John Davison Rockefeller is the first ever billionaire and the richest man in the world. John Rockefeller: biography, interesting facts from life Retirement

At school he was called a deacon, on Wall Street - the devil, in the family he was a caring husband and a wonderful father. His name became a household name, like the name of the legendary king Croesus, became a proverb. But the symbol of the unheard-of wealth of the new industrial age, John Davison Rockefeller, never worshiped the Golden Calf. He believed only in God and oil.

Lord God and dollars

His father, William Avery Rockefeller, combined just about everything human vices: he was a horse thief, and a cheater, and a swindler, and a bigamist, and a notorious atheist. His acquaintance with his future wife began with the fact that he appeared in her hometown of Richford, New York, pretending to be deaf and dumb, so that it would be more convenient for him to collect information for his machinations. Everything earned and won by Bill instantly lowered. Eliza, his wife, was his complete opposite - a deeply religious woman, a thrifty housewife, by some miracle she managed to make ends meet, supported the family afloat. It would seem that this union was bound to fall apart sooner or later. However, Bill, like any outstanding swindler, possessed such a crushing charm that Eliza pulled and pulled the family strap: not only in the name of Christian humility, but also because she loved her unlucky husband.

In such a strange family on July 8, 1839, John Davison Rockefeller, the world's first billionaire, was born. It is quite clear that the main qualities necessary for a future career were instilled in him by his mother. However, the father also contributed to the upbringing of his son, although he spent very little time with his family, disappearing for a long time and suddenly falling like snow on his head, clinking three coins that had fallen into the lining. Firstly, Bill instilled in his children (John had three more sisters) ingenuity and taught resourcefulness. Secondly, he served as a negative example for his son. For all my long life John D. Rockefeller never lit a cigarette, never gambled, never drank not only a whiskey, but also a cup of coffee, and never went to a dance or theater.

If he did something that was not entirely consistent with American laws, then all the same, in his opinion, those were moral actions. After all, he earned money not for himself, not for the pleasure of his flesh, but in the name of God. It was this kind of morality that prevailed among the Puritans, who made America America in the century before last. And the logic here is simple: selfless work is pleasing to God. But since labor as such is difficult to quantify and qualitatively evaluate, its yardstick is dollars. The more dollars a person has, the more God loves him. And not only loves, but also helps him in every possible way. Rockefeller believed in this so sacredly that once at a meeting, when the fate of the trust hung in the balance, when asked what would happen now, he confidently declared: “The Lord will take care!”. And really cared.

In Rockefeller, two completely different people, as it were, coexisted, which manifested itself even in childhood. The first - the one that subsequently terrified the entire business world of America - was devoid of elementary human emotions. His face, like that of a lizard, tightly drawn into the skin, did not express anything. One of his school teachers gave the following characterization: “This boy is strange, Rockefeller. And the student is good, and obedient, but somehow insensitive. I'm not sure he's warm-blooded." This "creature" from the age of seven sold sweets to the sisters at speculative prices and gave money to school friends at interest.

The second "half" of Rockefeller was quite humane: he loved his wife, children, surrounded them with affection and care. Passions and deep, tender feelings raged under the skin of the lizard, sometimes breaking through.

Oil standard

At the age of 16, Rockefeller, leaving school, got a job as an assistant accountant at the Hewitt and Tuttle trading company, where he was paid $17 a month, later bringing this amount to $25, since the young man had superhuman working capacity and supernatural mathematical abilities. From the very first salary, Rockefeller bought himself an account book, where, with a sigh of regret, he entered his every expense. He kept track of expenses and income throughout his life. His biggest personal expense was the purchase wedding ring for the bride, costing $118.

Saving on everything (he learned this from his mother), Rockefeller saved up $ 800 for 4 years and, on shares with Maurice Clark, opened his own company for the sale of agricultural products. Soon the United States broke out Civil War, the armies of the opposing sides needed a lot of food and fodder. Rockefeller and Clark arranged the supply of goods necessary for victory ... to both southerners and northerners. In which, according to Rockefeller, there was nothing reprehensible, since business does not exist for politics, but politics for business: a self-respecting corporation must work stably in any political situation. Rockefeller always followed this principle. Having become a billionaire, he equally financed the election campaigns of both Democrats and Republicans, and also bought up at the root of officials in power, regardless of their political orientation.

At the end of the Civil War, oil was found in Pennsylvania. Rockefeller quickly responded to this, suggesting that Clark refocus the business. He categorically refused, and Rockefeller, having bought his share from a partner for $ 72,500, erected his first oil rig. He drove kerosene, but not in the way everyone did, but on a scientific basis, having bought a patent for a penny from a certain engineer for an effective way to purify oil.

At that time, the US oil market was in chaos, reminiscent of the California Gold Rush. Two years later, the Rockefeller firm, which consisted of five oil refineries, was already giving $ 2 million a year. But that made him just one of many oilmen. And he wanted to be the main and the only one. And Rockefeller began to dominate the industry, acting where cunningly, and where treacherously and shamelessly. So in 1870, when the magnate was only 30 years old, the famous Standard Oil Co.

