When was Rockefeller born? Biography of John Rockefeller

Plan
Introduction
1 Biography
1.1 Early years
1.2 Career
1.3 Charitable activities
1.4 Family

Bibliography

Introduction

John Davison Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller; July 8, 1839 (18390708), Richford, New York - May 23, 1937, Ormond Beach, Florida) - American businessman, philanthropist, the first "dollar" billionaire in the history of mankind.

In 1870 he founded the Standard Oil Company and ran 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 Andreus, and one non-voting partner, Stephen Harkens. As the demand for kerosene and gasoline soared, the Rockefellers' wealth also increased, and he became the richest man in the world in his day, with a net worth of US$1.4 billion (1937 nominal) or 1.54% of US GDP at the time of his death. Adjusted for inflation, the NYTimes estimates his wealth at around $192 billion in 2006 equivalent.

Rockefeller was one of the greatest philanthropists in the United States, the founder of the Rockefeller Foundation, who donated large sums to medical research, education, in particular, to fight yellow fever. He also founded the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University. Rockefeller was a believing Baptist and donated part of his income to support church institutions throughout his life. He always preached healthy lifestyle life and a complete rejection of alcohol and tobacco. He had four daughters and one son, who inherited the management of the Rockefeller Foundation.

1. Biography

1.1. early years

Rockefeller was the second of six children in a family of German Protestants William Aver Rockefeller (10/13/1810-05/11/1906) and Eliza Davison (09/12/1813-03/28/1889). He was born in Richford, New York. His father was first a lumberjack, and then an itinerant merchant who called himself a "botanical doctor" and sold various elixirs and was rarely at home. According to the recollections of the neighbors, John's father was considered a strange man who tried to evade 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 amount of capital that allowed him to buy land for $3,100. However, the propensity for risk was side by side with foresight, so part of the capital was invested in various enterprises. Eliza, John's mother, ran the household, was a very devout Baptist, and was often in poverty, as 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 oddities and adultery of her husband.

John Rockefeller recalled that his father early years told him about the enterprises in which he participated, explained the principles of doing business. John 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 simply "trained" me to get rich!"

When John was seven years old, he began to raise turkeys for sale, worked part-time digging potatoes for neighbors. He recorded all the results of commercial activities in his little book. He invested all the money he earned in a porcelain piggy bank, and already at the age of 13 he lent a farmer friend $ 50 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 the enterprises of William Rockefeller did not always end well, she often had to save money. "I was brought up on the principle: work and save," said John Rockefeller.

At 13, John went to school in Richford. In his autobiography, he wrote: "It was difficult for me to study, in order to prepare my lessons, I had to study hard." 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 months of accounting courses and a thirst for activity would bring much more than years of college education. He leaves college and goes headlong into practice.

1.2. Career

Rockefeller was a hard-working, purposeful and devout Christian, for which the partners nicknamed him "The Deacon".

In 1853, the Rockefeller family moved to Cleveland. Since John Rockefeller was the eldest child in the family, at the age of 16 he went to look for work. By that time, he was already quite good at mathematics, and even completed a three-month accounting course in Cleveland. However, finding a job was not easy. Six weeks of searching were wasted. Until John was finally hired as an assistant accountant at Hugh Tuttle. Hugh Tuttle was involved in real estate and shipping. It is worth noting that it was such a time that for the first three months Rockefeller studied rather than worked. Those. did everything for free. Thanks to his ability in mathematics, he rose to the position of an accountant.

However, studying brought Rockefeller real pleasure. He started his working day at 6:30 am and ended after 10 pm. Studying at Hewitt and Tuttle gave a lot to the future oil tycoon. John Rockefeller, in general, quickly enough was able to establish himself as a competent professional. And as soon as the manager of the Hewitt and Tuttle company left his post, John was immediately appointed to his place. True, at the same time he was given a salary of 600 dollars. This greatly offended Rockefeller, as his predecessor received 2000. John left the company. It was his first and last job for hire.

Just at this time, the English entrepreneur John Maurice Clark was looking for a partner with a capital of $ 2,000 to create a joint business. At that time, Rockefeller had accumulated $ 800, he borrows the missing amount from his father at 10% per annum, and on April 27, 1857, he becomes a junior partner of Clark and Rochester. The Clark and Rochester trading house traded in hay, grain, meat and other goods.

Rockefeller was lucky - the southern states announced their withdrawal from the Union and a civil war began. The federal government needed hundreds of thousands of uniforms and rifles, millions of rounds of ammunition, tons of meat, sugar, tobacco and biscuits. The starting capital of $4,000 was not enough to fulfill these orders, a loan was needed. However, the company was young, and banks preferred not to take risks. Rockefeller took it upon himself to negotiate with the bank, but he was 90% sure of the refusal. John still came to the director of the bank and frankly, without concealing anything, told him what was the matter. The sincerity of the merchant impressed the director of the bank, and he agreed to give a loan.

As a result, Rockefeller made good money and could afford to start a family. He married Laura Celestina Spelman, whom he met while still a student. Pious, like her husband, teacher Laura Spelman, however, had a practical mindset. Rockefeller once remarked: "Without her advice, I would have remained a poor man."

After some time, Rockefeller stumbled upon a real gold mine: in the evening in all houses, from the palaces of the Vanderbilts and Carnegie to the shacks of Chinese emigrants, kerosene lamps lit up, and kerosene, as you know, is made from oil. Rockefeller associate Maurice Clark said, "John believed in only two things on earth - the Baptist creed and oil."

