John Doerr left the Rice University campus about three months before I arrived there, in 1973. So to see him written up by The New York Times as "the old prospector" is a bit painful. (That's Doerr, second from left next to Robin Williams, with Google founders Brin and Page to his right, from the Times article.)

The Times used the headline because Doerr's firm, Kleiner Perkins, stands to make a tidy fortune from the Google IPO. The article also makes clear that Doerr has backed some losers over the years. It doesn't detail how bad he was hurting during the Internet bust. But such is the nature of venture capital.

After leaving Rice, Doerr got a graduate degree from Stanford and made his home near there, so it's no surprise that he's more closely associated with California than Texas.

But, in fact, Doerr has always been in a version of "the oil bidness."

Back in the day, in the 1920s and 1930s, Texas wildcatting was a lot like venture capital. You'd research 10 leases, you'd drill 10 wells, and if one came in you considered yourself lucky. The trick was not to overpay, and to have the staying power to go through those dry holes.

That's exactly the way venture capital works. The difference between oil and tech is that your bets in the latter are entirely on people, while in the former there is at least some geology involved (although people count for a lot, too).

A lot of people got into venture capital during the 1990s who had no business being there. You need a cast iron stomach, lots of endurance, and a long view to get through. The fact that bad VCs busted in the bust is a very good thing.

My prayer for Doerr's future is that he keeps at it for many years to come. Growing economies need good wildcatters bad, and he's one of Rice's best. As for me, I'll keep riding to catch up.