Shark of capitalism

The absorption of "small fish", depending on the persistence of competitors being forced out of the market, was carried out in several stages. Initially, the owners of oil refineries were culturally asked to sell their business. At the same time, a choice was offered - either for cash or for Standard Oil shares. The most perspicacious took shares and subsequently became wealthy people. They began to twist the hands of those who were uncompromising, using an extensive arsenal of forceful influences: they set dumping prices in the local markets of competitors, cut off the supply of raw materials to processors, started litigation, arranged secret agreements with consumers and transport workers. To do this, many front companies were created that were secretly part of Standard Oil. Even elements of industrial espionage were used.

In 1871, Rockefeller pulled off an operation of fantastic scale and daring, concluding a secret deal with the management of the railroads to transport Standard Oil kerosene at rates three times lower than for all players in the oil market. This war of conquest ended by 1880.

As a result, Standard Oil took over 90% of the US oil market. In 1882, it became the Standard Oil Trust, the first trust in US history, which included 37 companies with a total capital of $ 70 million, controlled by a committee of nine people headed by Rockefeller.

The point, of course, is not only his aggressiveness and unscrupulousness. Rockefeller always relied on innovation and therefore crushed competitors. He was the first to use cheap metal barrels instead of wooden ones when transporting kerosene. They were replaced by railway tank cars. And, in the end, Standard Oil began to build pipelines. Rockefeller was the first in history to take large loans for the modernization and expansion of production, which greatly frightened his companions. However, the risk paid off, bringing the company huge profits through quick financial maneuvers.

Octopus-2

In the 90s came new stage fight. But not with competitors, but with the state, which accused the trust of violating the law on free trade. Rockefeller, like an experienced chess player, outwardly absolutely dispassionately, made retaliatory moves: filed counterclaims, filed appeals, performed diversionary maneuvers and stung the opponent with lightning speed, who was obviously stronger than him. Without blinking an eye, he paid a huge fine of $ 29 million. And in the end, in 1892, he resigned himself to dividing the trust into 38 parts, since he still had control over each of them. Soon he created a new oil octopus - Standard Oil of New Jersey, which owned controlling stakes in companies that were previously part of the trust.

And again, a battle broke out with the state, which at that moment was represented by President Theodore Roosevelt, who called Rockefeller "the most dangerous criminal in the United States." Trial lasted with varying success from 1904 to 1911 and ended with a new division of the company. For Rockefeller, this was a moral blow, but by no means a financial one. Having retained blocks of shares, albeit not controlling ones, in each company separated from the trust, he continued to grow rich. And in 1913, his fortune reached a billion dollars, which was equal to 3% of US GDP. By modern standards, this is over $150 billion. There was no one richer than him in the world. As, however, not now.

No prophet in his own country

Rockefeller met all the ups and downs associated with successes and failures in business almost indifferently, without showing his feelings in any way. But what concerned the moral sphere, where he considered his reputation impeccable, sometimes infuriated him. At the end of the century, when one of the young managers of the trust wrote an alarming letter to his patron, in which he spoke of how fiercely Americans hated Standard Oil, Rockefeller did not believe him. After all, he is not a politician, not a public figure, he always lived private life and did charity work - is he capable of evoking such feelings?

At the beginning of the 20th century, literally the entire American press attacked the corporation and its head with furious exposé articles, newspapers were full of angry letters from ordinary Americans. It was a terrible blow for Rockefeller. The suffering was exacerbated by the fact that employees of the trust helped journalists to investigate the unseemly actions of Standard Oil. No one, literally no one, understood his good intentions to create an ideal industrial-financial machine! Rockefeller developed a severe nervous breakdown that led to hair loss, including eyebrows and eyelashes. He was terrible. The wives of the workers, poking a newspaper photo with their finger, frightened the children: “If you don’t obey, Rockefeller will take you!”

Legacy and Legacy

Retiring to rest, he began a new duel, in which no one has yet been able to win. He defied death by announcing that he intended to celebrate his centenary. His daily routine included preventive procedures, dosed physical exercise, medical examinations, diet ... To win, he lacked the very smallness - John Davison Rockefeller died of a heart attack on May 23, 1937, a little more than two years short of the planned milestone.

Money was not an end in itself for Rockefeller. Miserly about everything that concerned his personal expenses, he was a generous benefactor. He donated half of the billion he earned to the Baptist Church and the University of Chicago, transferred to the founding of the New York Institute medical research, invested in the Rockefeller Foundation, whose financial assets now amount to $ 3.8 billion.

The father of the family, Rockefeller, educating industriousness and frugality in children, established strict market orders at home. For each dead fly he paid 2 cents, for a mouse caught - 10, for an hour of diligent music-making - 5, etc., etc. There was also a scale of fines - for being late for breakfast, an unlearned lesson, a broken plate .. Rockefeller passed his business into safe hands - his son, John Davison Rockefeller Jr.

The large Rockefeller family included senators, bank presidents, and state governors, one US vice president and one Olympic champion in academic rowing. Now the Rockefeller clan, avoiding publicity in every possible way, has more than two hundred people. His total fortune is $ 6.5 billion. The core of the empire is the oil ExxonMobil, the successor to Standard Oil, and one of the largest US banks, Chase Manhattan Bank. Rockefellers have a significant influence on political life countries, but they do it extremely discreetly and as delicately as possible. And America remembers their great great-grandfather and, unlike America at the beginning of the 20th century, pays tribute to him good deeds which are performed on his behalf in accordance with his will to this day.