In 1870, John Rockefeller meets a chemist (name unknown), who tells him about kerosene. This is how the Standard Oil Company was founded. Rockefeller started looking for oil. At the beginning of his career, the future billionaire noticed that the entire oil business was some kind of chaotic machine. He understood that only by putting things in order in his work, it would be possible to think about some kind of commercial success. This is what he did with his partner. To begin with, a company charter was created. In order to motivate employees, Rockefeller at first decided to abandon wages by rewarding them with shares. He believed that thanks to this they would work more actively, because they would consider themselves part of the company. And their final income will depend on the success of the business.

The business began to generate income, and Rockefeller began to slowly buy up other oil companies. One by one, small businesses that couldn't cost too much. This strategy did not sit well with many Americans. Rockefeller negotiated with railroad companies to regulate transport prices, so Standard Oil received lower prices than its competitors: it paid 10 cents for transporting a barrel of oil, while competitors paid 35 cents, and the difference was 25 cents from each barrel. into Rockefeller's pocket. Competitors could not resist him, Rockefeller put them before a choice: to unite with him, or ruin. Most of them chose to become part of Standard Oil in exchange for a share of the shares.

Be that as it may, by 1880, thanks to numerous small and medium-sized mergers, 95% of America's oil production was in the hands of Rockefeller. Having become a monopolist, he acted according to the rule "it is easier for a monopolist to raise prices than to increase sales." Standard Oil becomes at this time the largest company in the world. True, not for long. In 10 years, the famous Sherman law against monopolies will be released. Rockefeller will respond by splitting Standard Oil into 34 small companies (in all he will have a controlling stake). Thanks to this law, John Rockefeller becomes even richer than before. By the way, it is worth noting that almost all the current major oil companies have gone from Standard Oil. For example, this can be said about such giants as Mobile, Exxon, Chevron and others.

With age, the mind did not change Rockefeller. He ruled his empire with an iron fist: Standard Oil alone brought in three million dollars a year (today it would be fifty million). He owned sixteen railroad companies, six steel companies, nine real estate firms, six shipping companies, nine banks, and three orange groves, all of which yielded bountiful cash crops.

John Davison Rockefeller Sr.: biography

John Davison Rockefeller, photo

John Rockefeller is the richest and most successful man in the history of mankind.

His fortune was 318.3 billion dollars (at the dollar rate for 2007). He was 74 years old when he was at the peak of his wealth, his fortune was 1.53% of the income of the American economy, he was America's first billionaire.

« I never guessed who I would be in this life, but I always knew that I was born for something more.”- so, according to the memoirs of his beloved grandson David, said John Davison Rockefeller.

As a young man, John Davison Rockefeller ( John Davison Rockefeller, abbreviated DDR) said that he had 2 dreams in life: the first to earn $ 100,000, and the second - to live to be 100 years old. He was 2 years and 2 months short of 2 goals, but he made his first dream come true with tremendous success.

John with son

Rockefeller was born into a poor family

Full name - John Davidson Rockefeller Sr. he later had a son with the same name) was born July 8, 1839 in the State of New York, USA, and died in 1937 at the age of ninety-eight (98).

His father, William Avery "Big Bill" Rockefeller was a lazy man who spent most of his time thinking about how to avoid manual labor. John's mother, Louise (Eliza), was a self-employed, very devout Baptist, and was often in poverty as her husband was constantly away for extended periods of time and constantly had to save money on everything. However, thanks to the influence of his mother Louise and the devout Baptist John D., he grew up to be quite a hard-working guy.

Mother was a terribly devout Baptist, so from childhood she inspired John with the idea that you need to work hard and constantly save.
The Rockefellers moved to the New World in the 18th century and are slowly moving north to Michigan. Things are piled into a creaking wagon drawn by oxen, Rockefeller's grandfather holds the reins, his wife and children follow, swallowing road dust. They stopped in the city of Richford, New York: John Rockefeller would be born there in 1839.
He became the "Devil" as a child. His dry, skin-covered face, devoid of luster of eyes and thin pale lips greatly frightened those around him. In fact, he was quite sensitive and emotional, he just seemed to hide all his feelings in the farthest pocket of his soul. Few knew what John really was.

In young age

Education

At 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 the lessons. Rockefeller successfully graduated from high school and entered Cleveland College, where they taught accounting and the basics of commerce, but soon came to the conclusion that a three-month accounting course and a thirst for activity would bring much more than college years, so he left him.

Starting a business and how to get rich

The business was part of John's family upbringing. As a child, he bought a pound of candy, divided it into small piles, and sold them to his sisters at a small markup. And at the age of seven he raised turkeys and sold them to his neighbors. Earned on this $ 50, he lent to a neighbor farmer at 7% per annum.

In 1853, the Rockefeller family moved to Cleveland. Since John Rockefeller was one of the eldest children in the family, at the age of 16 he went to look for work.

John began his career in 1855 at the age of 16 as an accountant in the Cleveland trading firm Gevit & Tettl with a salary of $5 and then $25 a week.

From his first paycheck, Rockefeller acquires a solid ledger. In it, he writes down all his income and expenses, paying attention even to the little things.

He, like Morgan, was of military age when the American Civil War broke out. And both paid off their service in the army for 300 dollars (in the North of the country this was a common practice for those with funds).

Having gained enough experience, in his opinion, and having saved $ 800, in 1858 John left the company to open a partnership called Clark & Rockefeller (Clark & Rockefeller) - a small grocery firm, typical of the era of small business.

In the early 1860s, Rockefeller went out of business and organized new company- Rockefeller & Andrews, focusing on oil refining and kerosene trading, and continued to develop.

Then several more firms joined it, and in 1870 they founded the Standard Oil Company, with a capital of $ 1 million, which, with the help of successful business decisions and some predatory and illegal actions, became a giant monopoly.

