John Rockefeller. Business and private life
John Davison Rockefeller (John Davison Rockefeller; 1839 - 1937) - American entrepreneur, investor and oil tycoon. He is the first billionaire in history. He is the founder of the largest oil company, Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first American business trust. He transformed the oil industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. The Standard Oil Company was founded in 1870, which he led until he officially retired from the company in 1897. The Standard Oil Company began as a partnership in Ohio formed by John Rockefeller, his brother William Rockefeller, Henry Flagler, Jabez Bostwick, chemist Samuel Andrews and Stephen Harkness. With the growing importance of gasoline and kerosene in life, Rockefeller's wealth grew to unprecedented levels and he became the richest man in the world and the first American with a net worth of more than $1 billion. If inflation rates are taken into account, he is considered the richest man in history.
John Rockefeller had four daughters and one son, John Davison Rockefeller Jr.
A main belt asteroid discovered in 1918 is named after Rockefeller: (904) Rockefellia.
John Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 in Richmond, New York, USA, the second of six children to William Avery Rockefeller (November 13, 1810 - May 11, 1906) and Eliza Davison (September 12, 1813 - March 28, 1889). Genealogists trace some of his ancestors to the French Huguenots who moved to Germany in the 17th century. His father initially worked as a lumberjack and then became a traveling merchant, declaring himself a homeopathic physician and selling various types of herbal elixirs. Local residents called the cheerful merchant "Big Bill" or "Devil Bill". He was an opponent of ordinary, traditional foundations, as a result of which he chose a wandering lifestyle and rarely met with his family. Eliza was a homemaker and a devout Baptist. She struggled to keep the family afloat as her husband did not show up for long periods. She also put up with his double life, which included flirting and bigamy. Thrifty by nature, she taught her son to be thrifty and thrifty. Young Rockefeller listened to his mother and did household chores.
Despite the absence of his father, Rockefeller was a rather serious and studious boy with good behavior as a young man. His contemporaries described him as serious, religious, methodical and cautious. He was an excellent participant in any dispute and always expressed himself accurately and clearly. He also deeply loved music and even dreamed of a career in music. But still, his main advantage was his accounting skills.
While still a youth his family moved first to the village of Moravia in the state of New York, and then in 1851 to the village of Owego in the same state, where he attended Owego Academy. In 1853, the family moved to Strongville, a suburb of Cleveland. There, Rockefeller attended Cleveland Central High School and attended a ten-week business course at the Folsom Institute of Commerce, where he studied accounting. In September 1855, when Rockefeller was 16 years old, he got his first job as an assistant bookkeeper at a small firm called Hewitt & Tuttle. He worked hard and, as he later recalled, “admired the methods of office work.” He was particularly adept at calculating shipping costs, which helped him later in his career. His full wages for the first three months were $50 (50 cents per day). And from his first salary, he began donating about 6% of his income to charity, which by the age of 20 increased to 10%, when he became a parishioner of the Baptist church.
In 1859, John Rockefeller first entered the commission business with partner Maurice B. Clark, with whom they earned about $4,000. Rockefeller persistently moved forward, increasing his capital every year. Following the wholesale food business, the partners built an oil refinery in 1863 in the burgeoning industrial area of "The Flats" in Cleveland, Ohio. The plant was directly owned by Andrews, Clark & Company, which was formed from Clark & Rockefeller by the addition of the capital of Samuel Andrews and two brothers of Maurice Clark. At that time, the commercial oil business was in its infancy. And probably, even the newly made partners did not yet imagine the importance and future scale of this industry. Although, Rockefeller, with his prudence and amazing mind, probably still guessed about the coming technological and economic revolution. At that time, whale oil, used in lamps and stoves in almost every home, became too expensive, and there was an urgent need for cheaper and more accessible kerosene.
While his brother Frank fought in the Civil War, Rockefeller ran his own business and recruited recruits. He gave money to the Union, as did many Northerners who avoided the war. In February 1865, what oil historian Daniel Yeargin describes as a "critical" action took place. John Rockefeller bought the Clark brothers' shares at auction for $72,500 and founded the firm Rockefeller & Andrews. Rockefeller himself said that “it was the day that defined my career.” He was well-enlightened to seize the chance to take advantage of post-war prosperity and the great expansion westward due to the development of railroads and an oil-fuelled economy. He took on debt, took profits and reinvested them, adapting to rapidly changing market conditions and setting up overseers for a rapidly expanding industry.
In 1864, John Rockefeller married Laura Celestia Spelman. They had four daughters and one son. Subsequently, Rockefeller said about his wife: “Her judgment was always better than mine. Without her good advice, I would be a poor man.”
