John D. Rockefeller: The Man Of Few Passions
Early Years and Early Ventures
John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8th , 1839, in Richford, New York, the second of six children. His father was “a pitch man”, who traded patent medicines that, he claimed could cure cancer. His mother was the complete opposite of his father’s fun-loving ways. She was very strict and religious woman. She taught her children very early to work, to save money and to give to charities.
In 1853 the Rockefeller’s family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where John successfully graduated from high school as one of the top math students.
In spring of 1855 Rockefeller spent 3 months at Folsom’s Commercial College where he learned bookkeeping, mercantile customs, banking and exchange.
Around this time a local minister challenged him to make as much money as he possibly could and then give away as much money as he could. “It was at this moment” – as Rockefeller later recalled – “that a financial plan of my life was formed”. He stopped his education to find a job. He was only 16 years old…
Only a month later young Rockefeller got a job as an assistant bookkeeper with Hewitt & Tuttle, commission merchants and produce shippers, where he surprised his employers with his seriousness, diligence and determination. Even though his salary was very low, he always gave some of his earnings to the Church and local charities.
In 1858, after working at Hewitt & Tuttle for three years Rockefeller began to engage in trading ventures on his own account.
Several months before his 20th birthday he put forward $2000 to start his first company with his neighbor Maurice Clark. In their first year of trading grain, hay, and meats, Clark & Rockefeller grossed $450,000, making a profit of $4400. In spite of the flourishing business, Rockefeller realized that the future of the commission merchant business in Cleveland was going to be limited. He started to look for other business opportunities and soon Fortune smiled at him.
Big Opportunity and Even Bigger Risks
In 1859 the something “big” that he was looking for surfaced in Pennsylvania with the discovery of oil and the building of railroad to Cleveland. Overnight wildcat companies stripped away whole forests to put up thousands of oil derrick, hoping to strike black gold. John Rockefeller knew that drilling for oil was a very risky business. He decided it was better to invest in refining, not drilling. So he opened a new business with Samuel Andrews, who had technical knowledge in the field.
In 1864, Rockefeller married Laura Celestia Spelman. They had four daughters and one son. Rockefeller admitted later, “Her judgment was always better than mine. Without her keen advice, I would be a poor man.”
Only a year after his marriage, at the age of 24, Rockefeller bought out Clark for $72,500 and gained complete control of the business so he could greatly expand his enterprise. Soon the company Rockefeller & Andrews became the largest refinery in Cleveland.
The Standard Oil – Multimillion Dollar Company
In 1866 John D. brought his brother William Rockefeller into the partnership and they built another refinery in Cleveland which they named the Standard Works.
Later with financial help from his friend H.M. Flager and another partner S.V. Harkness, Rockefeller’s business grew and he expanded his dominance in the American refinery industry.
By 1868 Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler was the largest refiner in the world, surviving the bitter competition in the oil industry.
In 1870, The Standard Oil Company of Ohio created by Rockefeller, his brother William, Flagler, Harkness, and Andrews, had a worth of one million dollars, controlling 1/10th of American refining industry.
But Rockefeller did not stop at that…
He set up to replace small independent companies with a giant enterprise, controlled by him.
By buying out smaller refineries and applying new transportation methods (like the railroad tank car and the pipeline), in 1879, The Standard Oil Company owned 90% of American oil.
America’s First Trust and The Nervous Breakdown
In 1882 Rockefeller created America’s first great “trust” that immediately received the stock of forty businesses, achieving a worth of 70 million dollars and becoming the world’s largest and richest industrial organizations. By 1883, after winning control of the pipeline industry, Standard’s monopoly was at its peak. It also entered foreign markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, expanding the domain of Rockefeller’s industrial empire even more.
The Standard Oil Trust was very aggressive in its marketing practices and tried to force all grocery and hardware stores that sold kerosene and lubricants to sell only their products, which made it widely unpopular and very vulnerable to continuous political attacks.
On March 21, 1892 the Trust was formally dissolved and Rockefeller disbanded the organization.
During this time all the evidence suggests that Rockefeller, who was always known as a man of iron nerves, had a partial nervous breakdown from overwork. He lost all of his hair, including his eyebrows, and suffered from ill health.
Although, his wealth was steadily growing to such extent that soon his major problem was what to do with all this money. He solved this problem by hiring Frederick T. Gates in September of 1891 as a full-time manager of his fortune.
Other Undertakings
His largest undertaking outside the oil industry began in 1983, when he assisted in the development of the Mesabi iron ore range of Minnesota and later gained control of Great Lakes shipping. In 1901 Rockefeller sold his ore holdings for $70,000,000 to U.S. Steel, owned by Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan. That year his fortune passed the 200 million dollar mark.
Philanthropy and Last Years of Life
In all his years of wealth and success, Rockefeller had never forgotten the words of the old minister, “Give away as much money as you possibly can”. From his very first paycheck, Rockefeller made regular donations to his church and charities. As his wealth grew, so did his giving.
And after his retirement from business in 1897 Rockefeller devoted himself fully to philanthropy. In 1982 he assisted the founding of the University of Chicago donating it more than $80 million during his lifetime. Rockefeller also provided financial support to Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Bryn Mawr, Brown, Wellesley and Vassar.
Together with his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., he also created major philanthropic institutions, including the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (renamed Rockefeller University) in New York City in 1901; the General Education Board in 1902; and the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913 “to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world.”.
In total Rockefeller’s benefactions during his lifetime exceeded $550 million!
Ironically enough, Rockefeller became well known in his later life for the practice of giving dimes to adults and nickels to children wherever he went. He even gave dimes as a playful gesture to the wealthiest men of US like tycoon Harvey Firestone.
In his early years Rockefeller often said that his two great ambitions were to make $100,000 and to live 100 years. Rockefeller died of arteriosclerosis on May 23rd , 1937, two months shy of his 98th birthday, in his home in Ormond Beach, Florida. He was buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.
Rockefeller’s personal life was fairly simple. He was a man of few passions whose life was centered on his work, his family, and later on his charity projects. He built his stellar success on order, efficiency, planning and, most importantly, sweeping vision.
Rockefeller Quotes:
“If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.”
“I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”
“Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.”
“The person who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won’t succeed; you must have a larger ambition.”
“I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.”
“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”
“I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity an obligation; every possession a duty.”
“Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.”
“It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.”
“If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.”
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