In its heyday, Standard Oil had about 90% of the refined oil (kerosene) market in the United States (in the beginning, Standard Oil's products were not of particular interest to the oil industry, the gasoline produced by those refineries was flooded in rivers because it was counted useless).

In 1910, 55 years after Rockefeller made his first $5, he became the world's first dollar billionaire. “Through perseverance, anything - whether right or wrong, good or bad - will be achieved,” Rockefeller said.

In 1911, the Supreme Court declared Standard Oil a monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act, and the Standard Oil Company was split up.

The corporation broke up into 30 small companies with different boards and directors, in which John Rockefeller retained controlling stakes. By this time, John Rockefeller had long since stepped down from the board of the company, but still had a huge percentage of the shares. Every year he received at least $ 3 million from this business.

Oil prices are the secret of success

Since crude oil is virtually useless without distillation, hundreds of refineries sprang up on the other end of the pipeline (and this is true. Under Henry Ford, there were 240 automobile companies, of which only three remained - Ford, Chrysler and General Motors).

In Cleveland, Rockefeller's Standard Oil was just one of 26 refineries battling to survive in a very shaky single-supplier market.

In the 60s of the 19th century, the price of crude oil ranged from $13 per barrel to 10 cents. In fact, Rockefeller was not the first to appreciate the economic potential of the new industry, since the resulting kerosene could heat homes and light the streets of America's rapidly growing cities.

The cheaper it was for a ferryman to deliver oil from the field to the refinery and from the refinery to the market and consumer, the greater the margin he could play with.

Rockefeller successfully did both.

In early 1872, entering into an alliance called the South Improvement Company, Rockefeller entered into a pact with three railroad companies (Pennsylvania, New York Central and Erie): they received the lion's share of all oil transportation.

In exchange, Standard Oil was given preferential rail fares while its competitors in the refinery business were crushed with punitive prices. In addition to huge price advantages, Rockefeller received detailed information about competitors' shipments from the union of shippers and carriers (South Improvement Company), which greatly helped in undermining their prices.

Time to work is the secret to success

Rockefeller knows that the Lord blesses the righteous, and turns his life into a constant feat - he comes to work at 6.30 in the morning, and leaves so late that he has to promise himself to finish his accounting no later than ten in the evening.

John's favorite game

Daily practice of my favorite game - golf - provided the necessary exposure to fresh air and sun. He did not forget about indoor games, reading and other beneficial activities.

successful marriage- secret of success

This fully applies to Rockefeller's wife. Before marrying a young promising businessman, Laura Celestina Spelman, who can hardly be called a beauty, was school teacher and was exceptionally pious. They met during the short student days of Rockefeller, but got married only after 9 years. The girl attracted John's attention with her piety, practicality of mind and the fact that he reminded him of his mother. According to Rockefeller himself, without the advice of Laura, he would have "remained a poor man."

The state of the Rockefeller clan at the end of the 19th century

In addition to the oil business, which brought in $ 3 million annually, the businessman owned 16 railway and 6 steel companies, 9 real estate firms, 6 shipping companies, 9 banks and 3 orange groves.

« I believe that the destiny of any person on earth is to honestly take everything that you can, and just as honestly give everything that you can.”- this is how John formulated his life credo.

At 16, Rockefeller began working as an accountant and philanthropist.

Rockefeller has always been a philanthropist, he gave 10% of his income from his very first salary to charity. As his wealth grew, so did his contributions to charity.

« Grandfather was not interested in acquiring Scottish or French castles, he was disgusted by the thought of buying art or yachts', says David Rockefeller.

In 1908, John wrote and published a book called "Memoirs" where Rockefeller's 12 Golden Rules were formed.

When John Davison started, his fortune was in the thousands of dollars, and all the money went into business. Now that he had hundreds of millions, it was time for godly charity.

Fifty thousand letters came to Rockefeller a month asking for help - as far as possible, he answered them and sent people checks.

He helped found the University of Chicago with a $35 million donation, established scholarships, paid pensions - all paid for by the consumer, who was forced by Rockefeller to shell out as much for Standard Oil for kerosene and gasoline.
In 1901, he founded the New York Institute for Medical Research (since 1965 - Rockefeller University), in 1903 - the Council for General Education, in 1913 - the Rockefeller Foundation, in 1918 - the Laura Spelman Foundation (in honor of his wife - helping children and social sciences).
His total philanthropic donations totaled over $700 million.
Half of America dreamed of extorting more money from John Davison Rockefeller. The other half was ready to lynch him. Rockefeller is getting old. Passions, seething around, acted on his nerve.

In all the places where the aged Rockefeller appeared, he distributed handfuls of five- and ten-cent coins from his pockets to everyone around him. And I always took a supply of them with me.

John gave birth to four daughters and one son - John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. (born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1874, died May 11, 1960 during a winter vacation in Arizona), who continued his father's work ( the youngest had six children, and his five sons, representing the third generation of the Rockefeller dynasty, also became famous in business, finance and philanthropy).

John Sr. died in 1937 at the age of 98, he was worth $1.4 billion (1937 nominal) or 1.54% of the US GDP, but gave away half of his accumulated wealth before his death, founding a philanthropic organization that continues to give money for charity, to this day.

John Davison Rockefeller Senior (John Rockefeller), 1839-1937, biography

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John Rockefeller is the richest and successful person in the history of mankind. His fortune was 318.3 billion dollars (at the dollar rate for 2007). He was 74 years old when he was at the peak of his wealth, his fortune was 1.53% of the income of the American economy, he was America's first billionaire. “I never knew who I would be in this life, but ...

John Davison Rockefeller is the richest man in the world in the history of mankind.

