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…