Real estate is everywhere. Lots of people go into it. Lots of people understand it. After all, many of us will own a home at one point, and even more of us will rent one. It’s kind of easy to understand that business, because we’re all customers of that business.

Other people embrace a more complicated calling. For Grant Norwood, it was oil and gas.

“Growing up in Texas, it’s all around you,” Norwood, CEO of Norwood Energy Corp, “so there was always that kinda curiosity. How does it all work? What does it do? Is it just so we can fill up our cars?”

Norwood knew lots of people with jobs in the oil and gas industry … but he wanted more. He wanted to run the show. So he took an unconventional approach to building his career — a series of entry-level jobs in different departments of different oil companies, never more than six-months to a year, learning the business in the trenches from all sides.

“I was completely forward with them,” Norwood, who prefers a minimum of ten years’ commitment from his own employees, said. “I wouldn’t have hired me.”

But the years in grunt-level positions paid off. Now Norwood Energy Corp fills a lucrative niche in the oil business — recognizing opportunity hotspots in undiscovered areas of the country where they can operate significantly below what it costs the Exxons and the Chevrons of the world to operate.

How good of an investment is oil and gas these days? 

“You know, if you start looking at 10X+, there’s just more at risk,” Norwood said. “And if you’re fine with the risk, jump right in. But if you’re happy with like 3X-8X in a fair amount of time, then that’s your starting point.”

“I’m actually wanting to put out a training course on how to navigate those waters,” he said, “‘cause a good oil deal … It is like buying Bitcoin ten years ago. A bad oil deal … it’s like buying Bitcoin a few months ago.”

Listen to the full podcast with Grant Norwood