The future billionaire was born on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York. Both parents, William Avery Rockefeller and Louise Celanto, were members of the Baptist Church. The family brought up six children, of which John was the second oldest. William worked as a traveling salesman and from childhood brought up in children the ability to trade. To do this, his father paid John to do household chores. During the periods of William's departures, the mother, who did not work anywhere, but was engaged only in housework, had to save money, and Louise instilled this ability in her offspring.

The world's first billionaire John D. Rockefeller

Little John is already early age showed commercial ingenuity - he sold sweets to his sisters, which he bought in bulk. And at the age of 7, the boy was hired by his neighbors on a farm, where he earned his first money by picking potatoes and growing turkeys. From the first days of his working life, Rockefeller started an account book, where he carefully entered income and expenses.

Young John gave the impression of a quiet, thoughtful boy to those around him. A lean and unemotional child thought for a long time and was in no hurry to make a decision. But in fact, John was a very sensitive boy, and experienced the loss of his own sister, who died as an infant. After the girl's death, John lay face down on the grass far from home for 12 hours.

At school, Rockefeller did not like to study, although teachers noted the boy's tenacious memory and ability to think logically. During his student years, John started a loan shark business. Rockefeller realized that by lending small amounts at low interest, you can earn without difficulty. The boy did not want to become a slave to money and work day and night for a salary, John decided to make money his own slaves and make them work for him. After leaving school, John became a student at a commercial college, so the young businessman got a three-month accounting course, where he mastered the necessary basics of money management.

Business

In 1855, John got his first and only paid job at Hewitt & Tuttle in the accounting department. The young man started out with a salary of $17, but a few months later the young man was promoted to $25. A year later, Rockefeller is appointed manager of the company. John began to receive a salary of 20 times the accounting salary. But the ambitious young man was not satisfied with this amount, since the previous leader was paid much more and, having not worked for a year, John quits to start his own business.

In order to become a partner of a British businessman, Rockefeller had to borrow $1,200 from his own father at 10% per annum. Having collected the necessary $ 2,000, Rockefeller became a partner and owner of the shares of Clark and Rochester. The company traded in agricultural products. Rockefeller quickly won the trust of partners with business acumen, intuition and sincerity. The young man took up the management of the financial affairs of the enterprise.

In the second half of the 19th century, the development of a new market area, the oil refining business, began in America, as kerosene lamps began to be popular in everyday life. John Davison Rockefeller invites the practicing chemist Samuel Andrews to cooperate and makes the scientist a partner in the new firm of Andrews and Clark. Previous partner Clark did not want to participate in such a business, and John had to buy out a stake in the company and take over the management of the business.

At the age of 31, Rockefeller created the Standard Oil company, which is engaged in the full cycle of kerosene production, from oil production to the sale of finished products. A feature of doing business was that John did not pay salaries to employees in cash. The businessman gave promotion with the shares of the enterprise. This approach allowed employees to work with greater responsibility, since now well-being directly depended on the success of the company.

The development of Rockefeller's business went at a rapid pace. Through entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to negotiate with influential people John secured reduced rail freight rates for his own company. Compared to competitors, Standard Oil products were transported 2-3 times cheaper. Rockefeller thus forced other oil companies to sell production to Standard Oil. Thus, an enterprising businessman turned into a monopolist.

In 1890, Senator Sherman's antitrust law was passed in the United States, which was directed against the activities of the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller for 20 years was forced to split production into 34 controlled enterprises. In each of them, John secured the right to own a controlling stake. This division of business had a positive effect on the capital of the magnate; Rockefeller increased his own income many times over.

State

Every year, John Rockefeller's income from the activities of Standard Oil was $ 3 million. At the time of his death, according to experts, the fortune of the oil tycoon was $ 1.4 billion. The company owned 70% of all world oil fields. In terms of the current dollar rate, this is $ 318 billion or 1.5% of the United States GDP. Rockefeller owned 16 railroad companies, 6 steel mills, and 6 steamship companies. The businessman owned 9 banks, 9 real estate firms.

Rockefeller at the end of his life surrounded himself with luxury, but did not advertise this to society. The family of the magnate owned orange groves, villas and mansions, a land plot of 273 hectares. John Rockefeller's favorite game was golf, so the billionaire had a playing field at his disposal for personal use. The tycoon explained his own well-being by discipline and maintaining the 12 golden rules of life that John developed in his youth.

Charity

John Rockefeller attended a Protestant church from childhood and, as an exemplary Christian, from the very first earnings he began to transfer tithes for the needs of the parish he attended. The oilman did not change his own habit until the end of his life. The tycoon transferred $ 100 million. In addition to donations to the church, Rockefeller did a lot of charity work. John transferred sums of money to the University of Chicago, the New York Institute for Medical Research, of which John was the founder. At the beginning of the 20th century, Rockefeller created the "Council for General Education" and the "Rockefeller Foundation".

Tycoon John Rockefeller in 1885

The oil magnate wrote a number of biographical books, the first of which was the 1909 edition of Memories of People and Events. In 1910, Rockefeller's book How I Made $500,000,000, about the history of enrichment, was published. In 1913, the entrepreneur wrote the book "Memoirs", in which he outlined all the interesting facts of his own biography.

Personal life

At 25, John D. Rockefeller married teacher Laura Celestia Spelman from a wealthy family. The girl attracted the groom with piety. Young people were united by a mutual feeling of love for each other and views on life and family well-being. Both were extremely economical and unpretentious in their desires.

In the Rockefeller family, 4 daughters were born and the only heir is the son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., who became the successor of his father's work. Even when Rockefeller acquired the Cleveland refinery, the family continued to live in rented housing and did not keep servants. As the oil tycoon himself wrote, John owes his commercial success to his wife.

After the death of his wife, John Rockefeller lived for a long time. The oilman fell in love with women's society, gradually got used to wearing expensive suits. Rockefeller's favorite headdress was a straw hat, in which the elderly businessman often posed for photos.

