![]() #JOHNNY WORKS ON RAILROAD STORY HOW TO#“I was trained in business affairs, and I was taught how to keep a ledger,” he said. Years later, when asked about his first ledger, Rockefeller said he wouldn’t try all his riches in the world if it meant giving up his ledger. Even as a wealthy man, Rockefeller was known to go to extreme measures to pay back pennies that he owed. This thorough, systematic way that he did things was more recognized at this time than his brilliant, flashing intelligence. Rockefeller was amazed at the laxity and inefficiency of his much older peers, which distinguished him from an early age. He closely reviewed every bill and jumped on errors of even a few pennies. He kept the habit of writing out all his expenses until the day he died. “I often tremble when I ask myself the question: ‘What if I had not got the job?’.” To live frugally while he was a young professional, Rockefeller kept a journal of all his expenses, which he called Ledger A. “All my future seemed to hinge on that day,” he reminisced later in life. Until the day he died, Rockefeller celebrated “job day” every September 26 to commemorate his entrance into the business world. On September 26, 1855, after months of searching, he signed on as a bookkeeper, making 50 cents a day at a produce brokerage firm called Hewitt & Tuttle. To find a job, he went door to door for months, presenting a plan to business owners on how his book keeping services would save them money. The tall building in the middle right background was the second-floor Hewitt & Tuttle.īecause he had experience giving out loans and selling small items, Rockefeller was a skilled bookkeeper at a young age. Following his mother’s advice, he loaned his $50 to a local farmer at 7% interest, payable after one year. By the time Rockefeller was 12 he had saved $50, about $1,400 in today’s money. Starting at a young age, Rockefeller earned money from his neighbors by raising turkeys and selling pieces of chocolate to his school mates. While Rockefeller’s father taught him dishonesty and ruthlessness in order to get ahead, Eliza instilled in John the sober habits of her Christian faith: thriftiness, hard work, and self control. “Willful waste makes woeful want,” Eliza used to tell her children. Because her husband was always on the road, Eliza Rockefeller didn’t have much income, so she taught her children how to be thrifty. This upbringing set the stage for John’s cunning business tactics. “I do business deals with my sons and I always try to cheat them to make them sharp,” Bill once told his neighbors. When John was a child, William admitted to tricking him in hopes of making his son a tough businessman. He had girlfriends in each city and even had children with a few of them, a fact that John tried to hide his entire life. Known as Devil Bill, William was famous for traveling from town to town selling homeopathic medicine that “cured cancer” and other shady schemes. John Davidson Rockefeller was born on Jin Richford, NY to Eliza Rockefellar, a homemaker, and William Rockefeller, a con artist. Rockefeller was completely self-made and had a combination of ruthless business tactics, strategic brilliance, and a passion for philanthropy, making him a complex individual that any wannabe business person can learn from. NOTE: Want more? Read Titan, John D’s bio. Although Standard Oil was eventually forced to break into multiple companies because it was ruled a monopoly, BP, Exxon, ConocoPhillips and Chevron (among others) are all subsidiaries of Standard Oil. Part 1 is on John David Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil and the richest person to ever live, not just in America, but in the history of the world. #JOHNNY WORKS ON RAILROAD STORY SERIES#I don’t think that people nowadays are inherently weak, it’s just that modern life is so much easier than say, the late 1800s when American capitalism was in its prime.Īnd so, here is part 1 of The Epic Rise, a series on America’s grittiest, toughest business people. Every once in awhile I like to take a walk down memory lane and highlight an old-school entrepreneur who isn’t typically talked about nowadays.īecause people today are soft and we’ve completely lost our grit. ![]()
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