In 1917, Hammer enrolled at Columbia University School of Medicine, where his father had also attended. At the time, his father was practicing medicine and running a pharmaceutical company, making it difficult for him to do both, which led to the company's bankruptcy. He asked his son, who was a talented businessman, to take over the company, which was on the brink of bankruptcy.
In order not to miss the school, Hamer invited a poor and excellent students to live together, free of charge to provide each other with food and lodging, the condition is that the students to go to class every day, to do a lot of notes, and bring back to him at night for him to cope with the exams and write essays. With this study "substitute", Hammer concentrated on the company's business. He reformed the company's business policy and sales methods, organized a strong team of salesmen, and changed the name of the company to the loud "United Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company". Hammer finally saved the precarious company from the brink of bankruptcy, from a dozen employees to 1,500, the product is sold nationwide, the company began to cross the ranks of the pharmaceutical industry's large enterprises.
In this way, Hammer, a 20-year-old college student, became a millionaire entirely on his own. At the same time, he not only completed the Columbia University School of Medicine on schedule, but also won the Medical School Honors Bachelor's Degree awarded by the Gold Medal, business and study without delay.
In June 1920, a major event occurred, due to a medical error, in June 1920, Hammer's father was tried and imprisoned. As one of the founders of the American ****producing party, the elder Hammer had paid close attention to the Soviet Union and had supplied essentials to the blockaded Bolshevik regime. This sudden change of heart makes the young and energetic Hammer determined to fulfill his father's attempted wish to travel to the country of his father's birth to help the Soviet Union overcome the famine and typhoid fever that is spreading there.
After a difficult journey, Hammer finally arrived in the Soviet Union. In the post-war Soviet Union, Hamer saw the heartbreaking famine, disease and death in the Urals region, but also saw the huge market, how many minerals were waiting to be mined, how many treasures were waiting to be sold, but because of the poor road to export trade, people could only keep the treasure mountain and starve. Hamer decided to change this situation by his own strength. He sent a telegram to his brother to buy a million dollars of wheat in the United States and ship it to the Soviet port of Leningrad to barter for a million dollars of locally produced furs and minerals.
Hammer's boldness was appreciated by the great leader Lenin, but because of a lot of controversy within the party at the time, amidst a chorus of voices that said "I'd rather starve than sell out my country," Lenin decided to give Hammer a franchise, and established an unusual friendship with Hammer. Then, Hammer contacted Ford Motor Company, American Rubber Company, Ellis Charles Equipment and Machinery Company and other more than 30 American companies *** with the Soviet Union to do business, he was elected as the general representative of these companies in the Soviet Union. At the same time, under Lenin's overtures, he also acted as an agent of the Soviet Union's trade with the United States, which made Hammer's business in the Soviet Union more and more prosperous.
In 1921, Hamer read in the official Moscow newspaper that the Soviet Union was about to conduct a nationwide literacy campaign, and after reading the news, he didn't take it to heart. But when he was ready to return home, he was surprised to find that pencils were scarce and expensive in Soviet stores. This is the wealth around him! He decided to set up a pencil factory, even though the idea was strongly opposed by his friends around him. But he always stood his ground, and although he didn't know how to make pencils himself, he knew how to use people who did. He hired technicians at high salaries and used the American piece-rate system to manage production, resulting in an output of 2.5 million dollars in the first year. After a few years, Hammer not only met the needs of the Soviet pencil and pen market, but also exported to more than a dozen countries, including Britain. The plant soon became one of the largest pencil factories in the world, bringing Hamer millions of dollars in revenue as well.
Hammer's great success caused such an outcry that a young woman sent her application for a job to the chairman of the Supreme Soviet in order to work in Hammer's pencil factory. But as the trees grow large and the newspapers begin to openly denounce Hamer and the New Economic Policy, Hamer vaguely realizes that perhaps the Soviet Union is about to change and he himself will have to leave.
The strategic businessman who traveled east and west, north and south
Hammer returned to the U.S. in 1930, the most active period of his life, when he was able to turn stones into gold and make huge fortunes in many fields.
At that time, the Soviet regime on the czar's palace copied out of a large number of antiques and exquisite works of art is not valued, the poor people also tend to sell art at home at low prices for money 123456 mouth. Hammer spent a lot of time and energy engaged in acquisitions, a long time, he became an expert in this industry. When Hammer to these art treasures intact to the United States, the United States was in the Great Depression, many people believe that in the case of economic recession, these old antiques will not be willing to buy. Hammer is very confident, he has invested in New York and Los Angeles to build an art gallery, and select fine art in the domestic cities on tour, causing a great sensation. He also carefully printed a catalog of art inventory, were sent to the manager of the United States of America's leading department stores, and sincerely explain, would like to 40% discount on the retail price of these works of art commissioned by the store to sell. Subsequently, he held an auction with great fanfare, making his art famous and attracting countless customers.
Hammer, never one to confine himself to one area, concentrated his efforts on the art market when he learned that Roosevelt was going to introduce the New Deal and that Prohibition would be lifted, so that demand for beer and whiskey would skyrocket and kegs would be in short supply. Hammer made the decision to order several shipments of high-quality lumber from the Soviet Union and built a modern cask factory in New Jersey. When Prohibition was repealed, the barrels rolled off the production line and were snapped up by the distilleries at high prices. He then moved from barrel production into beer production, and his Dent brand of whiskey jumped to become the nation's first-rate spirit, selling up to a million cases a year.