Rockefeller became a lifelong member of the then new Republican Party, and a staunch supporter of Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionist wing of the party. He was a devoted member of the Erie Street Missionary Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday school, and served as custodian, clerk, and occasional usher. Religion was a guiding force throughout his life, and Rockefeller believed it was the source of his success. As he said, "God gave me the money," and he didn't apologize for it. All his life he adhered to the saying of the English preacher of the 18th century. John Wesley, who said: "Get All You Can, Save All You Can, and Give All You Can."
In 1866, his brother William Rockefeller built another oil refinery in Cleveland and entered into John's partnership. In 1867, a new partner joined the partnership and the firm was renamed Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler. This company became the predecessor of the Standard Oil Company.
By the end of the American Civil War, the city of Cleveland was one of the five major oil refining centers in the country (besides Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, and the area in northwestern Pennsylvania). In June 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company in Ohio, which soon became the largest oil refiner in the state. The company also became the largest exporter of oil and kerosene in the country. In order to reduce transportation costs and be able to control freight rates, Rockefeller and his partners founded the South Improvement Company, which became part of Standard Oil. This made it possible to reduce costs for transporting products by up to 50%. All these Rockefeller moves caused a huge storm of indignation and protests from independent owners of oil wells, which was expressed in boycotts and vandalism. This entire action was supported by the New York oil company Charles Pratt and Company, headed by Charles Pratt and Henry Rogers. As a result, Rockefeller's transport company lasted only a year, but this was enough to save a lot and make a huge profit.
Undeterred or discouraged, John Rockefeller continued his onslaught on the oil market by buying up oil wells, seeking significant discounts on transportation, concluding secret deals and buying out competitors. Less than four months later in 1872, an event called the "Cleveland Conquest" or "Cleveland Massacre" occurred. Rockefeller's company absorbed 22 of its 26 competitors in Cleveland. Ultimately, even his former opponents, Pratt and Rogers, saw the futility of continuing to compete against Standard Oil. In 1874, they entered into a secret merger agreement with Standard Oil and became partners with Rockefeller. In particular, Rogers became one of the key figures in the creation of Rockefeller's huge Standard Oil Trust corporation. Pratt's son, Charles Millard Pratt became General Secretary of Standard Oil. Rockefeller saw himself as the savior of industry, an “angel of mercy,” believing that by absorbing the weak he made industry stronger, more stable, more efficient, and more competitive. The company developed in all directions. This growth was expressed in the construction of new pipelines, tanker trucks, as well as the creation of the so-called home delivery network, not forgetting households. All these measures made it possible to keep fuel prices at a fairly low level, which contributed to the emergence of difficulties for new competitors to enter the market. The new company, having decided to enter the market, inevitably had to reduce prices in order to compete with the technologically equipped and rapidly developing Rockefeller company, which would immediately lead itself to bankruptcy. Development also led to the discovery of more than 300 products based on oil refining. By the end of the 1870s, Standard Oil was already refining 90% of the oil in the United States. And John Rockefeller had already become a millionaire by that time.
In 1877, hostilities began with Standard Oil's main railroad carrier, the Pennsylvania Railroad. Rockefeller believed that the use of pipelines as an alternative transport system for transporting oil and petroleum products was more profitable for the company than rail transport. A company began to build oil pipelines. The Pennsylvania Railroad, seeing the prospect of losing its main customer and the threat of bankruptcy, struck back and founded an oil refining branch and built an oil refinery. Standard Oil was quick to make the right decision, organizing its railroad operations and thereby starting a price war that sharply reduced freight payments and caused labor unrest. Rockefeller eventually celebrated victory and the Pennsylvania Railroad sold all of its oil assets to Standard Oil. But for Rockefeller, all this hostility did not pass without a trace. In 1879, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania brought charges against Rockefeller for monopolizing the oil trade, which led to an avalanche of similar lawsuits in other regions and created the Standard Oil problem.
Gradually, Standard Oil gained almost complete control over refining oil, selling it in a horizontally integrated manner. But when selling kerosene, a vertical system was used. Kerosene was supplied directly to customers on special tank weights, thereby bypassing the existing network of wholesale intermediaries. Standard Oil's most powerful weapon against competitors was low prices and informal transportation methods. The company has been attacked by journalists and politicians throughout its existence due to its monopolistic nature, thereby giving impetus to the revival of the antitrust movement. In 1880, the New York World published an article in which the following was written about the company: “the most cruel, insolent, ruthless, and tenacious monopolist that has ever taken aim at the country.” To his critics, Rockefeller responded: "In a business as large as ours, some things are likely to be done by methods which we cannot foresee or approve of. We correct them as soon as we become aware of them."
