After Harvard Business School, W decided to move back to his boyhood home -- Midland, Texas -- to seek his fortune. At first, he was none too successful, scrambling to make a living as a "landman." "He spent his days in the courthouse researching titles to mineral rights and negotiating deals to lease them."
("The Family", Kitty Kelley, page 355)

Talking about Bush's luck with finding oil on his prospected land, a friend said, "The good Lord didn't put any oil there."
("Fortunate Son," page 68)

He lived in an apartment above a cinderblock garage behind the house of a friend of the Bush family at 2006 Harvard. "The apartment, which had a tiny window overlooking an alley, was crammed with shucked-off clothing, discarded newspapers, and a bed literally lashed together with neckties."
("Laura Bush" by Ronald Kessler, page 64)

"Don Evans, who first met Bush in 1975 and has remained a friend, adviser, and campaign fundraiser ever since [he became Bush's Secretary of Commerce later], noted: 'He didn't have anything as far as I could see...He lived in a dump. He used to bring his laundry over to our house. We were just fresh faces dreaming about finding an oil field somewhere.'"
("Fortunate Son," Hatfield, page 54)

When Bush returned to Midland, he also linked up again with Joe O'Neill III..."Spider"...[his] elementary school bike-riding friend, a garrulous, hard drinker...now back in West Texas from San Francisco to help run his family's oil holdings...O'Neill and the rest of [Bush's] crew who had grown up in Midland in the 1950s had come up with nicknames for Bush: The Bombastic One, the Bombastic Bushkin. The names fit that rogue preppy just perfectly, some people thought."
("First Son," Minutaglio, page 165)

He and his buddies gathered for a weekly poker game. Clay Johnson III, his roommate at Yale, called one day and asked how his oil hustling was going. "Well," Bush said, "I won a hundred dollars in a poker game last night, and that's my income for the week."
("Laura Bush," page 64)

Then, on July 6, 1977 (which happened to be George Bush's 31st birthday), veteran Democratic representative George Mahon announced he was retiring after 44 years in Congress. Shortly thereafter, Bush won $150 in the weekly poker game, which he regarded as a "favorable omen." He turned to his friends and announced that he was going to "take a shot at the family business " and run for the now open seat.
("Fortunate Son," page 57)

After less than two years back in Midland, W declared his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives.

His friend, Joe O'Neill, came to a conclusion about what was motivating W -- "He was focused to prove himself to his dad."
("First Son," page 165)