When it comes to modern and even contemporary American history, people can hardly avoid the names of the Rockefeller family: Standard Oil Company, Rockefeller Foundation, Chase Bank, Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller Center, University of Chicago, Rockefeller University, and the Twin Towers that fell in the "9"11that made the United States of America sad.
In the business world, it is no exaggeration to describe the wealth and reputation of the Rockefeller family in the United States with "a household name, known to all women and children". This "symbol of world wealth", which has flourished for six generations, is inextricably linked with American and even international politics and economy.
Edit this paragraph of the older generation of entrepreneurs.
Founder John "D" Rockefeller (1839- 1937) first worked in a dry goods store in Cleveland, Ohio, with a weekly salary of $5. Later, he founded Standard Oil Company, which was actually the beginning of American oil industry.
19 10 year, when John "d" Rockefeller found that his wealth had reached nearly 10 billion dollars, he began to consider how to use this wealth. Because he was not interested in buying French manors or castles in Scotland, nor did he bother to buy works of art, yachts or medieval suits and all the things that the rich talked about, he invested a large part of his income in coal mines, railways, insurance companies, banks and various types of production enterprises, the most famous of which was iron ore business.
If john D Rockefeller were still alive, he would be worth about $200 billion today-according to the 2003 Forbes Billionaires List, Bill Gates, then the richest man in the world, was worth $40.7 billion.
Today, the legacy of the old Rockefeller still dominates the world oil industry, and he himself can be called the personification symbol of the ubiquitous and omnipotent western oil industry.
Edit this paragraph of a family that has been rich for more than six generations.
There is an old saying in China that "three generations are not rich", but the Rockefeller family is now the sixth generation, still in its heyday, and it is "rich" all over the world.
More than a century later, the Rockefeller family is still writing a glorious history. John D Rockefeller's descendants don't hide in their rooms all day, but plan how to keep their wealth and prevent money from falling into other people's pockets. Instead, they actively participate in culture, health and charity, spend a lot of money to set up various funds and invest in universities and hospitals with a rich sense of guilt, so that the whole society can share their wealth.
In today's America, it is almost impossible to completely avoid the influence of this family. It is no exaggeration to say that the Rockefeller family's development history in the past 150 years is an accurate epitome of the whole American history, and it has become an outstanding representative of the American national spirit and influenced people all over the world.
[First generation family business]
Rockefeller: The First Billionaire on Earth
Most early wealthy Americans succeeded by accident, with the exception of john rockefeller. He is not versatile, but he is unusually calm, shrewd and far-sighted. With unique courage and means, he built his huge oil empire from scratch step by step. In his long life, people have different opinions about him. Some people think that he is just an ambitious mercenary entrepreneur, while others praise him as a generous philanthropist. In any case, as the first billionaire and oil tycoon in American history, he controlled the entire American oil resources for quite some time, created the trust enterprise system, and occupied an important position in the history of American capitalist economic development.
Genetic commercial gene
1839 On July 8th, john rockefeller was born in Yangjia, a small town on the Hudson River in new york. His parents are completely different in personality: his mother is a devout Christian, who converts to the Bible in every word and deed, and is frugal and strict in family education; But my father is a practical playboy. He is confident, adventurous, sociable, willful and self-centered. As the eldest son, Rockefeller learned the pragmatic way of doing business from his father and the advantages of being meticulous, frugal and trustworthy from his mother, which had a great impact on his future success.
His father is William, known as "Big Bill". He is a lumberjack, a horse dealer and a witch doctor on the tramp, selling the so-called panacea of "seeing miraculous effects and curing all diseases". Besides, he also sells land, furs and salt. selling groceries is a knowledgeable man who can do almost anything.
The father went out to do business for several months, and the education of the children at home was mainly borne by the mother. However, the father who comes home occasionally is as ambitious as his mother. As long as he has time, he teaches John how to write business letters, how to pay accurately and quickly, and how to keep accounts clearly. He is well aware of the reality of society and the ruthlessness of the world, so he often takes some special ways to educate children and make them strong and smart before entering the society.
However, John did not accept everything that flowed in his father's blood. He didn't have his father's playboy nature at all, but inherited his mother's virtue of thrift. He regarded this belief as "business training" and adhered to the principle of "frugality is scarcity" all his life. From this, he also came to his own conclusion: "Only numbers count."
Edit this paragraph for the biggest decision.
After graduating from high school, john rockefeller became an accountant in a grain enterprise. Three years later, Rockefeller, who was only 65,438+09 years old, borrowed $65,438+0,000 from his father at an annual interest rate of 65,438+00%, and added $800 saved by himself to set up a company dealing in cereals and meat with Clark. This is Rockefeller's first company.