As Standard Oil grew, its management became increasingly complex and cumbersome. In 1882, Rockefeller's lawyers created an innovative company structure by centralizing all subsidiaries into one large corporation, Standard Oil Trust. The new company became a huge corporation, the size and wealth of which attracted a lot of attention. In total, the corporation included 41 companies managed by Rockefeller and partners. The public and press were suspicious of the newly formed legal entity, but other firms picked up the new idea and began to imitate it, further angering the already distrustful public. Standard Oil Trust gained an aura of invincibility, always prevailing against competitors, critics, and political enemies. The company became the largest and richest business entity that was immune to economic booms and busts, increasing its profits every year.
Standard Oil's vast American empire included 20,000 oil wells, 4,000 miles of pipeline, 5,000 tank trucks and more than 100,000 employees. The Standard Oil Company reached its peak in the 1880s. Subsequently, Rockefeller abandoned his dream of controlling all the oil refining in the world and said: “We realized that public opinion would be against us if we controlled all the oil refining in the world.” In subsequent years, foreign competition and new geological explorations abroad eroded the company's dominance of the global oil market. But Standard Oil still held 85% of the market share, supplying oil and its derivatives from Pennsylvania wells. Meanwhile, large-scale oil development was underway in Russia and Asia. Robert Nobel established his own oil refining operation in rich, cheaper Russian fields, building the region's first oil pipeline and the world's first oil tanker. Rich oil deposits were discovered on the island of Java and Burma. Another factor in Standard Oil's downfall was the invention of the light bulb, which broke the dominance of kerosene in households. But the company adapted, developing its presence in Europe and also launching natural gas production in the United States. At that time, gasoline was still considered an unnecessary and unpromising product.
Standard Oil moved its headquarters to New York's 26th Street Broadway and Rockefeller immediately became a central figure in the city's business circles. He bought his own home on 54th Street near the mansions of other tycoons such as William Vanderbilt.
In 1890, a new bill known as the Sherman Act was approved, marking the beginning of the end of the Rockefeller empire.
In the 1890s, Rockefeller expanded his company's activities into the development and transportation of iron ore, which led to an open feud with steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. Their enmity became the subject of discussion in newspaper articles and the appearance of various cartoons. Rockefeller went further, acquiring crude oil contracts in Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia as Pennsylvania's old oil fields began to decline in importance. In addition to the frenetic expansion, Rockefeller began to think about retirement. The day-to-day management of the corporation was transferred to John Dustin Archbold.
One of the most massive information attacks on Rockefeller was associated with the publication of the book by American journalist Ida Tarbell, “The History of the Standard Oil Company,” in which she alleged the presence of illegal methods of the Standard Oil company in its activities. These methods included industrial espionage, price wars, heavy-handed marketing tactics, and court evasion. Although her work sparked a huge backlash against the company, Tarbell claimed she was surprised by the size of it. She said: "I never had any animosity against their size and wealth. I only wanted them to grow and develop, but only by legal means. But they never played fair." Rockefeller, answering questions related to “Miss Tarbarrel,” as he himself called her, only said: “not a word about that misinformed woman.” Instead, he launched a media campaign to paint his corporation in a better light, despite long maintaining a policy of active press silence. He said: "capital and labor are wild forces that require intellectual legislation to keep them in check." In 1908, he wrote and published his memoirs.
Rockefeller remained president of the Standard Oil Company until 1911. This year, the United States Supreme Court found that the Rockefeller company violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. By then, Standard Oil controlled 70% of the market share for refining oil. The court recognized Standard Oil as a monopolist and decided to split it into 34 separate companies. Now these companies are known under such names as Mobil, Exxon, Chevron. The collapse of the corporation increased Rockefeller's fortune to $900 million.
From his very first salary, Rockefeller began donating part of his earnings to charity. As his wealth grew, so did the scope of his philanthropy. In 1884, Rockefeller financed the creation of a college for African-American women in Atlanta, Spelman College. The oldest building on the Spelman College campus is named Rockefeller Hall in his honor. Rockefeller also gave significant donations to Denison University and other Baptist colleges.
In 1900, he gave $80 million to the University of Chicago, transforming the small Baptist college into a world-class institution.
In 1903, the Education Council was created, which was involved in the development of education for all segments of the population. In keeping with the historical mission of Baptists, "black schools" were especially supported in the South. Rockefeller also provided financial support to such universities as Yale University, Harvard, Columbia University, Brown University, Bryn Mawr College, Wellesley College and Vassar College.
Although John Rockefeller was a strong proponent of homeopathy, he became one of the great benefactors of medical science. In 1901 he founded the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York. In 1965, the institute was renamed Rockefeller University after a decision was made to train and graduate new specialists. Since then, the university has trained many specialists in their field, among whom were 23 future Nobel laureates.