POSSIBLE REMOVALS:

From the very first salary, Rockefeller bought himself an account book, where, with a sigh of regret, he entered his every expense. He kept track of expenses and income throughout his life. His biggest personal expense was buying a $118 engagement ring for his bride.

Standard Oil Company took over 90% of the US oil market. In 1882, it became the Standard Oil Trust, the first trust in US history, which included 37 companies with a total capital of $ 70 million, controlled by a committee of nine people headed by Rockefeller.

Rockefeller was the first in history to take large loans for the modernization and expansion of production, which greatly frightened his companions. However, the risk paid off, bringing the company huge profits through quick financial maneuvers.

He donated half of the billion he earned to the Baptist Church and the University of Chicago, donated to the founding of the New York Institute for Medical Research, invested in the Rockefeller Foundation, whose financial assets now amount to $ 3.8 billion.

Many hated and cursed him, wished that he lost all his money, but John Davison Rockefeller, Sr., still increased his fortune with every passing year. The most interesting thing is that this man was most proud of his morality: he followed strict rules all his life, raised his children the way he was once raised.

Rockefeller's ancestors were Huguenots and lived in fickle France. In the 17th century, they left this country, fleeing the Inquisition and the royal dragoons, who were hunting for heretics. In Germany, the Rockfeil family changed their surname to German. The emigrants were hardworking, loyal to each other, but indifferent to strangers. Their faith demanded it, and John D. Rockefeller never broke those rules.

In the next century, the Rockefellers continued their journey and ended up in the New World. There they stopped in such a city in the state of New York as Richford. And in 1839, John Rockefeller was born. John's father, William Avery Rockefeller, was very fond of money, earning it in any honest or dishonest way. He pretended to be both deaf and dumb and an herbal doctor, traded in various glassware, won prizes at shooting competitions, etc. William always went away to work for a few months, always dressed well and gradually increased his small fortune. And little John looked at his father and learned.

He was a practical young man and, looking at his relatives, drew a lot of useful conclusions. From his mother, for example, he inherited diligence, honesty, discipline, his father taught him to love money, John's grandfather did not achieve anything, he was talkative and self-willed, and the boy did not want to be the same. Even as a child, young Rockefeller began to do business: he caught turkey poults and after a while he sold, bought sweets and then sold them to his own sisters at a premium. All of John's money was in a piggy bank. A little later, the boy gave them to his father at interest.

Practically no one knew the human side of John Rockefeller's nature. Such people try not to obey emotions, feelings, because their main goal is to get rich. But several situations from John's life perfectly prove that he was a sensitive boy.
At a time when the young man receives a secondary education, his father escapes from creditors deceived by him and abandons his family. Later, he changes his last name and leaves for another woman. At the age of sixteen, John moves to Cleveland and starts looking for a job. Many owners of firms and companies refuse him. Six weeks later, he was finally hired by Hewitt and Tuttle as an assistant accountant. Rockefeller came to work early in the morning (at 6:30), and ended his working day after 22:00. The future oil tycoon was very fond of working and in a short period of time he established himself as a competent professional. Therefore, after the manager of the company stopped working, John was immediately appointed to this position. True, his salary was set almost 3 times less than his predecessor. Rockefeller was very offended, and he left the company. He never worked for anyone else.

At this time, John Maurice Clark wants to open his own business and is looking for a person who could invest another $ 2,000. An English entrepreneur and John Rockefeller become partners and create the Clark and Rochester trading house. During the civil war, they managed to make good money. After some time, John begins to extract oil.
Before Rockefeller was twenty-five, everyone he knew thought he only loved money. But it was not so. One girl has been waiting for John for nine years. He met Laura Celestia Spelman at school. Then the young man confessed his love to her, but the girl replied that he should find himself at the beginning Good work and achieved something in life.

It would be very strange if the name of such a person as John Davison Rockefeller, who is known, first of all, for becoming the first person in the history of the planet Earth, whose fortune exceeded one billion dollars, was absent in the “Success Story” rubric.

It is very remarkable that the story of his success began in a small provincial town in North America and this man owes his success solely to his talent and perseverance.

John was born in Richford, New York, to a Protestant family. His father, William Avery Rockefeller, was first a lumberjack, and then became a traveling salesman who supplied the inhabitants of the surrounding area with miraculous elixirs and potions. Dad was rarely at home, he devoted a lot of time to trade, alcohol and riotous women. But in his memoirs, John speaks of his parent as good father, who in his spare time devoted a lot of time to his son and, in particular, taught him to trade. William, as they would say now, arranged for his son a kind of training by buying and selling various services of his son. Subsequently, John highly appreciated these lessons. And from communication with his father, he made a firm conviction that alcohol and tobacco are a vice, and this is very bad. And looking at how his mother suffers from the frequent betrayals of her husband, he decided as a child that he would never do this.

Neighbors considered John's father a very strange person who did not want to work, but simply a quitter. However, William managed to save up some money and buy land and invest some money in various businesses. He willingly shared with his son his knowledge of the principles of doing business and the fundamental criteria for success.