John raised the children original way. Each child had a ledger that recorded cash rewards and expenses. In the Rockefeller house there was a certain system of rewarding children for work. John rewarded his daughters and son for their refusal of any benefits. For example, for a day without sweets, a child was entitled to a sum of money.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. increased the wealth of the family corporation many times over. And five grandchildren, the most famous of which were Nelson, Winthrop and, participated in the political and economic life of the United States until the beginning of the 21st century.

Death

John Rockefeller had two dreams in life that did not come true: to live to be 100 years old and earn $ 100 thousand. But the entrepreneur died at the age of 97, and his fortune was $ 192 billion. John Rockefeller died on May 23, 1937 from a heart attack in Florida .

Quotes

Famous oil tycoon quotes:

Whoever 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.

12 Rockefeller Rules

Work less for people. The more you work not for yourself, the faster you get poorer. The word "work" has the root "slave".
Saving money is the right step to success. Buy products where it is cheaper or in bulk, prepare a list of what you need in advance, purchase products according to the list.
If you are poor, start doing business. If you don’t have a penny at all, then you should open a business right now, without delaying even for a minute.
The path to success, the road to great wealth, is through passive income.
Dream of earning at least $50,000 a month, and possibly more.
Money comes to you through other people. Communication, goodwill makes people rich. An unsociable person rarely becomes rich.
A poor environment, unsuccessful people pull you into poverty and failure. Surround yourself with winners and optimists.
Don't give yourself an excuse to put off the first step towards achieving your goal - there isn't one.
Learn the biographies and thoughts of the world's richest successful people. The life story of a successful person will help to fulfill the desires of everyone - this is the meaning of this quote.
Dreams are the most important thing in your life. The main thing is to dream and believe that dreams will come true. A person begins to die when he stops dreaming.
Help people not for money, but from the bottom of your heart. Give 10% of profits to charity. That is, everyone should help those in need. This is evidenced by the success story of John Rockefeller.
Create business systems and enjoy your earned money. The meaning of this quote is that a person must work in order to live happily, and not stupidly accumulate wealth.

How often have you heard the expression:

I'm not a Rockefeller!

Today I want to present to your attention the biography of one of the richest people in the world.

This figure is shrouded in mystery and mysticism. This name is associated with many legends and fabulous riches. Business partners called him "The Devil" for his diligence, dedication and piety.

His name was even frightened by small children.

And Rockefeller himself was proud all his life not of his fortune and position, but of his impeccable morality.

Full name - John Davidson Rockefeller Sr. was born July 8th, 1839 in New York State, USA.

His upbringing was mainly done by his mother, who was a terribly devout Baptist, so from childhood she inspired John with the idea that you need to work hard and constantly save.

John Davidson Rockefeller. Biography

One of the most famous American businessmen. Founder of a huge oil empire"Standard Oil Company", "Rockefeller Fund" and many other companies.

Founder of charitable foundations that financed science and education. At one time, his fortune was 1.53% of the income of the American economy.

There are different records in the world - record weight, record speed, record height, record depth. But if the column “record thickness of the wallet” were included in the table of world records, then the Rockefeller family of American billionaires would be in one of the first, if not the first place in the world.

$88 billion is under the control of the five Rockefeller brothers, who now head this fantastically wealthy family.

That $88 billion is stored in armored vaults in deep concrete cellars carved into the rocky base of Manhattan Island, where downtown New York sits.

It was there that the central headquarters of the empire of the Rockefeller brothers settled. These basements are truly a miracle. modern technology. Imagine several floors underground, long galleries leading to the chamber's thick laminated steel.

These cells are closed with 52-ton steel doors with remote control. Countless treasures are stored in these concrete compartments, guarded by the most complex electronic systems, the encrypted key to which is known only to two or three persons.

The Rockefeller office is on Wall Street. Choosing the location of their headquarters, the Rockefellers decided to outsmart fashion.

On the one hand, they did not want to fall behind her and erect for themselves a sort of modern miracle - the 70th skyscraper made of steel and glass.

On the other hand, they didn't want to leave Wall Street. The solution was found in the fact that on the next street, closely adjacent to Wall Street, they bought a vast plot of land, where they erected a skyscraper, in which the main bank of the Rockefeller empire, the Chase Manhattan Bank, was located.

In this 70th skyscraper, the total length of the corridors of which is no longer measured in meters, but in kilometers, in hundreds of rooms, offices and halls where computers are located, thousands of people work at the Rockefeller headquarters.

American province of the beginning of the last century: hastily cobbled together, on hastily knocked together towns - houses from pine boards, sawmills, mills, churches.

The Rockefellers moved to the New World in the 18th century and are slowly moving north to Michigan. Things are piled into a creaking wagon drawn by oxen, Rockefeller's grandfather holds the reins, his wife and children follow, swallowing road dust.

They settled in Richford, New York, where John Rockefeller would be born in 1839.

Tough, rational, not forgiving sinners and weaklings, the god of the Huguenots rested on his grandfather and father. Godfrey Rockefeller, a sweet and warm-hearted man, failed to break through in life. Besides, he (here the strong-willed grandmother Lucy pursed her lips contemptuously) was not a fool to drink.

And William Avery Rockefeller, the father of the future multibillionaire, collected all conceivable vices in himself - a libertine, a horse thief, a charlatan, a deceiver, a bigamist, a liar ... (But he did not take a drop of alcohol in his mouth and even established the first sobriety society in the town.)

The business was part of John's family upbringing. As a child, he bought a pound of candy, divided it into small piles, and sold them to his sisters at a small markup. And at the age of seven he raised turkeys and sold them to his neighbors. He lent the $50 earned on this to a neighbor at 7% per annum.