In 1913, he created the Rockefeller Foundation, to which he gave $250 million for the development of health care, medical training and the development of the arts. In 1918, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund was created to support the development of the social sciences. The Foundation later merged with the Rockefeller Foundation. In total, Rockefeller donated approximately $550 million.
Rockefeller once said that in his youth he had two great aspirations in life, to earn $100,000 and to live 100 years.
John Davison Rockefeller died on May 23, 1937, at the age of 97, of a heart attack at his home in Ormond Beach, Florida, just shy of 100 years old. He is buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.
John Davison Rockefeller. Born July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York - died May 23, 1937 in Ormond Beach, Florida. American entrepreneur, philanthropist, first dollar billionaire in human history.
Founded the company in 1870 Standard Oil and managed it until his official retirement in 1897. Standard Oil was founded in Ohio as a partnership of John Rockefeller, his brother William Rockefeller, Henry Flager, Jabez Bostwick, chemist Samuel Andrews and one non-voting partner, Stephen Harkens. As the demand for kerosene and gasoline soared, Rockefeller's wealth also increased, and he became the richest man in the world at one time, with a net worth of $1.4 billion (1937 nominal) or 1.54% of US GDP at the time of his death. Taking into account inflation The New York Times estimates his wealth to be around $192 billion. in 2006 equivalent.
Rockefeller was one of the US philanthropists, the founder of the Rockefeller Foundation, who donated large sums for medical research, education, in particular, for the fight against yellow fever. He also founded the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller University. He was a practicing Baptist and donated part of his income to support church institutions throughout his life. He was noted as a hardworking, purposeful and devout Christian, for which his partners called him “Deacon”. He always preached a healthy lifestyle and a complete cessation of alcohol and smoking. He had four daughters and one son, who inherited the management of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Rockefeller was the second child of six children in a family of Protestants William Avery Rockefeller (October 13, 1810 - May 11, 1906) and Louise Selyanto (September 12, 1813 - March 28, 1889).
He was born in Richford, New York. His father was first a lumberjack, and then a traveling merchant who called himself a “botanical doctor” and sold various elixirs and was rarely at home. According to the recollections of neighbors, John's father was considered a strange man, trying to avoid hard physical labor, although he had a good sense of humor. By nature, William was a risk-taker, which helped him build up the small capital that allowed him to buy a plot of land for $3,100. However, risk-taking coexisted with foresight, so part of the capital was invested in various enterprises.
Eliza, John's mother, was a homemaker, a very devout Baptist, and often in poverty because her husband was constantly away for long periods of time and she constantly had to save on everything. She tried not to pay attention to reports of her husband's oddities and adultery.
Rockefeller recalled that from an early age his father told him about the enterprises in which he participated, explained the principles of doing business, he wrote about his father: “He often bargained with me and bought various services from me. He taught me how to buy and sell. My father was simply “training” me to get rich!”
When John was seven years old, he began feeding turkeys for sale and earned extra money by digging potatoes for his neighbors. He recorded all the results of his commercial activities in his little book.
With his first salary, Rockefeller acquires a good ledger. In it he writes down all his income and expenses, paying attention to even the smallest details. He treated this book with special awe and respect, keeping it for the rest of his life. As well as the memory of your first working day, as an understanding of your first step on the path to becoming.
He invested all the money he earned in a porcelain piggy bank, and already at the age of 13 he lent $50 to a farmer he knew at the rate of 7.5% per annum.
His father's upbringing was continued by his mother, from whom he learned hard work and discipline. Since the family was large, and William Rockefeller’s enterprises did not always end successfully, she often had to save.
At the age of 13, John went to school in Richford. In his autobiography, he wrote that it was difficult for him to study and he had to study hard to complete his lessons. Rockefeller successfully graduated from high school and entered Cleveland College, where he taught accounting and the basics of commerce, but soon came to the conclusion that three-month accounting courses and a thirst for activity would bring much more than years of college, so he left it.
In 1853, the Rockefeller family moved to Cleveland. Since John Rockefeller was one of the eldest children in the family, already at the age of 16 he went to look for work. By that time, he already knew mathematics quite well, and completed a three-month course in accounting in Cleveland. After six weeks of searching, he was hired as an assistant accountant by Hewitt & Tuttle, a small real estate and shipping company, and soon rose to the position of accountant. He quickly established himself as a competent professional, and as soon as the manager of Hewitt & Tuttle left his post, Rockefeller was immediately appointed in his place. At the same time, the salary was set at $600 dollars, while his predecessor received $2000, because of this Rockefeller left the company, and this was his only hired job in his biography.
