• oil and gas
• protect your circumstances
• entrepreneur
• fundamental practices

Be in charge and in control of your positioning

Through powerful examples and “I’m glad that didn’t happen to me” stories, you will learn how better to keep compliant in today’s regulated environment, as well as to better protect yourself and your company from outside forces that could do you harm.

Henry Harrison is an entrepreneur from Dallas Texas that has started and acquired over a dozen companies, across a variety of industries. Henry and his partners owned a securities firm and started an Oil and Gas company which in fewer than 3 years raised $500 million from investors and $300 million from a joint venture partner. The business grew to over A Billion Dollars in value and over 100 employees. During the 2009 financial crisis and natural gas price collapse, the Securities and Commission took over their company and three years later the Justice Department indicted them. This resulted in a 6 year legal Odyssey which led to Henry spending over a year in Federal Prison. 

Henry Harrison

…You're shaking hands with the owner of a huge oil company, one of American's wealthiest men and a billionaire, and he's just agreed to advance your company three hundred million dollars in a joint venture, when he says, congratulations you're going to be a very wealthy man. 

… We're going to cover critical leadership strategies to better help you protect your business for when the pressure is really on. Our story starts out sounding like another huge entrepreneurial success. 

You found an oil and gas company, right in the beginning of this country's shale oil and gas boom and it grows like crazy. In three years it's worth over 2 billion dollars. …You've got a hundred full time employees in the office, another two hundred land men out on the field. You're going out on site with those huge derricks. 

You've acquired over three hundred thousand acres, and when you're on site they are drilling down eight to ten thousand feet hitting big boomer wells. You're getting reports in the office of another hit. It's an exciting time. You're company is growing….

Five years later, you're getting your picture taken, when the photographer, he grunts, "Don't smile. This is your mug shot." You may be facing years in federal prison. 

…he tells you that the Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC…has gotten a restraining order, taken over your company, frozen your bank accounts, frozen your assets, and sued you for fraud. Then you learn that the public relations department announced nationally that you have masterminded a massive Ponzi scheme to the tune of half a billion dollars.

It's blasted all across the country. It's on Reuters, it's on Bloomberg. …

…It’s all over the Internet…You're getting emails, calls from friends, family wondering what in the world is going on…they're giving interviews for the nightly news, including posting pictures they had taken from your office earlier that morning. You know it's going to be front page news in the newspaper the next day….The best thing that happened then was Michael Jackson died and so that was front page news…. (laugh)

And he hands you a court document and across the top in big bold letters, it says the United States of America versus you. The United States of America versus Henry Harrison? That's me. 

…You ever want to feel small, feel like you're up against Godzilla with a pea shooter? That's what that feels like.

You ever have something happen to you and you just can't believe it's happening it's so surreal, and it just continues month after month, not knowing when it's going to end? 

...you're roaming around like usual but absolutely nothing is normal…your lawyers and the government are telling you if you go to a trial in front of a jury and you lose, you're going to get decades, up to 200 years, life, in prison. It's goodbye to everything, spouse, family, friends, everything gone.

1 out of 35 people in this country…is either on parole, on probation or in prison…1 out of 5 is a convicted felon…So many people end up prison because they get caught up in what's called a conspiracy because the people they're involved with, the people they're around…people that point the finger at them. Something happens on your watch that the government thinks you should have known about…

…I have been through a four year legal battle, FINRA attacking us …, the lawyers that took over the company suing us, the SEC suing us, and the justice department indicting us. …. 

…There may be a target on your back and you don't even know it. Let's take this time to learn from my failure, my heartache, my pain, how to better protect your business. 

…My hope is by sharing these critical strategies, it will better help you protect your business because none of us in the room have malintent, none of us and we all want to protect our business, including our homes, our health, our financial welfare, our children. 

You must be in charge and in control of your positioning.

…In success your lawyers, your friends, your advisers, they're all sharing that success and go up with you. In failure, typically, it's the business leaders that bear the brunt of that because they've accepted the responsibility...

…everyone pays because they feel sorry for you. So, a little tip, if you ever want some free meals you just go to prison for a while. (Laughs)

…The lessons boil down to three critical leadership strategies to better help you protect your business for when the pressure is on…

Protect your business. It's all about keen perspective, trusted people, and wise positioning…

I made mistakes. I learned. Learn from me. Protect your business. Be a leader. Thank you, and God bless.