To those around him, John seemed absent-minded and thoughtful, as if he did not live in the real world, but hovered in the clouds. In fact, this opinion was erroneous, the boy was distinguished by a tenacious grip, good memory and composure. Playing checkers, he harassed his opponents, thinking through each move for half an hour.

He became the "Devil" as a child. His dry, skin-covered face, devoid of luster of eyes and thin pale lips greatly frightened those around him.

However, the external severity and calmness of the boy was only in public. In fact, he was quite sensitive and emotional, he just seemed to hide all his feelings in the farthest pocket of his soul. Few knew what John really was. When his sister died, he ran into the backyard and lay on the ground for several hours, until evening.

Even as an adult, Rockefeller did not become the indifferent monster that those around him tried to portray.

One day he found out that his former classmate (whom he always liked, but because of his highly moral nature he did not dare to start a relationship with her) had been widowed and assigned her a personal pension.

But what he really was is difficult to say, since almost all of his feelings and desires were subordinated to one goal - to become rich. Not many people managed to penetrate his soul.

Father of the future billionaire

William Rockefeller, the great-grandfather of the five brothers who today head the family and the father of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., was the most vulgar horse thief and petty swindler.

According to sources, “His secular posture and abstinence from wine (drunkenness was one of the few vices from vices from which William Rockefeller was free) caused the daughter of a wealthy farmer, Eliza Davison, to become Mrs. Rockefeller.

The girl's parents did not want this marriage, since the groom had a reputation in the district as a man in the affairs of an unscrupulous, stealer of girls' hearts and a card player.

Officially, William Rockefeller was engaged in the sale of medicines. However, he was not an ordinary pharmacist, did not have a special education and traded in charlatan drugs, collaborating with all sorts of healers and hoaxers.

William traveled around the northeastern United States selling worthless medicinal potions, posing as a "botanical doctor," a "famous cancer specialist," or an impoverished deaf-mute.

AT 1849, when John Rockefeller- William's son - was 10 years old, the family urgently had to change their place of residence, and the move was like an escape. The reason for it, as evidenced by the documents, was quite colorful - William Rockefeller was accused of horse stealing.

William appeared in town apart from his family - a handsome man with a light brown beard, in a new, brand-new frock coat and - an unprecedented thing in Richford! - carefully ironed trousers.

On his chest was a sign "I am a deaf-mute." Thanks to her, William, nicknamed Big Bill, soon knew the whole ins and outs of every citizen.

The lush beard and the arrows on the trousers pierced the heart of the village girl Eliza Davison. She exclaimed:

I would marry this man if he weren't deaf and dumb! and the “crippled man” who modestly stood not far away realized that a good business could be done here.

Bill's ears worked no worse than radars that had not yet been invented, he heard that his father gave Eliza five hundred dollars of dowry two days earlier - they soon got married, and two years later John Rockefeller was born.

In addition to the craving for sobriety, God rewarded William with an extraordinary charm: Eliza did not part with him, even realizing that her fiancé hears everything perfectly, and on occasion, swears no worse than a drunken lumberjack. She did not leave her husband even when he brought his mistress Nancy Brown into the house, and she - in turn with Eliza - began to give birth to William's children.

Bill went to work at night. He disappeared into the darkness, without explaining where and why he was going, and returned a few months later at dawn - Eliza woke up from the sound of a pebble hitting the window glass.

She ran out of the house, threw back the bolt, opened the gate, and her husband drove into the yard - on a new horse, in a new suit, and sometimes with diamonds on his fingers. A handsome man made good money: he took prizes at shooting competitions, he briskly traded glass “The world's best emeralds from Golconda!” and successfully posed as a famous herbal doctor. Neighbors called him Bill the Devil: some considered William a professional player, others considered him a bandit.

But it was not possible to settle in a new place either. Again, under the cover of night, they had to flee in connection with a new scandal. After several years of wandering life, the Rockefeller family finally settled in Cleveland, but not because big Bill - that was the name of William Rockefeller among horse dealers - settled down.

Just one fine day in 1855, he left for an unknown destination, marrying a certain Margaret, a very young girl who knew him only as Dr. William Livingston.

In the nearly fifty years of his second marriage, as Rockefeller biographer Ron Chernow found out, William Rockefeller intervened intermittently in his son's life, but Margaret Alien Levingston only last years life learned that her husband was the father of the richest man in the world.

The beginning of the life of John Davidson Rockefeller

John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was born in 1839 and died in 1937 (as described above) at the age of ninety-eight. One of the biographers of the Rockefeller family says that even at an age when boys are usually interested in wooden horses, John Rockefeller, the founder of family millions, showed completely different inclinations.

A seven-year-old boy begged his mother for a blue china dish that stood on the fireplace and began to put coppers into it, received for sweets and entertainment. His peers bought sweets and rode the carousel, and pale, scrofulous Johnny, avoiding other children, could admire his riches for hours, affectionately fingering coins with sweaty fingers.

But maybe the biographer had gone too far? Unknown. However, here is the testimony of Rockefeller himself. In his memoirs, he recalled:

One of my early challenges was digging potatoes at a neighbor's for a few days. He was a very enterprising and prosperous farmer. I was then probably 12 years old. And the farmer gave me a few coins every day.

I put these small amounts in a piggy bank and soon realized that the same money that I can earn by digging potatoes for a hundred days in a row, I could get without lifting a finger if I put $ 50 in the bank. This discovery led me to the idea that it would be good to make money my slaves, and not vice versa.

Bill prospered, while Eliza and the children lived from hand to mouth and worked tirelessly. She was not sure if her husband would return again, and ran the household, saving every cent.