Just at this time, the English entrepreneur John Morris Clark was looking for a partner with a capital of $2000 to create a joint business. At that time, Rockefeller had saved up $800, he borrowed the remaining amount from his father at 10% per annum, and on April 27, 1857, he became a junior partner in the Clark and Rochester company, the company traded in hay, grain, meat and other goods. During these years, the southern states declared secession from the Union and the Civil War began, the federal authorities had a need to supply a large army, and the starting capital of $4,000 was not enough to fulfill large-scale food supply orders; the company needed a loan. Despite the fact that the company was young, Rockefeller managed to make a positive impression on the bank director with his sincerity, and he agreed to provide the company with a loan.
In 1864, Rockefeller married teacher Laura Celestina Spelman, whom I met while still a student. Although she was pious, she also had a practical mind. Rockefeller noted: “Without her advice, I would have remained poor”.
In the late 1850s and early 1860s, kerosene lamps became widespread and demand for the raw material for kerosene, oil, increased. At this time, Rockefeller met the chemist Samuel Andrews, who worked on oil refining and was convinced of the promise of kerosene as a means of lighting. Rockefeller was interested in a message about an oil field discovered by Edwin Drake in 1859. Common interests brought Andrews and Rockefeller together, and they founded a new oil processing company, Andrews and Clark, on a parity basis with Clark's company. The partners established the Flats oil refinery in Cleveland. They transported oil and finished products by rail.
The Standard Oil Company was founded in 1870. Rockefeller began searching for oil; already at the beginning of his activity, he noticed that the entire oil business was organized inefficiently and chaotic, and focused on putting things in order. The first step was to create the company's charter. In order to motivate employees, Rockefeller initially decided to refuse wages, rewarding them with shares, he believed that thanks to this they would work more actively, because they would consider themselves part of the company, since their final income would depend on the success of the business.
The business began to generate income, and Rockefeller began to gradually buy up other oil companies one by one, small enterprises that were not too expensive. This strategy did not sit well with many Americans. Rockefeller negotiated with railroad companies to regulate transportation prices, so Standard Oil received lower prices than its competitors: it paid 10 cents for transporting a barrel of oil, while its competitors paid 35 cents, with a difference of 25 cents per barrel for Rockefeller's company also received income. Competitors could not resist him; Rockefeller forced them to choose: unite with him or go bankrupt. Most of them chose to join Standard Oil in exchange for a share of shares.
By 1880, thanks to numerous small and medium-sized mergers, Rockefeller had 95% of America's oil production in his hands. After becoming a monopoly, Standard Oil raised prices and became the largest company in the world at the time. Ten years later, the Sherman Anti-Monopoly Act required the division of Standard Oil. After that Rockefeller split the business into 34 small companies and in all of them he retained a controlling stake and at the same time increased capital. Practically all major American oil companies descended from Standard Oil, including ExxonMobil, Chevron.
Standard Oil brought Rockefeller $3 million annually, he owned sixteen railroad and six steel companies, nine real estate firms, six shipping companies, nine banks and three orange groves.
Rockefeller's name became a symbol of wealth: he lived in great comfort, but did not flaunt his wealth like other millionaires on New York's 5th Avenue. He had a villa and 700-acre (283 ha) plot of land on the outskirts of Cleveland, as well as houses in New York, Florida and a personal golf course in New Jersey. But most of all he loved the Pocantico Hills villa near New York.
Rockefeller wanted to live to be a hundred years old, but did not live three years - on May 23, 1937, he died of a heart attack at the age of 97.
John Rockefeller Family:
John Rockefeller Sr.'s five grandchildren continued the tradition of philanthropy and political involvement. The most famous of them was Nelson Rockefeller, Vice President of the United States from 1974-1977. John Rockefeller Jr.'s youngest son, David Rockefeller, was head of Manhattan Bank from 1969 to 1980.
They say that part of Rockefeller's success belongs to his wife. Few could compete with John in his tight-fistedness and stinginess, in his coldness and prudence. But his wife Laura Spelman was able to outdo him. They understood each other perfectly, and she gave him a lot of thoughtful, reasonable advice during his work in business. Modern researchers all say that Spelman was such a perfect character match for Rockefeller that it was amazing. They were able to live without spills for more than sixty years.
John Davison Rockefeller is an American entrepreneur who made his fortune by starting from scratch. He founded the Standard Oil company, which took a leading position in the American economy and made its founder the richest man in the world.
At the age of 20, Rockefeller, who was successful in his job, decided to start a business with another business partner, wholesaler of hay, meat and other goods. At the end of the first year of operation of his company, its gross profits totaled $450,000. Rockefeller was very careful and thoughtful, trying in every possible way to avoid unnecessary risks, but in the early 1860s he noticed that there was an opportunity to open an oil business due to increasing demand for oil. And in 1863 he opened his first oil refinery near Cleveland. Less than 10 years later, Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, had almost complete control of all the country's oil refineries.
