Most of the early American tycoons succeeded by chance, with the exception of John D. Rockefeller. He was not multi-talented, but unusually calm, shrewd, visionary, with his own unique vigor and means, starting from nothing, step by step to build up his huge oil empire. In his long life, people have mixed feelings about him, some people think that he is nothing more than a very ambitious, profit-oriented entrepreneur, while others praise him as a generous philanthropist. But no matter what, as the first billionaire in U.S. history, as an oil magnate, he controlled all the U.S. oil resources for a considerable period of time, and created the trust enterprise system, in the history of the development of the U.S. capitalist economy occupies an important place.
On July 8, 1839, John D. Rockefeller was born in a small town called Younger on the Hudson River in New York State. His parents, personality is very different: mother is a word and deed are converted to the Bible devout Christian, she is hardworking, thrifty, simple, strict upbringing; while his father is a practical playboy, he is confident, adventurous, sociable, capricious and self-centered. Rockefeller as the eldest son, he learned from his father the practical way of doing business, and from his mother learned from the fine, thrifty, trustworthy, meticulous strengths, which had a great impact on his later success.
His father, William, known as "Big Bill", was a lumberman, horse trader, and witchdoctor who peddled the so-called "instant cure for all ills". In addition, he also sold land, trading furs, selling salt, selling groceries, almost everything is the do-it-all.
The father went out to do business, a few months, the home of the children's education is mainly borne by the mother. But the father, who returned home occasionally, shared the mother's hope for his children, and taught John how to write business letters, how to pay accurately and quickly, and how to keep clear accounts whenever he could. He knew the realities of society and the coldness of the world, so he often used special ways to educate his children, so that they would be strong and shrewd before they entered society.
Bill took great care to create opportunities to inspire John and his brother in their play to develop a sense of preparedness. When John was a boy, his father used to make little John jump from a high chair into his arms. Once his father did not catch him with both arms and he fell heavily to the floor. His father said to him seriously, "Remember, never trust anyone completely. Never trust even the closest person!" This incident left a deep impression on John, so much so that in the future business world, he always kept a calm and alert mind, thus avoiding many mistakes.
However, John did not accept all the things in his father's blood. He did not have his father's playboy nature, but inherited his mother's virtue of thrift. He regarded this belief as "business training", and throughout his life, he has been branded as "thrifty or scarce"; from which he also deduced his own conclusion: "Only numbers count."
When John D. Rockefeller was 14 years old, he attended Cleveland Central High School. After school, he used to hang out on the docks and watch merchants do their business. One day, he met a classmate and the two of them chatted as they walked. That classmate asked, "John, what do you want to be when you grow up?" The young Rockefeller said without hesitation, "I want to be a man with 100,000 dollars, I will succeed." Who had expected, decades later, the famous domestic and foreign oil king, its wealth of one billion dollars, is 100,000 times his childhood dream!
When John D. Rockefeller graduated from high school in 1855, he decided to give up on college and make a living in the business world. He ran the streets of Cleveland for weeks in search of work, making up his mind about a career with great prospects. He had high aspirations. He later recalled, "I went to the railroads, I went to the banks, I went to the wholesalers, I didn't go to the little stores. I was going to do something big."
On September 26 of that year, he became an accounting clerk at a grain trading house. From then on, the date became a joyous anniversary in his personal calendar, which he celebrated as his second birthday." It was there that I began to learn the business at a wage of four dollars a week." He reminisced.
He worked hard and soon developed a good eye for numbers. In addition to keeping good books, he also came up with ideas for running the mercantile house. Once, the firm bought a batch of marble, open the package after the discovery of high-priced purchase of marble material on the flaws, the owner of the firm frustrated and can do nothing about it. At this time, the flexible Rockefeller suggested that the responsibility to the head of the three transportation companies responsible for the shipment, to the three companies were asked to compensate for the losses. This brilliant idea to make the merchant bank to get the compensation than the original two times higher, the merchant bank thus get a "fly" to the fortune. Rockefeller this natural business talent is quite appreciated by the boss, and soon gave him a raise, the first year of work he earned 300 dollars.