Half-starved, dressed in old clothes, the sons ran to school in the morning, then went to work in the field, and then crammed their lessons. Honest poverty and hard work reigned at home, and Bill lived in sin and felt great.

Vice did not want to be punished: Rockefeller Sr. began to grow rich. He took up logging, bought a hundred acres of land, a smokehouse, expanded the house ... Little John, a lover of soul-saving reading, music and church services, looked at his father and studied.

From the outside, John looked distracted: it seemed that the child was constantly struggling with some insoluble problem. The impression was deceptive - the boy was distinguished by a tenacious memory, a stranglehold and unshakable calmness: playing checkers, he harassed his partners, thinking for half an hour over each move, and never lost.

You don't think I play to lose, do you?

The stern, dry-skinned face of John Davison Rockefeller and his boyish eyes devoid of luster really frightened those around him. He never knew how to enjoy life. Profit making was his favorite pastime and the only science he learned.

One of the three sisters remarked sourly:

If it falls from the sky oatmeal, Johnny will be the first to run for the plate.

At the age of seven, Johnny raised a herd of turkeys on his own. Which immediately...sold for fifty dollars to a neighbor's farmer. He, without thinking for a long time, lent the money to another neighbor ... At seven percent per annum. He had never played in any game more appropriate to a tender age.

John was a very practical young man: he knew how to take advantage of even the weaknesses of his relatives. Grandfather was weak-willed, benevolent and talkative, and the child once and for all eradicated complacency and talkativeness in himself - he decided that these qualities are inherent in losers.

His mother was distinguished by industriousness, devotion to duty and an iron will - having matured, John will work from dawn to the first stars, forcibly keeping himself from Sunday bookkeeping. And the brilliant swindler William Rockefeller had a tender, almost sensual love for money: he loved to pour banknotes on his desk and bury his hands in them, and once he went out to the children, waving a tablecloth sewn from banknotes ... His passion was passed on to his son.

John Rockefeller did not become either a libertine or a bigamist, unlike his dad, he was never sued for rape, but nevertheless he learned a lot from his father.

From early childhood he was in business: he bought a pound of sweets, divided it into small piles and sold it at a premium to his own sisters, caught wild turkeys and raised them for sale. The future billionaire carefully put the proceeds in a piggy bank - he soon began to lend them to his father at a reasonable percentage. Few knew the other, human side of his nature.

John Davison Rockefeller hid the feelings inherent in people in the farthest pocket and fastened it with all buttons. Meanwhile, he was a sensitive boy: when his sister died, John ran into the backyard, threw himself on the ground and lay like that all day.

Yes, and having matured, Rockefeller did not become such a monster as he was portrayed: once he asked about a classmate whom he once liked (he just liked - he was a highly moral young man); upon learning that she was widowed and in poverty, the owner of Standard Oil immediately granted her a pension.

It is almost impossible to judge what he really was: Rockefeller subordinated all thoughts, all feelings, all desires to one great goal - to get rich without fail.

He has transformed himself into an ideal business machine, an apparatus for generating business ideas, exploiting subordinates and suppressing competitors. Everything that could prevent this was discarded: John Davison had to either die from overwork or become rich.

And the fact that he turned not just into a wealthy man, but into the richest man in the world, Rockefeller owed his brilliant intuition and supernatural business sense - qualities that even his own mother, who knew John like the back of her hand, could not discern.

A quiet boy receives a secondary education - meanwhile, his father seduces another maid, gets sued for defrauding creditors and leaves his family.

William Rockefeller leaves for another woman, changes his surname and hides from his wife, sons and those to whom he owed. They will not see him again - John Davison Rockefeller will not go to his father's funeral.

John Rockefeller's school friend was Mark Hanna, a man who later succeeded in business and founded a company that is now one of the most powerful in the northwest of the United States.

Hannah is a very quick-witted, resourceful person. But even he was struck by the money fanaticism of the young Rockefeller. Hanna later, remembering early years and his childhood friend, said: John in those years showed sanity in everything, with the exception of one thing - he was clearly obsessed with money.».

John Rockefeller himself said that when he, serving in a trading and intermediary firm as a cashier, first received a banknote of 4 thousand dollars, he simply could not work all day. Every five minutes he got up from behind the desk and, opening the safe, admired the banknote, turned it over in his hands, looked at it, as in childhood, when he caressed the coppers lying on a porcelain dish.

He is sixteen years old, and he leaves for Cleveland: a decently dressed young man bypasses large firms and asks the owners for a meeting. It goes on six days a week for six weeks in a row - John Rockefeller is looking for a job as an accountant.

It is unbearably hot, but a young man in a tight black suit and dark tie stubbornly walks from one office to another - Rockefeller does not want to return to the farm. On September 26, Hewitt and Tuttle hired him as an assistant accountant - Rockefeller will celebrate this day as his second birth.

The fact that the first salary was given to him only after four months did not matter in the slightest - he was allowed into the shining world of business, and he cheerfully walked towards the coveted one hundred thousand dollars. John Rockefeller behaved as a lover could behave. The quiet accountant seemed to be in a state of erotic frenzy.

In a fit of passion, he wildly shouts into the ear of a peacefully working colleague:

I'm destined to be rich!

The poor fellow shied away, and just in time - a jubilant cry is repeated two more times. rockefeller does not drink (not even coffee!) and does not smoke, does not go to dances and to the theater, but he gets acute pleasure from the sight of a check for four thousand dollars - he takes it out of the safe all the time and examines it again and again.

The girls call him on dates, and the young clerk replies that he can only meet with them in church: he feels like God's chosen one, and the temptations of the flesh do not bother him.

The golden age of speculation had come, and Rockefeller, who became a co-owner of a brokerage firm with starting capital four thousand dollars, made good money.