John's mother, Eliza Davison, ran everything household(there were six children in the family. John is the second child in the family), she was very sensitive to religion and meekly accepted the hardships of life: regular lack of money (the husband was often absent from home, which required austerity) and her husband's betrayal.

Subsequently, John said that he began to engage in commerce from early childhood. Many consider it disgusting that the future millionaire bought sweets in a shop, and then sold them individually to his sisters. Preying on your relatives is disgusting?! It all depends on what angle you look at it from. Do you also think the boy's actions are terrible? Then try to answer the following questions:

• Are sweets an essential item?
• did the girls have money (they also bought sweets from John) and what prevented them from buying sweets in the store themselves?
• sweets in the shop were sold not by the piece, but by weight. The girls spent less money buying one candy each than if they bought these sweets in a shop, which means they thought they were getting a good deal. If both parties believe that they have received the expected benefit, then what is immoral?

So even in early childhood not from books, but from my own practical experience John understood what the laws of surplus value are and how they work. I think it's very important for a future success story to understand how money works.

At the age of seven, he began to breed and feed turkeys for sale, helped his neighbors (not free of charge) dig potatoes.

And what is remarkable is that he recorded all the results of his commercial activities in a notebook. A stingy boy? Business is not possible without accounting and planning. Little John knew what is a revelation for many of today's businessmen - success is not possible without consideration and planning.

Everything that he managed to earn, the boy kept in a porcelain piggy bank, which allowed him to start lending at the age of thirteen - it was at this age that he issued his first loan to a farmer he knew. Fifty dollars at 7.5 percent per annum. Expensive? But the farmer took it, which means he considered that it was profitable for him. Money should not just lie - they should work and make a profit. This is one of the rules for success. Money has to work.

If you want a success story, don't go to school

In the same year, when he issued the first loan in his life, he went to school for the first time. Many years later, recalling this period of his life, John wrote that it was very difficult for him to study, and completing the lessons required simply titanic work. But the boy had a goal and he successfully completed school, and went to college with the goal of learning the basics accounting and commerce. But, as often happens with people who are not ordinary, he quickly realized that education does not bring him closer to success, but turns him into a diligent employee who will work for other people all his life.

He is completing a three-month accounting course and is looking for a job.

Just at this time, the Rockefeller family moved to Cleveland. John has been looking for a job for a month and a half and eventually becomes an accounting assistant in a small real estate and shipping company. Hardworking and punctual, he attracts the attention of the owners of the enterprise, and when the chief accountant leaves the company, the owners offer Rockefeller to take this place. But, the predecessor received 2,000 dollars a year, and John is offered only 600. And he leaves the company. If you do not appreciate your work, then others will not appreciate it. This is another rule for success - appreciate your work and do not let others devalue it. If you do not do this, then you will not have success or a success story. It was the first and latest work when John worked "for his uncle".

It so happened that it was at this time that an English businessman, John Maurice Clark, was looking for a partner with a capital of at least $ 2,000 to create and conduct a joint business. At young Rockefeller, at that time, there was a gold reserve of $ 800. The missing amount had to be borrowed from daddy Rockefeller at 10% (!!! Remember the interest that John announced to a familiar farmer) per annum.

And on April 27, a historic event occurs - John Davison Rockefeller becomes a junior partner in the Clark and Rochester enterprise. The newly created company trades in hay, pork, grain ... Trades in everything that they buy.
And then something happens that can be called a gift of fate - the American Civil War begins. I understand your indignation - how can you call war a gift?! But, I will remind you that we are talking about a success story. For the business of a young company, the beginning of the war opened up great opportunities: war requires not only blood and lives, it takes everything. And hay, and pork, and cartridges ... Everything.

For such a business, the company's capital was clearly not enough, and John persuades the bank manager to issue an unsecured loan. How did it happen? History and young Rockefeller do not expand on the motives that pushed the hand and pen of the head of the bank. There is an opinion that Rockefeller was so sincere and convincing that the bank manager could not resist. Have you ever received a loan from a bank? Have you ever seen a sentimental bank manager? Or maybe people worked as bank managers in those distant times?!

As a junior companion and businessman, John D. Rockefeller decided to marry Laura Celestine Spelman, a simple teacher he had met during his student days. Like all women of that time, Laura was overly pious and at the same time unusually practical. Many years later, Rockefeller said that if it were not for the advice of my wife, then I would have remained a poor man. Was it true? Of course it was! Laura may not have understood business, but a like-minded wife is not just the secret to success. This is a rocket that will carry any normal man to the very pinnacle of success and to several lines in history, if not civilization, then business for sure.

Where did the success stories start?

The world was entering the age of oil. Kerosene lamps were already burning and the great minds of the world were developing their internal combustion engines. Civilization slowly but surely marched towards the twentieth century - the century of motors.

It was during this period that John met the chemist Samuel Andrews, who was fascinated by the problems of oil refining and was confident in the huge prospects of the emerging industry. In those days, the conversation was only about the possibilities of kerosene lighting of rooms and streets. A huge number of people, cities and towns ... A huge market that no one has yet controlled.