In the third year, his annual salary of 600 dollars. But he knew his contribution to the firm was much more than that, so he asked for a raise to $800, which was rejected. Rockefeller decided to leave the firm and go out on his own.
In 1858, at the age of 19, Rockefeller borrowed $1,000 from his father, plus $800 from his own savings, and Clark, who was 10 years older than he was, co-founded a grain and meat company. This is Rockefeller's life by the first company. Because of the smooth operation, the first year of business did 45,000 dollars, net profit of 4,000 dollars. At the end of the second year netted $ 12,000, Rockefeller share of $ 6,000.
Rockefeller business is always confident, ambitious; at the same time, but also words and faith, find ways to make themselves credible. Clark, who admired Rockefeller's carefulness, described the situation as follows: "He was methodical to the core, attentive to detail, not missing a beat. If there was a penny due to us, he would take it. If there was a penny less to give to a client, he made them take it."
At this time in the United States in Pennsylvania has been found in the oil, thousands of people like the original gold rush crowded to the oil recovery area. For a time, the Pennsylvania land was lined with derricks, and crude oil production skyrocketed.
Cleveland businessmen were also excited about this new business, and they elected the young and talented broker Rockefeller to go to the Pennsylvania crude oil production area to personally investigate, in order to obtain direct and reliable information.
After a few days of long-distance travel, Rockefeller came to the oil production area, he was shocked by everything in front of him: everywhere is a towering derrick, messy and simple cabins, strange digging equipment and oil storage tanks, a mess, chaos. This situation makes Rockefeller more or less frustrated, through the surface of the "prosperity" scene, he saw the potential crisis behind the blind exploitation.
Calm Rockefeller did not rush back to the Cleveland business community to report the results of the investigation, but in the oil-producing areas of the United States of America Hotel stayed down, and further field visits. Every day he read the newspaper market, quietly listening to the anxious and chattering oil businessman's account, carefully making detailed notes. And he kept his words to himself, never revealing his thoughts.
After a period of study, he returned to Cleveland. He advised businessmen not to invest in crude oil production, because there are already 72 oil wells there, with a daily production of 1,135 barrels, while the demand for oil is limited, the market for the oil market is bound to fall, which is the inevitable result of blind exploitation. He cautioned that to create a career, you must learn to wait, patience is the prerequisite for victory.
Sure enough, as Rockefeller expected, "the vanguard can not make money." As a result of the madness of oil drilling, leading to the price of oil fell again and again, each barrel of crude oil from the original 20 dollars plummeted to only 10 cents. One by one, those oil drilling pioneers lost.
3 years later, when crude oil plummeted again and again, Rockefeller thought it was time to invest in oil, which was greatly unexpected. He and Clark *** with an investment of $ 4,000, and a British working in the refinery Andrews partnership to open a refinery. Andrews used a new technology to refine kerosene, which led to the rapid growth of Andrews and Clark.
By this time, Rockefeller, despite being in his early 20s, had become quite sophisticated in business. He appreciated the strategy of those who won the championship marathon runners, that is, let others play the lead, and see the opportunity to give him a surprise, and later on the most sensible. After waiting patiently and observing for some time, he decided to go for it. But his partner, Clark, was too uncertain to take the risk. The two men had serious disagreements over decisions about the oil business and eventually had to go their separate ways.
Both of them knew that oil had a bright future, and they refused to give up their original brokerage firms' stakes in Andrews & Clark at the auction, which was a fierce battle. Two people from 500 dollars to start calling, who bid the highest will buy the stake. Rockefeller had made up his mind to get into the oil business, so he didn't hesitate to call out higher bids than Clark each time. When the bid reached $50,000, they both realized that the price was way beyond the actual value of the company. But the bidding is still rising, $60,000, $70,000 ...... when Clark shouted out $72,000, Rockefeller did not change his face shouted "$72,500". Clark cried, "I will not raise the price, John, this stake is yours." Then he walked away.