It's safe to say that no one knew what Hammer was going to do next; he did what he wanted, but he hit it out of the park. Because of his love of steak and the difficulty of getting good quality steak on the market, he got into cattle ranching and was equally successful. Later, he also got involved in the radio business. None of these he invested a great deal of energy in. Hammer's intuition and drive, coupled with his genius business skills and learning instincts, made him invincible, and he became a legend in the business world.
In the mid-to-late 1950s, the worldwide energy crisis became increasingly severe. To encourage private oil exploration, the U.S. government cut taxes on the oil industry while increasing taxes on other industries. This policy appealed to Hammer, who had always been adventurous, and he began to try to invest in the oil industry again, even though he was now approaching retirement age.
Hammer first approached Occidental Petroleum, which was struggling at the time. He agreed to lend the company $50,000 on the condition that two wells would be drilled, and if the wells produced oil, the profits would be split 50-50 between the two companies. Luckily, the two wells drilled by Occidental produced oil, and the oil content was also very rich. Hammer was overjoyed, and seized the opportunity to buy a large number of the company's shares, becoming the largest shareholder of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, and since then he has been fully committed to the oil business.
With his many years of experience, Hammer took a huge risk and began to build an oil kingdom. He recruited the best drilling engineers and the best geologists, and finally drilled two huge natural gas fields in California in 1961. Occidental's stock price jumped to $15 a share, and the company was strong enough to compete with the world's larger oil companies.
By then, most of the world's rich oil fields were already owned by the seven Western oil companies known as the "Seven Sisters," but Hammer took a different tack, looking to Libya.
Other oil companies abandoned no hope of oil on the two leases, Hammer perseverance, and finally in Libya hit a daily output of 7.2 million barrels of crude oil production wells, so that the Libyan people for their own country can produce oil and immense pride. The king of Libya personally received Hammer, to express his heartfelt thanks. Then, Hammer in the arid Kufra region to create a miracle - the people day and night waiting for water wells, found a rich source of groundwater. This region has not had a thorough rain for more than 20 years, and the people of the country regarded Hammer as a savior! The king of Libya was even excited to name the place where his ancestors were born "Hamer". However, Hamer refused, thinking that the drilling of oil and water wells is part of his career, and that it is the greatest happiness of his life to be able to enjoy the joy of victory with the local people***.
In the oil industry, Hammer's company went in the latest, but the earliest oil. 1974, his Occidental Petroleum Corporation annual revenues of $ 6 billion. By 1982, Occidental was the nation's 12th-largest industrial concern and the world's eighth-largest oil company next to the Seven Sisters!
Citizen of the World
Hammer's life spanned 9/10 of a century, and he was not only a successful entrepreneur, but also a peacemaker who made significant contributions to world peace and development.
He was the first Western businessman to lend a helping hand and bridge the Soviet-American trade channels during the most difficult times in the Soviet Union. Because of his friendships with many of the world's leaders, he traveled to different countries to deliver messages of peace and conducted personal diplomacy among the heads of state of the world. He was instrumental in facilitating talks between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, in studying the Star Wars program, and in announcing the decision not to be the first to use nuclear weapons.
He was the founder and patron of the annual International Conference on Peace and Human Rights. He was a frequent and generous supporter of cultural, educational and social welfare programs. He founded the Cancer Research Center and chaired the U.S. President's three-member Advisory Panel on Cancer Research. He personally led a medical team to the Soviet Union to rescue victims of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
Not only that, he is also an old friend of the Chinese people. 1979 Deng Xiaoping, during his visit to the U.S., praised Hammer's help to Lenin and invited him to visit China, hoping that Hammer would contribute to China's economic construction. 80-year-old Hammer was invited to visit China that year, and came to China many times after that, starting to pave the way for trade between the U.S. and China. 1982, he signed a contract with Chinese authorities for the Shanxi Shoushuo open-pit project, which is now under way. In 1982, he signed an agreement with the Chinese authorities on the feasibility of an open-pit coal mine in Pingshuo, Shanxi Province, and broke ground on the project in 1986, which was the largest Sino-foreign joint venture at the time. After that, his oil company bid for the exploitation of China's offshore oil resources, becoming the first American company to obtain China's offshore oil exploration rights. 1982 March, Hammer brought his collection of art treasures for half a century to China, held the "Hammer collection of paintings five hundred years of the original works of the exhibition" in Beijing, for the United States and China to open a window of cultural exchanges.
Like this, Hamer did a lot of things, his life donations out of their own money can not count, for the Jews, for the anti-fascist, for peace, for education ...... he never stopped his pace. November 12, 1990, Armand Hamer this wonderful book finally closed the last page, the victor of a hundred wars, the last page, the last page, the last page, the last page, the last page, the last page, the last page, the last page, the last page, the last page, the last page, the last page, the last page, the last page. On November 12, 1990, Armand Hammer's brilliant book finally closed on its last page, and the victorious "God of Business", a citizen who traveled the world, died at the age of 92.