Have you really thought about all the things you do in your day to day job duties?  It’s enormous!  Sometimes it’s hard to describe what your job function is because you do so many things outside the box.  Sometimes your job description morphs over time.  I dispatched for 28 years, every load, and every day but today I have not dispatched a load in almost 2 years (Best two years of my life).  I typed every invoice but have not done one in a couple of months.

We are having Latio work on his job description, my guess it will be a living document that will be modified weekly for the better part of six months.  Our growth will give him the education he needs in order to fully understand his place in the organization and perhaps teach me how far he can go.  I guess we can all take a lesson from that.

We send the six trucks and Latio out on Wednesday (along with Jerry for the first week).  We will have a photo session along with a video interview done and posted on the website next week.

Exciting days and this is just the start…

Until Next Week
Doug

If we are to achieve a victorious standard of living today we must look for the opportunity in every difficulty instead of being paralyzed at the thought of the difficulty in every opportunity.

Good Morning All:
As I sit at my computer and start putting out this blog (which is about a week late), I start getting a little overwhelmed with what is going on here. I think to the words above written by Walter Cole (early twentieth century merchant and politician) and I think to how I must be bold, wise of course but bold certainly.  No one has ever accused me of being a shrinking violet.

Halliburton has just awarded us the sole transportation responsibilities for Hobbs and Artesia, New Mexico.  I highlight this because not only will we have no third party carriers to compete with but there will not be even any Halliburton company equipment.  All transportation has to be taken care of by Lake personnel.  I am quite proud that we have built such a solid reputation that Halliburton trusts us implicitly.  We start with 6 trucks and then grow to 20 by June 1 by including their Odessa facility.  Projections have us at being at 50 units for the Permian Basin Division by the end of the year.

Lake Oilfield just took a major step and will possibly be signing a lease on a mine to provide 20,000 tons per month of pure barite over the next 5 years.  The tests have come back and this mine is producing an outstanding product.  Negotiations are already in the works to have over half of this product spoken for. This is huge because Lake Truck Lines and Lake Oilfield would be able to bundle all of ourservices; Raw materials, bulk barite tanks, and transportation.  All handled with one call and paid for from one invoice.  A competitive advantage that would put us far ahead of our transportation competition.

Our cover story in the Tank Transport Journal came out last week and we are getting a lot of inquiries about our oilfield equipment and trailer sales.  I even had a few contemporaries of mine call me after learning about our move to San Antonio from the article.  Click Here for link to article.

And now the Big Story:  Speaking of San Antonio, Just got out of an very productive meeting with Henry Cisneros, El Hefe’ himself.  He made me feel so at ease, like every word I said he was hanging on.  He just kept on asking ‘How can I help you’, I was quite touched by his generosity.  Well in the meeting he got us on the phone with the President of the San Antonio Economic DevelopmentFoundation, Mario Hernandez.  He is arranging to put me on the Eagle Ford Task Force for the panel discussion here in March, there is another Eagle FordFoundation he wants me working on and finally wants me to help Palo AltoCollege by asking me to speak to the students and making the best of their opportunities.

But with all of this going on, you have to be able to determine what get’s your two most precious and limited resources:  Your Time and Your Money.  Thank God I have Bernard Rojano here to keep me grounded (he also mentioned I am blessed to have my bride Lisa to do the same).  Figuring out what projects we fund and which projects I put our attention to is the most critical part of what Bernard does.  So thank you Bernard, I would screw this thing up for sure without you.

Opportunities and difficulties:  They both have a valued place in our world, and we need them both.  I would not be the man I am today if I had not had twenty five years of swapping dollars and no real success.  The success I am blessed withtoday makes me appreciate each challenge I was given back in the 80’s, 90’s andearly 00’s (in the words of Barney Stinson of CBS’s ‘How I Met Your Mother’: Challenge Accepted!).  I am truly thankful for every difficulty I faced.

So what difficulties are you facing today: lack of funds, lack of time, lack of motivation, lack of clients?  The one thing you DO NOT HAVE A LACK OF: OPPORTUNITIES. They are out there by the gobs full.  Sometimes the opportunity is just the opportunity to face the challenge, get through it, and learn the lesson. Not all opportunities wind up giving you checks.  Sometimes you get something much more valuable than gold.

Until Next Week…