At 26, Rockefeller had finally triumphed. He later recalled this defining moment by saying, "It was the biggest decision I ever made in my life." From then on, he renamed the company "Rockefeller-Andrews Corporation" and started his oil business with great hope.
Rockefeller quickly expanded his refining facilities, increasing production to 500 barrels of oil per day and exceeding millions of dollars in annual sales. Rockefeller's company became the largest oil refining company in Cleveland. The ugly duckling finally became the white swan.
At that time, the oil industry, the order is still very chaotic, overproduction, poor quality, price confusion ...... fierce competition has appeared, Rockefeller's company is like a boat in the ocean, at any time there is a risk of sinking.
The visionary Rockefeller realized that he had to expand his business, the boat is large in order to withstand the impact of the waves. He decisively persuaded his brother William to participate in the establishment of a second oil refining company, and sent him to New York to operate the oil import and export trade, as soon as possible to open the European market. Before William went to New York, the two brothers talked to each other, hesitantly made a vow: "We have to expand, and then expand, the more money, the more abundant our development capital, we want to dominate the world!"
Although Rockefeller at that time for their own to create a "super empire", the heart does not have any clear concept, but he is the future of the enterprise and the future of personal confidence. He sat at the headquarters in Cleveland and took charge of the whole situation, dealing with all the challenges.
To produce high-quality products and expand the market, the first step was to set quality management standards, cut costs, and lower prices. He took out a bank loan and built a new refinery that was "standard" and produced standard kerosene, which was very popular.
From the beginning, he turned his attention to the international market. He opened an office in New York that specialized in selling the company's products to the East Coast and abroad. He cut costs wherever he could, such as making his own oil drums and buying a chemical company that made its own sulfuric acid for refining oil. He also purchased oil tankers and pipelines in order to avoid paying for railroad transportation. The frugal habits of his youth were used by Rockefeller to great benefit in production.
Rockefeller was keen on inter-company alliances, and he joined forces with two well-funded and reputable investment partners. 3 years later, on January 10, 1870, a new company was created with a capitalization of 1 million dollars, which was named the Standard Oil Company. John D. Rockefeller, who was the founder and president of the company, received 1/34th of the company's equity when he was only 30 years old.
Scientific management, fine management, high quality products for the standard oil company won the reputation, but also has a solid competitive ability. 1865 when Rockefeller first entered the oil industry, Cleveland has 55 refineries, by 1870 when the standard oil company was founded, only 26 survive, standard oil company at the end of 1872, the standard oil company control of the 26 of the 21.
Rockefeller was a man of efficiency and hated pointless competition that wasted energy, costs and profits. He hated the then-common practice of lowering prices over and over again until the competition was driven out of the business, and then raising them at will. He offered competitors cash or Standard stock in exchange for ownership of their refineries, and as a result most agreed to sell their plants to Standard. It can be said that he was a pioneer in recognizing the value of mergers. While merging companies. Rockefeller also netted a number of capable people, these people have become his right-hand man. In his own words: "That value is far more than all the companies that were merged."
Rockefeller used mergers to buy up a wide range of refineries across the country, and by the end of 1879, just nine years after its founding as a legal entity, Standard had control of 90 percent of the nation's refining industry. By 1880, 95 percent of all oil produced in the United States was refined by Standard Oil. Never since the beginning of American history has there been a single company with such complete and total market domination.
As Rockefeller's oil empire grew, so did the dangers of uncontrollability due to its sheer size. Rockefeller saw this problem clearly and took it seriously.
