Harold Hamm

I started working in the oilfield upon graduating high school. I was on the service end of it, driving tank trucks for Johnny Geer for a couple years and learning about oil and gas production. I had a whole cadre of mentors.

I grew up on a farm in Lexington, Oklahoma, a rural community south of Norman. My family moved to Enid, Oklahoma, in 1962, when I was a junior in high school. This cast me into a totally different environment. Enid was a company town for Champlin Petroleum, and there was an oil boom going on.

Over the past decade... while many businesses have pursued what I call 'business as usual,' I have been part of a different, smaller business movement, one that tried to put idealism back on the agenda.

I have been interested in pirates since I was about 8 years old. The idea of people deciding, sometimes at a moment's notice, to throw over the rules and restrictions of society - it was just irresistible.