At this time, a message appeared in the press about a "fresh" oil field, which was discovered by Edwin Drake. The offer was risky, but very tempting. Rockefeller teamed up with Andrews, and then both of them, already as partners, turned to Clark. As a result, the oil refinery "Andrews and Clark" was established, with the aim of building an oil refinery, which the partners called "Flats". It was decided to transport oil by railway.

For the Rockefeller success story, oil and railroads are key words. And it's not that oil was transported by rail. There are 12 golden rules on how to achieve success from the first billionaire. I present to your attention rule number 13, about which the author did not like to expand.

In the new company, Rockefeller led the search for oil fields. The work is hard and not always rewarding. During this period, John thought about the fact that a huge number of small enterprises are scattered around the country that are engaged in oil production and its processing. Terrible chaos in the market. But if all these small enterprises are united under one sign and roof ... It was with this idea that John Rockefeller came to his partners. This historical fact.

And now the main recipe in the success story from John Rockefeller - read carefully!

Under the laws of the time, corporations were not allowed to own property outside the state where the company was registered. And this was a big problem - for potential investors it is not interesting to invest little money in a huge number of objects. The object of investment becomes much more attractive if the property can be combined.

And Rockefeller figured out how to get around the laws. Business plan (if you can call it that) future company was prepared very carefully: they even thought out such a question that employees should not have been paid in cash, they were given shares - this, according to Rockefeller, should have made them work more and more productively.

The following historical fact testifies to the thoroughness of the plan: barrels were required to transport oil. Barrels could be bought for $2.50, but the companions opened their own production, which allowed them to get the same barrels for $1. For a small enterprise, the price of a barrel was not significant. However, the partners planned a business in which hundreds of thousands of barrels were needed.

The next point of the plan was the organization of transportation of oil and refined products. Rockefeller carefully studied all the transport companies operating in the region, their competitive advantages and weaknesses. A separate plan was drawn up, which involved the creation conflict situations among transport workers and using the consequences of these conflicts for their own purposes. Rockefeller created problems for transport workers, and then helped solve them.

Even before Standard Oil was formed, the implementation of this plan reduced the cost of transporting one barrel of oil from $2.40 to $1.65. This "small" advantage, multiplied by tens of thousands of barrels, was the key to the very big success of the future supercompany.

A whole series of secret agreements between the Rockefeller company and the transport workers appeared: a low price for Rockefeller and a high price for any other company. Under such conditions, competitors had no chance of success. Employees of competing oil producing and oil refining companies were bribed.

In 1870, the Standard Oil Company was incorporated with authorized capital at 1 million dollars. And in this new company, the share of John Rockefeller was 27%. And from that moment on, a real war began between oil producers and refiners, behind the scenes of which Standard Oil was hiding, which organized this war.

As mentioned above, in those days, oil was transported in wooden barrels on open railway platforms. The oil evaporated and the buyer received only a part of the shipped cargo - the most valuable volatile oil fractions evaporated.

The Rockefeller group secretly owned the transport company Union Tanker Car Company, and the transport company had a patent for pressurized metal tank cars (oil is still transported in such tanks at the present time). Transport company allocated such wagons to Standard Oil's competitors, and John Rockefeller tracked competitors' deliveries, their volumes and consumers. And as soon as a competitor began to invest in the development of his business, received loans and expanded the sales market, the command followed - do not allocate wagons. Competitors were going bankrupt, and Standard Oil was buying up bankrupts at a meager price. Rockefeller used this business expansion tactic for many years. Competitors could not even imagine who organized their bankruptcy and who is the real owner of the transport company.

Just because of collusion between Standard Oil and transport workers, the state treasury lost more than fifty million dollars annually. The independent oil companies that remained afloat turned to the state administration with a proposal to build a pipeline. The state authorities supported the idea and construction began in 1878. The pipe could destroy the monopoly that Rockefeller had created for so many years.

Standard Oil's response to the decision to build the Riverside pipeline was the recruitment of gangs who attacked the builders and blew up the already assembled sections of the highway. The oil pipeline was still completed. In response, the Rockefeller company built four such pipelines and announced a meager price for pumping oil. A rival pipeline went bankrupt and was bought out, again at a rock bottom price, by Standard Oil. It is clear that as soon as the competitor was eliminated, the prices for transporting oil increased significantly.

Why were the authorities silent? He did not remain silent. A Pennsylvania grand jury returned an indictment against Rockefeller and Flagler for organizing gang attacks. A demand was sent to New York for the arrest of John Rockefeller. However, for unknown reasons (ha-ha), this judicial act was not executed.

Success in all its splendor

This is where the real success began. Rockefeller negotiated with transport workers across the country and bought up small oil producing and oil refining companies. The competitors had little choice: go bankrupt or transfer property to the Rockefeller empire for a share of the shares. Thus, by 1880, John had more than 95% of all oil production and refining in North America in his hands. Having become a monopolist, Rockefeller raised the price of oil.

And ten years later, the Sherman Anti-Monopoly Act required Standard Oil to be broken up into a number of small and independent companies. Rockefeller complied: 34 small businesses were created. And in each of these enterprises, John Rockefeller had a controlling stake. Virtually every modern American oil company has a success story that begins with Standard Oil. To be more precise: their stories are the success story of John Davison Rockefeller.