At that time, oil had been discovered in Pennsylvania, and thousands of people flocked to the oil-producing areas like the original gold rush. Cleveland businessmen are also very excited about this new business. They elected Rockefeller, a promising young broker, to personally inspect the crude oil producing areas in Pennsylvania.
When Rockefeller came to the oil-producing area, everything in front of him shocked him: towering derricks, messy shacks, grotesque well-drilling equipment and oil storage tanks were everywhere, and they were in a mess. Rockefeller saw the hidden crisis behind blind mining through the superficial "prosperity" scene.
Calm Rockefeller did not rush back to report the results of the investigation to the business community in Cleveland, but stayed at the American hotel in the oil-producing area for further field investigation. He reads the market situation in the newspaper every day, quietly listens to the narration of the anxious and talkative oil businessman, and takes detailed notes seriously.
He returned to Cleveland after a period of investigation. He advised businessmen not to invest in crude oil production, because the oil exploitation there has been excessive, the demand is limited, and the oil market is bound to fall. He warned that if you want to create a career, you must learn to wait, and patience is the prerequisite for winning.
Sure enough, as Rockefeller expected, because of crazy drilling, oil prices fell again and again, and those oil pioneers were defeated one by one.
Three years later, when crude oil plummeted again and again, Rockefeller thought it was time to invest in oil, which was much beyond the expectation of ordinary people. He invested $4,000 with Clark and started an oil refinery in partnership with Andrews, an Englishman who works in an oil refinery. Andrews used a new technology to refine kerosene, which made Andrews-Clark Company develop rapidly.
Rockefeller is only in his early twenties, but he is quite experienced in business. After waiting patiently and observing calmly for a period of time, he decided to let go. But his collaborator, Clark, was indecisive and didn't dare to take risks. The two men had serious differences in the decision-making of oil business and finally had to go their separate ways.
When auctioning the company's property rights, both of them refused to give up their original brokerage company's equity in Andrews-Clark Company, and the scene of bidding with each other was very fierce. Rockefeller has made up his mind to invest in the oil business, so he always outbid Clark until Clark finally said sadly, "I won't raise the price again, John, this stock is yours." Rockefeller, 26, finally won. He later recalled this decisive moment and said, "This is the biggest decision I have made in my life." From then on, he renamed the company "Rockefeller-Andrews Company" and started his oil business hopefully.
Edit this paragraph, father of trust.
Rockefeller realized that enterprises must expand to resist the impact of wind and waves. Later, he joined two well-funded and reputable investment partners and established Standard Oil Company with a capital of $6,543,800+0,000.
In business wars, Rockefeller hates to drive away competitors with price wars. He is more willing to provide competitors with cash or shares in standard companies (related: financial management) and buy their refineries. He is a pioneer in understanding the value of merger. At the same time of merging companies, Rockefeller also recruited a group of capable people, in his own words: "That value far exceeds all the merged companies."
By the end of 1879, Standard Company had controlled 90% of the national oil refining industry. By 1880, 95% of the oil produced in the United States is refined by Standard Oil Company. Since American history, no enterprise has monopolized the market so completely.
It was at this time that Rockefeller's lawyer Dodd put forward the concept of "trust" as a monopoly organization. Under the guidance of Dodd's "trust" theory, Rockefeller merged more than 40 manufacturers, monopolizing 80% of the national oil refining industry and 90% of the oil pipeline business. 1886, Standard Oil Company established a natural gas trust. Standard Oil Company was finally named Mobil Oil Company. Trust quickly spread all over the United States and all walks of life. In a very short time, this form of monopoly organization occupied 90% of the American economy. Rockefeller successfully created a unique era in American history-the monopoly era.
Rockefeller, as a monopolist, offended many people: business rivals, Wall Street, courts and Congress. The control of monopoly enterprises on the economy makes society uneasy. Under the stick of President Roosevelt's antitrust law, Mobil was dismembered. The depressed Rockefeller denounced old Roosevelt as a scumbag. And vowed not to fund * * * and party candidates.
A life that cherishes money as much as life.
Although Rockefeller has accumulated great wealth, his life is very frugal and he is always instilling the values he formed in his poor childhood. The first step to prevent them from spending money like water is not to let them know that their father is a rich man. Rockefeller's children never went to their father's office or oil refinery before they grew up.
