How John D. Rockefeller Became The Richest Person In
Modern History
If you take
the five richest people in the world right now — Bill Gates, Vladimir Putin,
Carlos Slim Helu, Warren Buffett, and Amancio Ortega — and add up their
fortunes, you still would be about $13.5 billion short of the net worth of the richest person in modern history: John Davison
Rockefeller. Adjusted for inflation, the Standard Oil Company founder's
personal fortune would be worth an astounding $340 billion in today's
dollars. But you may be surprised to learn that in addition to his ungodly
success in the oil industry, Rockefeller was also a pioneering philanthropist.
Both in his lifetime and after death, Rockefeller used his money to help
establish and grow universities, eradicate entire diseases, further medical
research, and offer educational opportunities to African Americans during the
height of the Jim Crow South. He was the first person in history to reach a
personal net worth of $1 billion, and his fortune at one point accounted
for 1.53 percent of the entire U.S. economy. What's even more amazing is the
fact that Rockefeller began his ascent to the highest levels of capitalism at
the very bottom of the food chain. This is his story.
John D.
Rockefeller – Life Story
Born on July
8, 1839, in Richford, New York, to William Avery and Eliza Rockefeller, John
Davison was the second of six children. His father, a traveling salesman and
vagabond known to neighbors as "Devil Bill," abandoned his wife and
children when John was a teenager. Before leaving, though, Bill had two other
children with a live-in mistress and was frequently away from the family.
John's mother was a devout Baptist who instilled thriftiness and discipline in
her children. Young John's first venture into business came at the age of 7 or
8, when his mother provided him with some turkeys to care for and sell. From
the start, John kept track of every penny spent and earned in a notebook. His
mother encouraged him to work hard and to give a percentage of his earnings to
the church and to the disadvantaged. By 14, he was lending money to neighbors at 7 percent interest,
quickly learning that he could make more this way than through manual labor.
After a few
moves around New York, the Rockefellers settled in a suburb of Cleveland, where
John attended Central High School. He completed a short business course at a
small nearby college and jumped into a career as a bookkeeper.
Despite — or in spite of — his father's eccentric example, John was described
as serious and discreet, with a penchant for numbers. He was also very active
in a local church. When the church was threatened with closure due to unpaid
debts, John solicited contributions every Sunday until he'd raised enough to
keep the church open. At 16, he got a job as an assistant bookkeeper at a
wholesale produce commission in Cleveland. After a year, he became the head
bookkeeper, earning an annual salary of $500. The following year, he was
offered $700, but turned it down to go into business for himself. From his very
first paycheck, he tithed 10 percent of his earnings to his church.
Young
Rockefeller
At 19,
Rockefeller invested $2,000 to co-found Clark & Rockefeller, a commission
business with a partner 10 years his senior. He borrowed a lot of money from
local banks to finance the expansion of the business, but had the best credit in town because of his
"normal" habits, his church attendance, and his ability to pay back
his debts on time. While the company grew, Rockefeller lived frugally, saved
money, and reinvested back in the business, which was turning a profit from day
one. At the age of 23, his economic habits allowed him to jump at the chance to
enter the oil business when the "black gold" was discovered in
Pennsylvania. Along with his partner, he invested in a refinery planned by
Clark Andrews. The company, Andrews, Clark & Co., didn't even bare
Rockefeller's name. By 1865, the partnership dissolved and Rockefeller bought
the refinery at auction for $72,500, which he'd mostly borrowed. He renamed the
firm Rockefeller & Andrews. The following year, the firm bought another
Cleveland refinery established by John's brother, William, and the company
became Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler, a precursor to what would become the
Standard Oil Company. Before he'd even turned 30 years old, John D. Rockefeller had a controlling interest in
what was already the largest oil refinery in the world. By 31, Rockefeller
incorporated the Standard Oil Company for the sum of $1 million. He made
himself president. A decade later, after numerous acquisitions and further
growth, the Standard Oil Trust was created. It's capital was valued at $70
million.
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Standard
Oil's First Refinery in Cleveland
But trouble
struck towards the end of the 1870s. Standard Oil was refining more than 90
percent of the U.S.'s oil, peaking at 90 percent of oil refined in the world
before dropping closer to 80 percent in the face of foreign refineries. As a
result of its huge success, the company — and its president — became a target
for journalists and politicians, who decried Rockefeller's monopoly on the
market. In 1890, after the company had moved its headquarters to New York City,
the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed. The law would be instrumental in breaking
up the Standard Oil Trust. By this time, Rockefeller invested in iron ore and
its transport, setting up a competition with fellow tycoon Andrew Carnegie.
These interests would be sold to steel magnate J.P. Morgan, of U.S. Steel, in
exchange for stock and for membership on the company's board of directors for
Rockefeller and his son, John Jr. In 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
the Standard Oil Co. was in violation of the Sherman Antritrust Act, and the
company was divided into 34 smaller organizations — some of which became
Conoco, BP, Amoco, Chevron, and ExxonMobil. Rockefeller received proportionate
shares of stock in each company, profiting handsomely in the aftermath. His
personal fortune shot up to nearly $1 billion.
Standard Oil
Octopus
Decades
earlier, throughout the 1890s, Rockefeller had been slowing down, focusing on
leisure activities and retirement. He experienced health issues, including
depression, digestive problems, and alopecia, which caused him to lose most of
his hair. He began wearing wigs and started to withdraw from the day-to-day
operations of his business. He bought a sprawling 3,400-acre estate in
Westchester County, New York, in 1893. A mansion was built on the grounds 20
years later. The 40-room house has since served as a home for four generations
of Rockefellers. The estate also includes a golf course, some 75 houses, a
number of outbuildings, lush gardens, and 70 private roads (largely designed by
Rockefeller and his son). Today, about 10 Rockefeller families live on the
estate.
