He decided to strike out on his own and enter the oil business in Texas. He first landed a job with Dresser Industries, as the president of the company was a family friend. A couple years later, he left Dresser to form his own company—the Bush-Overby Oil Development Company in Midland, Texas. Bush and John Overby then merged their company with Bill and Hugh Liedtke to form Zapata Petroleum Corporation. Bush became a wealthy man in the oil business. He gradually developed more and more of an itch to enter politics.