Rockefeller established a virtual market economy at home, called his wife "general manager" and asked the children to keep accounts carefully. Children earn pocket money by doing housework: 2 cents for catching flies, 5 cents for sharpening pencils 1 cents for practicing piano, 5 cents for repairing vases 1 yuan, 2 cents for not eating sugar one day, 2 cents for not eating rewards 1 cents for pulling weeds in vegetable fields 1 cent, and cents for pulling weeds. It costs 65,438+0 cents a day to keep the paths in the yard clean. Rockefeller is very proud that he can train his children into a small domestic labor force. He once pointed to his 13-year-old daughter and said to others, "This little girl has started to earn money. You can't imagine how she earned it. I heard that if you use gas carefully, you can reduce the cost, so I told her that the money saved from the current bill every month belongs to her. So she wandered around every night and saw an unused gas lamp, so she turned it down. "
In order to let the children learn to be humble to each other, he only bought a bicycle for four children. When little John grew up, he was embarrassed to admit that he was wearing skirts before he was 8 years old, because he was the youngest in the family and the first three were girls.
Rockefeller regards gold as life. /kloc-when he was 0/6 years old, he spent ten cents to buy a small notebook to record every income and expenditure, and regarded the ledger as the most precious souvenir of his life.
1On September 8, 864, Rockefeller married Laura, a 24-year-old high school classmate. Although he accumulated huge wealth, he only spent $65,438 +05.75 on his wedding ring. This expense was charged to "miscellaneous expenses". Rockefeller once owed a friend five cents in change, and his friend told him not to mention it, but he insisted on putting the coin in his friend's pocket and solemnly said, "This is the interest of one dollar for a whole year."
Editing this paragraph, the biggest philanthropist
Incredibly, a thrifty capitalist like Rockefeller turned out to be the biggest philanthropist in American history. By the 1920s, Rockefeller Foundation had become the largest charity in the world, and the medical education and public health he sponsored were global. He donated $530 million directly in his life, and the charitable donations of the whole family exceeded $654.38+0 billion. China has benefited a lot, and the funds it receives are second only to the United States. 19 15, Rockefeller Foundation established China Medical Committee, and 192 1 was responsible for establishing Peking Union Medical College, which trained generations of medical talents with modern knowledge for China.
Rockefeller's epoch-making dedication made people have different views and evaluations on him, leaving a contradictory reputation behind him. He combined piety with greed, sympathy with cruelty and cunning; He is the embodiment of American Puritan ancestor tradition, which encourages thrift and hard work, but also stimulates greedy nature.
Fearing that someone would destroy the cemetery, his coffin was placed in a grave that could not be blasted with explosives, and it was covered with thick slate. The obituaries published in various newspapers described him as a kind philanthropist, but did not mention the cruel trust king-john rockefeller. No matter what position the politician takes, including those who have had a holiday with him, he is praised. A prosecutor praised the perfunctory witness he had asked: "Apart from our beloved president, he is the greatest citizen of our country. It was he who created knowledge with wealth, and no one else. The world is a better place because of him. The chief citizen of this world will go down in history forever. "
Churchill commented on him like this: "His contribution to exploration will be recognized as a milestone in human progress."
Edit the second generation family business in this paragraph.
John rockefeller Jr.: A Strong Second Generation
Old Rockefeller said, "The ability to make money is a gift from God". Out of a sense of responsibility for his family, the frail Rockefeller later passed on this outlook on life to his only son, john rockefeller Jr., David's father.
When Rockefeller Jr. became the head of the family, he not only took over the family oil business, but also took over the family charity. Sometimes, Rockefeller Jr. finds it difficult to find a psychological balance between oil business and charity, so he is often insane. Rockefeller Jr. once described that when doing business, he felt like he was in a race with his conscience. David said that his father's religious education often made him doubt whether what he did in business was correct.
Rockefeller Jr. established the Rockefeller Center in new york and managed to save many ancient redwoods in the mountains of the western United States. In fact, he also gave up many opportunities to inherit the family business. Looking back on his life, he spent most of his life sending family fortune abroad instead of accumulating more wealth. David pointed out that in the process of doing charity, his father "got great satisfaction." He saw many problems in society and tried to help solve them. "
Rockefeller Jr. has a strong interest in protecting historical relics and protecting the environment. Through his efforts, the ancient city of Williamsburg and the Palace of Versailles in France, which were founded by Britain during the colonial period in North America, were completely preserved.
So little John must have contributed to the Rockefeller family's fame today.
John rockefeller Jr.' s creed-I believe
I believe that everyone has supreme value and the right to pursue freedom and happiness.
I believe that every right is a responsibility; Every opportunity is a responsibility; Every property is a responsibility.
I believe that laws are made for people, not for people to make laws at will; The government is the servant of the people, not the master of the people.
I believe that only labor can gain dignity, whether it is manual labor or mental labor; This world will not make people unable to live, but it owes people a better chance to live. I hope it helps you!