As I write this, I am sitting in the Hong Kong Airport on an extended 11-hour layover on my way to Brisbane, Australia. All this last week I was in Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf, presenting to the Indian Chartered Accountants Association and the Annual Toastmasters Conference for Bahrain and Kuwait.
It was my honor to meet the CEO of the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), Dr. Pete Bartlett, and The Bahrain Minister of Oil, Shaikh Mohamed Bin Khalifa Al Kalifa. Each shared the story of how Bahrain was the first place on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf where oil was discovered back in 1931.
A few days later, I got to visit what is officially known as the “First Oil Well” – a rather unimpressive hole in the desert – yet, it represents literally trillions of dollars of value to the region and the world.
As the story goes, Standard Oil of California, today’s Chevron, had a contracted to drill a test well in Bahrain. Standard Oil had drilled to depth of several thousand feet with no result. An oil engineer from BAPCO requested that they keep drilling deeper. Standard Oil refused his request and was preparing to leave.
The oil engineer then wrote a letter to the Standard Oil executive in charge of the drilling operation informing that BAPCO intended to continue the drilling after Standard Oil left. If BAPCO hit oil, BAPCO would own all the oil, even though Standard Oil had done the initial drilling. If Standard Oil hit oil, per their contract Standard Oil would have control of the oil.
Based on this letter, Standard Oil stayed, continued to drill and hit what is today one of the largest oil reserves in the world. This single well was the beginning of the transformation of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.
Now, for the rest of the story…. The BAPCO oil engineer had no authority to write that letter. BAPCO did not intend to continue the drilling. Without his maverick wildcat action, the hidden wealth that lay beneath the surface in this region could have gone untapped for generations.
I have a tendency to see great speech material everywhere I go. This story is a great analogy for life. I knew I had a wealth of – something. Even though I dug and dug I could not seem to find it. Then life gave me a message that caused me to dig deeper to accomplish something or otherwise face some highly undesirable consequences.
With this added pressure/incentive, I dug deeper, I dug harder, pushing through my self-imposed considerations and restrictions. In doing so, I discovered a wealth of abilities I had only imagined!
Some time we need a little unpleasant pressure to get us to dig deeper and discover our true value and wealth.
Keep digging!
Speaking & Leadership Material!