Prior to the separation, Standard Oil, annually, brought to its main owner more than three million dollars. And in addition to Standard Oil, John Rockefeller owned 16 railway transport companies, 6 metallurgical enterprises, 6 shipping companies, a dozen firms that traded in real estate, a group of banks (9 units) and many other properties, such as orange groves and huge land plots.

What else can be said about John Rockefeller and his success story?

He was a very religious man (?) and from his very childhood he gave ten percent of his income annually to the Baptist Church. In 1905, 10 percent amounted to one hundred million dollars.

He lived a long life and died at the age of 97 (and dreamed of living to 100). He began (gradually) to move away from business management as early as 1897 and concentrated all his efforts on charity: the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller Medical Institute were built with his money, etc., etc., etc.

Before he died, he gave away more than $500 million for charitable purposes. But this was not the whole fortune: the son inherited about 460 million.

In 2007, Forbes magazine attempted to estimate Rockefeller's wealth in modern equivalents. It turned out 318 billion. Bill Gates topped the list that year with just $50 billion.

And finally, 12 golden rules for success from John Davison Rockefeller.

Success stories always make you think about how a person managed to achieve this very success, in what ways and by what means. If you have read this post fully and carefully, you may well have felt some disappointment: a Christian entrepreneur, high moral principles and collusion, bandits, tax evasion on an especially large scale. And it's all one person - John Davison Rockefeller. To decide who he was, as always, is up to you. One big life, like any big story, is made up of small stories. Can these stories be considered success stories or should they be bashfully silent? To each his own. There was just such a person and this person lived. And these are no longer success stories - this is a historical fact.

Almost similar stories, but such different fates. You can look at the path to success or. And think...

Greetings! I think that each of us has “black” days when you feel like a complete loser and loser. And the thought: “why bother, it won’t work anyway”, knocks you out of the saddle and makes you give up.

There are a lot of medicines for “everything is gone” attacks: meet old friends, watch videos with kittens, find a new hobby. But personally, a simpler way always helps me: the success stories of famous people. Great motivation and inspiration! If they succeeded, then maybe it's too early for me to give up?

Most recently, John Rockefeller acted as my "antidepressant", whose biography is more like a fantasy novel than the life of an ordinary person. And I included the most impressive moments in today's post.

The future billionaire was born into a large Protestant family in the town of Richford (USA) in 1839. By the way, Rockefeller's nationality is not Jewish at all, as many believe. 🙂

From early childhood, he led in a notebook (!) And. He did not spend his first savings ($50) on candy, but lent it to a farmer neighbor at 7.5% per annum. At that time, young John was only ... thirteen.

John Davison Rockefeller Sr. got his first job at the age of 16 after completing a three-month accounting course. He was hired as an assistant accountant in a trading company for a salary of ... $ 17 per month. The guy quickly climbed the career ladder. And after some time he was already appointed manager with a salary of $600.

John's first work is interesting in two ways. First, he resigned as manager after learning that the previous head was paid almost three times as much. Secondly, work in that trading company was Rockefeller's first and ... the only job for hire.

In 1857 he became a business partner of a small English entrepreneur. Moreover, the young Rockefeller borrowed the amount missing for the partnership from his father. The Clark and Rochester Company specialized in the sale of meat, grain and hay. Interestingly, when they needed a loan to develop their business, all negotiations with banks were conducted by young John!

Rockefeller and oil

John Rockefeller was one of the first to assess the prospects of the oil business. In 1870, he created the legendary oil company Standard Oil, which in the future will bring him a billion-dollar fortune. In order not to depend on anyone, Standard Oil carried out a full cycle: from the extraction of crude oil and its processing to supply to the end consumer.

By the way, it was he who first introduced a non-standard motivation system at the enterprise. Part of the salary to employees was given not in "live" money, but in Standard Oil, which was constantly growing in price.

For 10 years, the Rockefeller company has become an absolute oil monopoly in the United States: 95% of all production in the country. John dealt with competitors ruthlessly. By dumping on the cost of rail transport, he forced others oil companies leave the market or… merge with Standard Oil.

By the way, I really liked the book about oil: “Production. The World History struggle for oil, money and power" Daniel Yergin. Highly recommend!

Nobody liked a rigid monopoly except Rockefeller. Therefore, in 1890, the Sherman antitrust law was passed in the United States, which dealt a crushing blow to the oil empire of the billionaire. In 1911, he had to split Standard Oil into 34 companies. True, the controlling stake in each of them was retained by former owner corporations.

John Rockefeller died at the age of 97 in 1937, bequeathing his fortune to his son: John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. By the way, it was the son of the legendary billionaire who built the famous Empire State Building in New York and the UN headquarters.