Standard Oil
As the oil business moved east toward Pennsylvania, Rockefeller followed. By the beginning of the 1880s. he dominated the oil business throughout the country, and his company had a net worth of $55 million. Standard's leadership position was due to the fact that it was closely associated with (or owned) almost every aspect of the business. Under Rockefeller's leadership, the company created its own pipeline system to transport products. She had her own carriages for transportation, and she also bought thousands of hectares of forest for fuel.
In 1882, Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Trust, a trust company that would serve as a model for the creation of other types of monopolies. Naturally, Rockefeller was appointed head of this company.
But while Rockefeller's power and wealth grew, his public reputation deteriorated. In the early 1800s, the government began enforcing antitrust laws, paving the way for the Sherman Act, which went into effect in 1890.
In 1895, 56-year-old Rockefeller retired from daily involvement in the affairs of Standard Oil and focused on charitable activities. But the new leadership could do little to quell attacks on Rockefeller and his business.
In 1904, Ida Tarbell wrote The History of Standard Oil, a damning book that told the story of Standard Oil's ruthless business practices. In 1911, the corporation was disbanded under the influence of the Sherman Anti-Monopoly Act.
Subsequent years
John Davison Rockefeller contributed a lot of money to charity. In total, he donated $530 million to various causes. His money helped found the University of Chicago, also known as the Rockefeller Institute of Medicine (later The Rockefeller University) in New York, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
His wife Laura and Rockefeller had five children, including their daughter Alice, who died in infancy.
Rockefeller died May 23, 1937, Ormond Beach, Florida. However, his legacy lives on to this day: Rockefeller is considered one of America's leading businessmen, whose achievements influenced the formation of the nation as it is today.
Quotes
“Don’t be afraid to give up good things in order to achieve even more.”
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Today I will tell you about how I made my fortune - the first dollar billionaire, the richest person in the world in the entire history of mankind. To this day, the name of this man is a symbol of wealth. John Davison Rockefeller lived in the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th century, but still heads.
The first billionaire of our time, the leader - Bill Gates lags behind him in terms of financial status by more than 4 times! Biography and success story of John Rockefeller, the most interesting facts from life in today's publication on Financial Genius.
John Rockefeller: biography. Childhood.
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (later he had a son with the same name) was born in 1839 in Richford, New York. His parents were very religious (Protestants), the family was large: a total of 6 children were born, of whom John Rockefeller was the second. John's father had a small capital, but often left for long periods of time, selling elixirs; during these periods, his mother was poor and saved a lot on everything.
His father often paid him for various services, while bargaining. At a very young age, Rockefeller was already buying a pound of candy, then distributing it into piles and reselling it to his sisters at a higher price. At the age of 7, he began working part-time for his neighbors, digging potatoes for them, and raising turkeys for sale. Since childhood, John Davison Rockefeller wrote down all his income and expenses in a small book, and put all the money he earned into his piggy bank. By the way, he kept and continued to maintain his home accounting, the maintenance of which began from an early age.
At the age of 13, John Rockefeller saved up $50 and lent it to a farmer he knew at 7.5% per annum.
John successfully graduated from school, after which he entered college, which taught the basics of accounting and commerce, but soon decided that he would only waste time there, so he left college and instead completed a three-month accounting course, after which he began.
John Rockefeller: biography. Career and entrepreneurship.
John Rockefeller got his first serious job at the age of 16, after 6 weeks of searching: he first became an assistant accountant in a trading company with a salary of $17, and was soon promoted to an accountant with a salary of $25 a month. Rockefeller proved himself so well in this place that after some time, when the head of the company left his post, John became the manager of this company with a salary of $600. However, Rockefeller did not like the fact that the previous manager was paid $2,000 a month, and he was only paid $600, so he soon quit.
This job became the only place of employment in the biography of John Rockefeller.
In 1857, Rockefeller learned that an entrepreneur from England was looking for a business partner with a capital of $2,000. At that time, he only had $800, but he was inspired by this idea, so he borrowed the missing money from his father at 10% per annum and became the junior co-founder of the Clark and Rochester company, which specialized in the sale of hay, grain, meat and some others goods.
When the company had a need to borrow money to increase working capital, negotiations with the bank were conducted by John Rockefeller: thanks to his sincerity and talent for persuasion, he was able to convince the manager to provide their still young company with a loan in the required amount.
John Davison Rockefeller: oil business.
At the beginning of the 2nd half of the 19th century, kerosene lamps became popular in the United States, which stimulated an increase in demand for the main raw material for their production - oil. During this period, John Davison Rockefeller met practicing chemist Samuel Andrews, who specialized in the processing of petroleum raw materials and predicted a great increase in the popularity of kerosene as a product for lighting. They combined their capital with that of Rockefeller's business partner Clark and created the oil refining company Andrews and Clark.
