04/04/2022
Looking back on an eventful “life of risk and reward,”Oklahoma oil-and-gas entrepreneur Dutcher addresses the titular question of “how did I do that?” with thoughtful good humor, sometimes sounding a little surprised himself at how his life and the world changed between his Bartlesville childhood, in the days of the iceman and Our Gang, and today, as Dutcher has achieved success in the fossil fuel industry—and in his leisure time once almost got plowed into by Steph Curry at a crucial playoff game. Less a guide to doing all this yourself than an inviting rumination on a life well lived, How’d I Do That? digs into family, business, basketball, and more.
Whether writing about his experiments in youthful, James Dean-inspired rebellion (“At the time I had no idea of what I was rebelling against”), lessons learned playing basketball or the specifics of his industry (“no one blinked at 18 percent interest rates when loans were needed to drill deep gas wells”), Dutcher proves an appealing, incisive narrator. His story takes him from Bartlesville to military service to executive suites and lobbying and the booming 1980s, though it’s clear, even on a Concord flight or opening his own company, that he never forgets where he’s from.
“My enthusiasm for work easily tripled as I realized I was my own boss and responsible for making my business work,” Dutcher writes, one of many truths that he hits on telling his story. This memoir offers much clear-eyed business advice, especially in the later chapters, as Dutcher guides readers through the negotiation and closing of major deals. Just as urgent, though, in this telling: playing basketball well into his later years, relishing life as it comes, and, as he tells a coach, knowing that “it’s about knowing who you are.” He does. Readers fascinated by the lives of American businessmen will find much here that’s engaging and illuminating.
Takeaway: An inviting account of a life well lived, in business and basketball.
Great for fans of: Stephen A. Schwartzman’s What It Takes, Bryan Burrough’s The Big Rich.
Production grades Cover: A- Design and typography: A Illustrations: A- Editing: A Marketing copy: A