Rockefeller
Estate in NY
Throughout
his successful business career, Rockefeller had been very generous with his
money. In 1884, he was the major funder for Spelman College (named after his
wife's family), a university in Atlanta for African-American women. He was also
instrumental in the creation of the University of Chicago. A devout Baptist, he
often gave to Baptist causes, especially educating black youth in the South.
His giving also included support to Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, and other
eastern schools. In 1901, he founded the Rockefeller Institute for Medical
Research, which eventually became Rockefeller University. In 1909, he founded
the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, which went on to eradicate hookworm
disease. In 1913, he created the Rockefeller Foundation with $250 million. It
helped endow the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, funded a
medical school in China, and eventually took over the Sanitary Commission.
During his
lifetime, John D. Rockefeller offered some wisdom for the business titans of
the future. Here are a few, from his New York Times obituary:
- Do all the good you can.
- Do not grow old before your time. Maintain an interest in life and all living things.
- A little rest now and then helps a man to accomplish more.
- Do not be afraid to work.
- Persevere. If you make a mistake, remember that it is human to err. Try again and try harder.
- I believe it is a duty for a man to get all the money he honestly can and to give all he can.
- Live within your means. One of the swiftest toboggans I know of is for a young man just starting in life to get into debt.
- There is no feeling in this world to be compared with self-reliance — do not sacrifice that to anything else.
- A clear conscience is worth more and is a greater comfort than is a great fortune gathered by dishonorable methods.
- Sons of wealthy parents have not the ghost of a chance compared with boys who came from the country with the determination to do something in this world.
As a boy,
Rockefeller had dreamed of earning $100,000 and living to be 100. As we
mentioned previously, when adjusted for inflation, Rockefeller had accumulated
a personal fortune worth $340 billion. . He clearly surpassed the first life
goal, and was just barely shy of the second one. Rockefeller died on May 23,
1937, at the age of 97, from arteriosclerosis. After his death, the extent of
Rockefeller's generosity was made public. Between 1855 and 1934, he'd given
nearly $531 million (equal to $7 billion in modern dollars) to various
philanthropic efforts, surpassing even the $350 million of fellow
philanthropist and business titan Andrew Carnegie. His only son continued in
his father's footsteps, also giving away more than $530 million during his own
lifetime. His grandchildren and great-grandchildren, many involved in politics,
have kept the Rockefeller name in the forefront of the American conscience —
not that John D. needed much help.
Sheldon Adelson – Rags to Riches Story
COMDEX Convention in 1998
The Venetian Hotel Vegas
AN UNLIKELY CELEBRITY
Keller
knew that her decision to become a vaudeville performer was risky. How
would the crowds treat her -like a freak, or as a respected speaker?
There were, in essence, two Helen Kellers. "The sweet myth, the
canonical one, portrays her as an angel upon earth, saved from the
savagery of darkness and silence," wrote Keller biographer Walter
Kendrick. But the real Keller was not so angelic -she was a fiery,
middle-aged woman who espoused radical left-wing ideals and spoke out
against the United States' involvement in World War I, which most
Americans supported. With vaudeville, Keller's ambitious goal was to put
on an entertaining, educational act without compromising her ideals. 
Audiences loved "The Star of Happiness." And so did the critics. The New York Times wrote,
"Keller has conquered again, and the Monday afternoon audience at the
Palace, one of the most critical and cynical in the world, was hers."
Everywhere Keller and Sullivan went throughout the United States and
Canada, crowds greeted them warmly. "At first it seemed strange to find
ourselves on a program with dancers, acrobats, and trained animals,"
Keller later wrote. "But the very difference between ourselves and the
other actors gave novelty and interest to our work." Keller and Sullivan
were paid in the top tier for vaudevillians -$2,000 per week. 
Keller
quite the vaudeville circuit in 1924 when Sullivan's sight and overall
health became too poor for her to continue. Besides, Keller had bigger
plans. Now under the care of Sullivan's secretary, Polly Thompson, she
amped up her advocacy. That same year she became a spokesperson for the
American Foundation for the Blind and was already a founding member of
the American Civil Liberties Union. She then began traveling the world
to advocate for people who faced discrimination or any other blows that
life dealt them. During World War II, she visited disabled veterans to
demonstrate -through her mere presence- that they could still accomplish
great things. In 1948 she toured the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki just three years after the atomic bombs were dropped. In all,
Keller traveled to 39 countries and met with every president from Grover
Cleveland in 1888 to to Lyndon Johnson, who awarded her the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. 
6. He loved hookers and prostitutes.
Wyatt may not have been a drinker, but he loved the ladies (ladies of
the evening, that is). In one year (1872) Wyatt was arrested three times
for "keeping and being found in a house of ill-repute."
11. He was a pal of John Wayne.
In Wyatt's later years, he lived in Los Angeles and was a technical
advisor on several silent cowboy films. He befriended a young actor
named Marion Morrison (who later changed his name to John Wayne) and
regaled the young thespian with tales of the Old West. Enthralled, the
young Duke used to fetch Wyatt cups of coffee. Wayne later claimed his
portrayals of cowboys and Western lawmen were based on these
conversations with Wyatt Earp. 