• In today's dollar exchange rate, Rockefeller's fortune at the time of his death amounted to $ 310 billion. Until now, it is he who is considered the richest man in recent history.
• He owned not only the legendary Standard Oil, but also 16 railway and 6 steel companies, nine real estate funds, six shipping companies, nine banks and even three orange groves.
• Over the course of his life, the billionaire transferred about $100 billion to charity. Most of This money went to research medicine. In the late 1930s, a group of Oxford scientists received a $5,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. As a result of research, penicillin was discovered.
• In 1917, Rockefeller's fortune corresponded to 2.5% of US GDP.
• IN Everyday life the richest man in the world was a real ascetic in food and clothing, he did not smoke or drink alcohol.
• Married to his wife Laura Spelman, Rockefeller lived for over 60 years! The couple understood each other perfectly and, according to family friends, were the perfect couple.
• Rockefeller is said to have created a micromodel of the market economy at home. His daughter Laura was appointed CEO, and all the children had to fill out the ledgers. A day of abstaining from sweets was estimated at 2 cents, and each subsequent day was already 10 cents. The billionaire's children were paid for weeding in the garden, sharpening pencils, music lessons, chopping firewood and ... dead flies. They were fined 1 cent for being late to the table.
• Rockefeller's son confidently followed in his father's footsteps. During the years of the First and Second World Wars, he earned about $ 2 billion in net profit for the war effort.
• Standard Oil workers scared their children with Rockefeller (like we are Baba Yaga).

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10 secrets from the life of the richest dynasty.

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There is a lot of gossip and legend about millionaires - people want to know how they managed to hold on to their vast empire, while other companies arose, went bankrupt or merged with others.

Among the famous families, the Rockefellers occupy a special place, the surname has become associated with wealth. However, few people know what was at the heart of the financial empire. Secrets of one of the richest dynasties in the world that you did not know.

horse thief

The father of the first billionaire in history, William Rockefeller (then his last name sounded like "Rockenfeller", was born in 1810. Officially, he was engaged in the sale of medicines. However, he was not an ordinary pharmacist, did not have special education and traded drugs, collaborating with all sorts of healers.

William traveled the northeastern United States selling suspicious medicinal potions. In 1849, when John Rockefeller, William's son, was 10 years old, the family urgently had to change their place of residence, and the move was like an escape. The reason for it, as evidenced by the documents, was very weighty - William Rockefeller was accused of horse stealing.

Marry a swindler

Eliza Davison was the mother of the richest man in the world. When she first saw William, who, participating in another fraud, posed as a deaf-mute, she exclaimed: “I would marry this man if he were not deaf-mute!”

William quickly realized that this was a profitable party - his father gave Eliza $ 500 dowry. Soon they got married, and two years later John was born.

Rockefeller Sr.

Eliza did not part with her husband, finding out that he not only hears everything perfectly, but, on occasion, swears no worse than a drunken lumberjack. She did not leave her husband even when he brought his mistress Nancy Brown into the house, and she - in turn with Eliza - began to give birth to William's children.

My husband went to work at night. He disappeared into the darkness, without explaining where and why he was going, and returned a few months later at dawn - Eliza woke up from the sound of a pebble hitting the window pane. She ran out of the house, threw back the bolt, opened the gate, and her husband drove into the yard - on a new horse, in a new suit, and sometimes with diamonds on his fingers.

A handsome man made good money: he took prizes at shooting competitions, he briskly traded glass under the sign "The world's best emeralds from Golconda!" He also successfully posed as a well-known herbal doctor, selling various supplements, which today are called dietary supplements.

He went door to door in different parts of America and sold "miracle" remedies to housewives. Neighbors called him Bill the Devil: some considered William a professional player, others considered him a bandit.

After several years of wandering life, the Rockefeller family finally settled in Cleveland, but not because Big Bill - as William Rockefeller was nicknamed among horse dealers - settled down.

Just one fine day in 1855, he left for an unknown destination, marrying a certain Margaret, a 25-year-old girl who knew him as Dr. William Livingston. Moreover, he never divorced Eliza, which means, in fact, he was a bigamist.

Little businessman

“From a young age, my mother and priest inspired me to work and save,” recalled John Rockefeller. Doing business was part of family education. Even in early childhood, John bought a pound of sweets, divided it into small piles and sold it at a premium to his own sisters.

At the age of seven, he sold the turkeys he had grown to his neighbors, and he lent the $50 he earned from this to a neighbor at 7% per annum. Subsequently, John highly appreciated these lessons. And from communication with his father, he made a firm conviction that alcohol and tobacco are a vice, and this is very bad. And looking at how his mother suffers from the frequent betrayals of her husband, he decided as a child that he would never do this.

“He was a very quiet boy,” one of the townspeople recalled many years later, “he was always thinking.” From the side, John looked distracted: it seemed that the child was constantly struggling with some kind of insoluble problem.

The impression was deceptive - the boy was distinguished by a tenacious memory, grasp and unshakable calmness: playing checkers, he harassed his partners, thinking for half an hour over each move.

At the same time, he was a sensitive boy: when his sister died, John ran into the backyard, threw himself on the ground, and lay there all day. Yes, and having matured, Rockefeller did not become such a monster as he was sometimes portrayed: once he asked about a classmate whom he once liked and, having learned that she was widowed and in poverty, the owner of Standard Oil immediately assigned her a pension.

Work "for uncle"

John Rockefeller never graduated from high school. At 16, with a three-month accounting course under his belt, he began looking for work in Cleveland, where his family then lived. Six weeks later, he took a job as an assistant accountant at Hewitt & Tuttle, a trading company.

First he was paid $17 a month, and then $25. When receiving them, John felt guilty, finding the reward excessively high. In order not to waste a single cent, the thrifty Rockefeller bought a small ledger from his first salary, where he wrote down all his expenses, and carefully kept it all his life.

