John D. Rockefeller — The World’s First Billionaire
John D. Rockefeller marched to his own beat. Throughout his life, he maintained diabolic opposites. At times he was seen as a “curious and free-thinker”, and at other times, a “strict and rigid thinker”. During parts of his life, he was perceived as a symbol of “corporate greed”, and during other parts, “a philanthropist”.
Three qualities stand out in Rockefeller: He was a strategic thinker, risk-adverse, and an optimist.
The question remains, however, whether Rockefeller’s multi-character facades were ego-driven, altruistic, or both.
Preface
The Rockefeller Foundation has recently liquidated all their fossil fuel investments, including: ExxonMobil, Chevron, etc., and has spoken highly of electric car pioneer, Elon Musk.
Times have changed since Rockefeller was around. In the 19th century, the transition from whale oil to petroleum oil is similar to the impact we are seeing today with the transition from gas cars to electric cars. Both are groundbreaking innovations that significantly impact the mass market.
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“All my future seemed to hinge on that day…”
September 26th signified one of the most important dates in Rockefeller’s life- A day he donned “Job Day”, which represented the day he got his first job — an assistant bookkeeper.
His career took off after that, in his eyes. All said and done, Rockefeller accumulated a fantastic amount of wealth during his career (disclaimer: the majority of which was made after the bookkeeping job…). During the course of his life, Rockefeller flipped his image from “greedy” to “generous”, and from “predator to “philanthropist”.
The first word that comes to mind when I think of the early stage of Rockefeller’s career is predator. He was a predator. He had to be predatory in order to create the greatest impact within the game he entered, where there were intense rules of engagement.
Rockefeller was a savage. I mean, let’s be honest; he found a billion dollars in the ground.
“Competition is a sin.”
Innovation is the only way to get to monopoly-type money. There’s no money in competition. Everyone competing for the same thing is the hardest way to make money.
Rockefeller didn’t believe in competition. He innovated in business by creating the first “trust” and he transformed his business model many times. Rockefeller innovated under the company name, Standard Oil. The birth of Standard Oil took off when he made Standard a horizontal integration, from merely drilling for oil to refining oil.
Once Standard moved to a vertical integration, it became a monopoly. The vertical integration covered oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing. Rockefeller had no one to competition.
“If there’s a setback, there’s a need, if there’s a need, there’s an opportunity.”
This type of thinking takes a different set of goggles to see the right questions. Rockefeller’s idea about setbacks, needs, and opportunities provides us with the right goggles.
If Rockefeller saw a setback, he knew to look for the need, and ultimately, the opportunity. Setbacks led him to ask the right questions in order to create opportunities.
“My mom always said, ‘Willful waste, makes woeful want’.”
This mindset worked magic in his business life and personal life.
In the 19th century, automotive gas companies dumped gasoline into rivers, and refineries produced mountains of waste. Standard Oil would stock the gasoline for later use and actually resell its waste.
Rockefeller stayed away from tobacco and alcohol his entire life. He saw the both as “wastes” and attributes this to his mom’s constant reminder.
“The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.”
Rockefeller was the first person to ever amass a billion dollars. He held 1.6% of all money in the US during his lifetime. Put bluntly, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and JP Morgan held the majority of the country’s wealth. Those three combined held one trillion dollars and the rest of America was dirt poor.
As you can imagine, it was around this time that Rockefeller was an emoji for “corporate greed”; however, public perception of Rockefeller began to shift later in his life when he took on larger philanthropic efforts.
“Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.”
His trademark move was giving away dimes and nickels to strangers. When we was out on the town, he would give dimes to adults and nickels to children.
Rockefeller donated more than a half a billion dollars to various philanthropic causes. In 1929, The Rockefeller Foundation eradicated hookworm disease across the Southern United States.
Today, The Rockefeller Foundation has distributed more than $14 billion dollars.
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Rockefeller had two goals as a child: To make $100k and live to 100. He died 23 months short.
Rockefeller was the epitome of the business titian — being everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Able to touch all of his customers yet slide passed political and business restrictions.
Egotistical? Altruistic? The answer is both and that’s ok.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Rockefeller:
“I was early taught to work as well as play.
My life has been one long, happy holiday;
Full of work and full of play -
I dropped the worry on the way -
And God was good to me every day.”