John Rockefeller saw great prospects for the oil market and tried to persuade Clark to transfer all his available capital to this business. When he still refused, Rockefeller bought out his share in the enterprise for $72,500 and devoted himself entirely to the oil business.
In 1870, John Davison Rockefeller Sr. created his main oil company, Standard Oil, which in the future brought him his main wealth. This company has already carried out a full cycle: from oil production to production and supply of the final product.
At his company, John Rockefeller introduced a non-standard system: instead of wages, he paid employees with company shares, which constantly grew in price and brought good income. It turned out that the employees themselves were interested in doing their work diligently and efficiently: after all, the success of the company depended on this, and therefore the increase in the price of its shares and their personal income.
The Standard Oil company developed rapidly, increasing its turnover, and John Rockefeller began to invest the profits received from its activities in other oil companies. He found an opportunity to dump on the cost of transporting products by agreeing with railway transport companies, which his competitors could not afford. Therefore, Rockefeller presented his competitors with a choice: either merge with him or go bankrupt. So many of them gradually became part of Standard Oil.
In just 10 years, John Rockefeller's company became an almost absolute monopolist in the United States: it concentrated 95% of the country's oil production. After this, Rockefeller raised prices for his products and Standard Oil became the largest oil company in the world.
Another 10 years later, in 1890, an antitrust law was adopted in the United States. At first, the oil tycoon bypassed his norms in every possible way, but when he could no longer resist the authorities, 21 years later, in 1911, he divided his corporation into 34 enterprises, retaining a controlling stake in each of them.
The Standard Oil company brought Rockefeller a profit of $3 million annually (in today's money, that's billions). The corporation's assets included:
– more than 400 enterprises;
– more than 90 miles of railway tracks;
– more than 10 thousand railway tanks;
– 60 oil tankers;
– 150 ships.
The company's share in global oil turnover exceeded 70%.
John Rockefeller: net worth.
Oil tycoon John Rockefeller's fortune was estimated at $1.4 billion, or $318 billion in today's US currency. At the time of his death, Rockefeller's fortune amounted to 1.54% of US GDP, and in 1917 it reached 2.5% of US GDP.
In addition to Standard Oil, John Rockefeller's assets included:
– 16 railway companies;
– 6 steel production companies;
– 9 companies engaged in real estate trading;
– 6 shipping companies;
– 9 banks;
– 3 orange groves.
Rockefeller lived richly, but never focused on his wealth. He had several villas and houses in different states, a land plot of 273 hectares, and a personal golf course.
John Rockefeller: charity.
From his earliest years, John Rockefeller consistently used 10% of his income to donate to the Baptist Church. Over the course of his life, he transferred more than $100 million there.
In addition, Rockefeller donated about $80 million to the University of Chicago, he also became the founder and sponsor of the New York Institute for Medical Research, and later established the famous Rockefeller Charitable Foundation.
At the end of his life, John Rockefeller gave away about half a billion dollars to charity.
John Rockefeller Jr.
John Davison Rockefeller Jr. is the only son of John Rockefeller. He inherited $460 million from his father, and spent about this amount on charity throughout his life. In particular, thanks to his donations, the UN headquarters in New York and the famous Empire Building were built.
John Rockefeller Jr. left behind 5 sons (known as the Rockefeller grandchildren) and a daughter. Each of them has its own story, but all are somehow connected with running a business.
John Rockefeller: interesting facts.
Since childhood, John Rockefeller dreamed of living to be 100 years old and earning 100 thousand dollars, but he only lived to be 97 years old and earned 1.4 billion.
At the age of 96, John Davison Rockefeller received an insurance payout of $5 million as a person who lived to that age. The insurance company estimated the probability of such an “insured event” to occur as 1:100,000, and this was the first such case in the company’s history.
In 1908, John Rockefeller wrote a book, “Memoirs,” in which he described his life path, his success story. To this day, the Memoirs of John Rockefeller is a very popular book, published many times in huge editions, highly appreciated by readers and critics.
Workers of the Rockefeller company used to scare their children with it: “If you cry, Rockefeller will take you.”
What John Rockefeller was most proud of was not his wealth and achievements, but his morals, which he considered impeccable.
The most famous quotes from John Rockefeller:
– He who works all day has no time to earn money;
– Your well-being depends on your own decisions;
– If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.
Here it is - the biography and success story of John Rockefeller - the richest man on earth, an oil tycoon.
Stay on, improve your financial literacy, learn to use personal finance competently and effectively, and perhaps someday you too will be able to achieve at least a small fraction of what John Davison Rockefeller achieved in life. See you again!
John Rockefeller(full name - John Davison Rockefeller) - the first dollar millionaire in the whole world, the greatest entrepreneur and philanthropist.