At this time, Rockefeller found an article in a publicly available publication that said, "The age of the small businessman is over, the age of the big business is upon us." Feeling that this coincided with his own monopoly ideas, he spoke highly of the article and hired Dodd, the author of the article, as a legal adviser at a salary of up to $500 a month.
Dodd was a young lawyer, and after he became "famous", he tried to find legal loopholes for Rockefeller's company. One day, he was carefully reading the English law of the trust system, and suddenly had the inspiration to put forward the concept of "trust" as a monopoly organization.
The so-called "trusts" are a number of enterprises producing similar products that no longer work individually, but form an integrated group of enterprises in the form of a high degree of union. This form than the original "cartel", that is, the kind of independent enterprises in order to master the market in the production and sales of joint fronts, its monopoly is much stronger.
Under the guidance of Dodd's theory of "trusts", Rockefeller convened a stockholders' meeting of the Standard Oil Company on January 20, 1882, and formed a nine-member "Board of Trustees" to take charge of all the stock of the Standard Oil Company and the stock of its subsidiaries. Rockefeller rightfully became the chairman of the committee. Subsequently, the Board of Trustees issued 700,000 certificates of trust, of which Rockefeller and four others owned more than 460,000 certificates, or two-thirds of the total, and thus Rockefeller was able to create an unprecedented joint venture - a trust. Under this trust structure, Rockefeller merged more than 40 manufacturers and monopolized 80% of the nation's refining industry and 90% of the oil pipeline business.
The trusts quickly spread throughout the United States, across all industries, and in a very short time, this form of monopoly organization accounted for 90% of the U.S. economy. Clearly, Rockefeller succeeded in creating a unique era in American history - the Age of Monopoly.
In the 1880s, Standard Oil further expanded its overseas markets to Western Europe and China, where American processes had already made Standard's products superior to those of the Europeans, and thus Standard won the kerosene market in much of Europe. In China, Standard created an entirely new market for itself. It gave away millions of cheap oil lamps so that the Chinese would buy and light Standard's kerosene, which has been called the "Light of Asia". In this way, the standard company step by step to expand the oil market from Europe to Asia, and then to the world.
In 1884, Rockefeller moved Standard's headquarters from Cleveland to 26 Broadway in New York City, becoming one of the world's largest oil companies. John D. Rockefeller became famous at home and abroad "oil king". The Standard Oil Company changed its name several times, and was finally named Mobil Oil Company.
In 1896, Rockefeller left his headquarters in New York and secretly moved to Pocan Tico, where he retired. He was only 57 years old that year, in the prime of his life. Why did he retire in the heat of the moment? Some say he was conscious of his sins. Rockefeller's success behind the scenes, there are indeed a lot of peer manufacturers closed down, bankruptcy, suffered from his weak monopoly. Others say he suffered from a severe digestive disorder. In the past 40 years, he wanted money more than life, so much so that he had to retire after suffering from a disease. I am afraid no one can say what exactly it is because of.
Rockefeller lived another 41 years after his retirement. He put almost all of his energy into developing philanthropy after retirement. From the 1890s, he donated more than $ 1 million a year. 1913, the establishment of the "Rockefeller Foundation", dedicated to donations. His donations totaled $500 million. While some expressed respect and gratitude, others said it was to atone for his own deep sins and out of a sense of guilt. One Congregational minister denounced a $100,000 donation from Rockefeller as "dirty money" and refused to accept it.
As a result of the rumors, the Standard Oil Trust, which Rockefeller had run, was dismantled and broken up into 38 new companies, all of which remain giants of American industry to this day.
On May 23, 1937, at the age of 98, Rockefeller died at his Ormond Beach house. His children and grandchildren succeeded him. The Rockefellers became one of the ten richest super-rich families in the United States and one of the most recognizable families in the country today. His grandson, Nelson Rockefeller, was Vice President of the United States, and his other grandson, David Rockefeller, was a renowned big banker. How much wealth the Rockefellers have today, even they themselves can not say.