As for work, it was his only job for hire. At the age of 18, John Rockefeller became the junior partner of the businessman Maurice Clark. The Civil War of 1861-1865 helped the new company to get on its feet. The warring armies paid generously for provisions, and partners supplied them with flour, pork and salt.

By the end of the war in Pennsylvania, near Cleveland, oil was discovered, and the city was at the center of an oil rush. By 1864, Clark and Rockefeller were already in full swing with Pennsylvania oil.

A year later, Rockefeller decided to focus only on oil, but Clark was against it. Then, for $72,500, John bought his share from a partner and plunged headlong into the oil business.

Oil at any cost

In 1870, Rockefeller created his famous "Standard Oil". Together with his friend and business partner Henry Flagler, he began to gather disparate oil producing and refining enterprises into a single powerful trust. Competitors could not resist him,

Rockefeller put them before a choice: unification or ruin. If beliefs did not work, the most severe methods were used. For example, "Standard Oil" reduced prices in the local market of a competitor, forcing him to work at a loss. Or Rockefeller sought to stop the supply of oil to recalcitrant refiners.

By 1879 the war was effectively over. The Rockefeller Company controlled 90% of the refinery capacity in the United States. But in 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed, aimed at combating monopolies.

Until 1911, Rockefeller and his partner managed to circumvent this law, but then Standard Oil was divided into thirty-four companies (virtually all of today's major American oil companies trace their history back to Standard Oil).

home economics

Rockefeller was married to Laura Celestina Spelman. He once remarked: "Without her advice, I would have remained a poor man." Biographers write that Rockefeller did his best to teach children to work, modesty and unpretentiousness. John created a kind of mock market economy at home: he appointed his daughter Laura as "director" and told the children to keep detailed ledgers.

Each child received a few cents for killing a fly, for sharpening a pencil, for an hour of music lessons, for a day of abstaining from sweets. Each of the children had his own garden bed, where the labor of cleaning the weeds also had its price. Little Rockefellers were fined for being late for breakfast.

Owner of 2.5% of US GDP

In 1917, John Rockefeller's personal fortune was estimated at $900-1200 million, which was 2.5% of the then GDP of the United States. In the modern equivalent, Rockefeller owned approximately $150 billion - he is still the richest of people.

By the end of his life, Rockefeller, in addition to shares in each of the 34 Standard Oil subsidiaries, owned 16 railroad and six steel companies, nine banks, six shipping companies, nine real estate firms, and three orange groves.

Rockefeller's donations to charity during his life exceeded $500 million. Of these, about $80 million was received by the University of Chicago, at least $100 million - by the Baptist church, of which he and his wife were parishioners.

Also, John Rockefeller created and funded the New York Institute for Medical Research, the Council for universal education and the Rockefeller Foundation.

military dynasty

The new head of the dynasty - John D. Rockefeller II (junior) turned out to be a worthy son of his father. First World War brought the Rockefeller family $ 500 million in net profit.

The Second World War turned out to be an even more profitable enterprise - tank and aircraft engines required gasoline, and it was produced at the Rockefeller factories around the clock.

The result was 2 billion dollars of net profit received during the war years. Rockefeller Jr. married the daughter of one of the most influential politicians America at the beginning of the 20th century, Senator Nelson Aldrich, who for a long period enjoyed almost the same influence in Washington as the presidents of the country.

Strange Collection

John Rockefeller Jr. left luxurious palaces and villas to his five sons and daughter. In winter, the young Rockefellers lived in New York in a nine-story family mansion.

They had their own clinic, special colleges, swimming pools, tennis courts, concert and exhibition halls. The 3,000-acre Rockefeller estate has riding arenas, a velodrome, home theater, worth half a million dollars, ponds for sailing on yachts and more.

The equipment of one game room alone cost the child-loving oil king $520,000. When the youngest of the brothers (David) grew up, each received at his disposal city mansions, summer villas and other real estate necessary for social life.

As for David leading today financial business family, then, according to the American press, his only hobby is collecting beetles. There are 40 thousand of them in the collection, David Rockefeller, according to newspapers, always carries with him a bottle for caught insects.

No longer the richest

Rockefeller Financial Services now manages $34 billion in assets. Among them are the Vallares oil and gas group, a stake in Johnson & Johnson, Dell, Procter & Gamble and Oracle. The majority of the company's shares are owned by the Rockefeller family.

But the personal fortune of David Rockefeller is estimated (according to Forbes) at only $2.5 billion. At the same time, the personal fortune of Russian businessman Roman Abramovich is estimated by Forbs at $10.2 billion.

The Russian is now actively investing in foreign companies. One of the latest major purchases was a 23.3% stake in the British telecommunications group Truphone, which cost £75 million.

Experts estimate that Abramovich's art collection is worth at least a billion dollars. In January 2013, he bought a collection of 40 works by Ilya Kabakov, the approximate cost of which is $60 million.

A few years ago, Abramovich became the buyer of a 70-acre estate on the island of St. Barth in the Caribbean. The land on which the estate is located once belonged to David Rockefeller.

Abramovich's new acquisition is valued at $89 million. The estate includes several oceanfront bungalows, tennis courts, swimming pools and dance pavilions.