As of 2007, taking into account inflation processes and recalculations, its capital was estimated at 318 billion dollars! For comparison: Bill Gates, the richest person in the world in the 2000s, earned about 50 billion by that period.
Rockefeller family
John Rockefeller Sr. born July 8, 1839 in the city of Richmond, located in New York State. He was the second child of six from his parents.
John's mother- Eliza Davison, homemaker, very devout woman who attended the Baptist church. Father– William Avery Rockefeller, lumberjack and later traveling merchant selling various kinds of elixirs.
Little businessman
John Rockefeller Sr. learned from an early age how to manage business and account for all cash flows. According to him, his father helped him with this:
“He often bargained with me and bought various services from me. He taught me how to buy and sell. My father was simply “training” me to get rich!”
At the age of seven, little John already made money. He helped his neighbors dig up potatoes, and also got turkeys and began to feed them. Then he sold them.
All income was recorded in a special notebook. And the money itself was conscientiously put into a porcelain piggy bank, which allowed him to accumulate $50 in capital by the age of 13. He lent this money to one of the neighboring farmers at 7.5% per year.
John's study period
John Davison began school at the age of 13 in his hometown. The learning process took a lot of energy from him, had to study hard to achieve results.
After graduating from high school, he went to college in Cleveland, where his family moved, where he began to study the basics of business and accounting. However, long studies did not appeal to him. Therefore, Rockefeller soon dropped out of college and entered the 3-month accounting courses.
Beginning and end of career
John Rockefeller's father disappeared for a long time selling his elixirs, and his mother had to save on everything quite often. And since John was one of the eldest children in the family, then At the age of 16 he started looking for work.
First position
For a month and a half, he looked for a suitable place to start his career and ended up being hired as an assistant accountant in a small company Hewitt&Tuttle(Hewitt and Tuttle).
Thanks to his mathematical abilities and diligence, John very quickly received his first promotion to junior accountant and a monthly salary of 25 dollars.
From that moment on, he began saving money and giving 10% of his earnings to charity in the Baptist church, of which he was a parishioner.
This habit became one of the reasons for his success and achieving the title of “first billionaire in the world” in the future.
Last position
The diligent work and excellent ability which young John showed enabled him to occupy post of company manager after the departure of his predecessor.
However, the company's management assigned him a salary of $600, when as the previous manager of Hewitt & Tuttle he received much more - $2,000.
This fact upset Rockefeller, and he resigned. There were no more moments in his biography when he worked for hire.
Rockefeller's first business
Thanks to my habit save some money from every earnings, at the time of his dismissal from work, John had $800 in his pocket.
He began to look for an opportunity to invest this money profitably and found entrepreneur John Morris Clark, who needed a partner for a joint business. John needed an amount of $2,000 for this; he borrowed the missing $1,200 from his father at 10% per annum.
John Rockefeller became a partner in the company in May 1857, which was called "Clark and Rochester". They were engaged in trading agricultural products: meat, grain, hay, etc. During this period, the civil war began between the North and the South, so the business of the partners was booming. A lot of food was required.
Birth of Standard Oil
In the early 1860s, kerosene lamps came into use and quickly gained social acceptance. Seeing this, John decides to go into the oil refining business and creates a tandem with a familiar chemist, Samuel Andrews. Together with Clark, they build a refinery and begin purchasing oil, transporting it by rail.
In 1870, John Rockefeller created the companyStandardOil" (Standard Oil), which became the progenitor of all large companies in the oil business.
Rockefeller, already an experienced business man, began to buy small oil producing and oil refining enterprises. They had a simple choice: either ruin or joining a trust.
Big success
Business skills, combined with bribery and blackmail, allowed John Rockefeller to become the owner of 95% of all oil plants and enterprises. And if it were not for the Sherman Act (prohibiting monopolies), which came into force in 1890, this percentage would probably reach 100.
Rockefeller had to split his trust into 34 enterprises. However, this did not bother him, since in each he had a controlling interest and in fact remained the owner of everything that was before the division.
In 1894, John Rockefeller Sr. became the first billionaire in America and the world.
Retirement
At the age of 52 John decided to retire and handed over all matters to his partners. He himself devoted himself to charity, which he has been constantly engaged in since the days of his hired work.
He took an active financial part in the building of the University of Chicago Medical University, which bears his name. In 1913 he creates Rockefeller Foundation.
At the age of 97(May 23, 1937) John Rockefeller Sr. died of a heart attack before reaching the age of 100, as he dreamed. He left a total inheritance of about 700 million dollars to his children: his only son, John Rockefeller Jr., 460 million; to his five daughters - 240 million.
He gave the rest of the money to charity. His son in the future also became a generous philanthropist who built a 102-story skyscraper "Empire State Building", and also allocated 9 million for the construction UN headquarters in NYC.