And then he stumbled upon a real gold mine. In the evening, in all the houses, from the palaces of the Vanderbilts and Carnegie to the shacks of Chinese emigrants, kerosene lamps lit up, and kerosene, as you know, is made from oil.

Rockefeller associate Maurice Clark said:

John believed in only two things on earth - the Baptist creed and oil.

At night he dreamed of oil wells gaping in the ground. Having pulled off a good deal, a gloomy man in a black suit jumped around the office, singing and hugging secretaries.

John began his career in 1855 as an accountant in a Cleveland trading firm at the age of 16. He, like Morgan, was of military age when the American Civil War broke out. And both paid off their service in the army for 300 dollars (in the North of the country this was a common practice for those with funds).

In 1858, John left the firm to open a partnership called Clark and Rockefeller, a small grocery firm typical of the small business era.

On Saturdays, he always worked in the office, arguing with a partner who called him to the lake to fish. Five years later, still a grocer, Rockefeller invested $4,000 in a young, fast-growing Cleveland refinery. Back in 1863, the oil business was considered the industrial equivalent of the Wild West.

In the late 1960s, the Pennsylvania Railroad attempted to monopolize the transportation of crude oil from the producing areas by supporting the interests of the New York and Philadelphia refineries located along its lines. Most of the Cleveland refiners panicked, fearing that their access to raw materials would be cut off.

Rockefeller, on the contrary, capitalized on the situation by negotiating with two railroads that continued to focus on Cleveland companies - " New York Central's Lake Shore " and " Jay Gould's Erie Railroad ". Together with their partner, Henry Flagler, they agreed to receive secret discounts of 30-75 percent on officially published railroad rates, and in return promised a huge amount of regular cargo.

This resilient, predictable business has enabled carriers to achieve significant productivity gains. As a result, the Penselvan railway ceased to pose a threat to other transport companies.

Although Rockefeller was already the world's largest oil refiner, he could not deliver the required shipment volumes he had promised in exchange for concessions on railroad rates.

Then he began to coordinate his deliveries with shipments of other Cleveland oilmen. His propensity to replace competition with coordination intensified as high profits and low start-up costs lured many new players into refining.

By 1870, the distillation capacity had increased to three times the amount of crude oil produced. As a result, according to Rockefeller, 90% of processors lost money ...

Creation of Standard Oil Company

The world's first oil field (Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA) was discovered in 1856 by Colonel Edwin Drake, and so far it has remained the only one. Demobilization after the Civil War gave the business what it had lacked until now: an army of hardened young men determined to make a fortune.

In 1870, John Rockefeller founded his company in Cleveland Standard Oil Company". During this time, Titusville and the surrounding cities literally stank of crude oil and teemed with people trying to make money on it, hundreds of drilling rigs were supplied and almost all of them were manufactured by various companies.

In Cleveland, Rockefeller's Standard Oil was just one of 26 refineries battling to survive in a very shaky single-supplier market.

In the 60s of the 19th century, the price of crude oil ranged from $13 per barrel to 10 cents. In fact, Rockefeller was not the first to appreciate the economic potential of the new industry. The resulting kerosene could heat homes and light the streets of rapidly growing cities.

In a business sense, oil was not even a key part of the oil refining industry. Produced from the same deposit, and the only one, it, of course, was homogeneous in its physical properties. Therefore, "black gold" has always cost the same.

All cleaning processes were also carried out in the same way. The impurities were removed so that the crude oil could be used in industry. There was no added value component that formed the price of various finished products. A critical cost differential in such a marginal industry was created by transportation.

The cheaper it was for a ferryman to deliver oil from the field to the refinery and from the refinery to the market and consumer, the greater the margin he could play with.

Or, the more expensive it made transportation for its competitors, the less freedom it had to play on margin. For the pious and analytical nature of John D. Rockefeller, such formulas had virtually the power of scripture: solve the transportation puzzle in your favor and you can bring order to one of America's most chaotic free markets. Otherwise, oil will always be an unacceptably unstable industry.

The oil business was in disarray and worsened every day,” he would explain later. someone had to take a stand

For cunning and insidious nature Rockefeller these formulas have become life principle. Solve the transportation puzzle and you'll be able to crush your competitors and dictate the terms of their surrender.

Rockefeller successfully did both. In early 1872, entering into an alliance called the South Improvement Company, Rockefeller entered into a pact with three railroad companies (Pennsylvania, New York Central and Erie): they received the lion's share of all oil transportation.

The pact was secret, but it was not possible to keep it secret for a long time. As information leaked into Western Pennsylvania, torch-wielding mobs of haulers took to the streets of Titusville, Franklin, Oil City, and other oil-producing cities, destroying railroad tracks and attacking Standard Oil cars. Less than two months later, the courts declared Rockefeller's secret pact illegal.

But he has already managed to collect prey. In less than six weeks, Standard Oil acquired the business of 22 of its 26 competitors. This brutal operation went down in history as the Cleveland Massacre.

Sellers clearly understood that they would have gone bankrupt anyway due to the huge advantage Rockefeller in transportation costs, which is why they agreed to part with their factories. By the middle of 1872 Standard oil” subdued the entire oil business in Clinland, which became the largest oil refinery in the country.

However, the ups and downs characteristic of this industry, negatively affecting profitability, offended Rockefeller's inherent sense of order. Some new organization plan was needed.

The Pittsburgh oilmen rejected his proposal to voluntarily curb production. Then Rockefeller decided to control fluctuations in the price of crude oil sold for processing. However, to his displeasure, the oil producers failed to agree on how to stabilize prices.

True love sweeps away all barriers: John Rockefeller was crazy about money, and they went to him in a joint. When he felt that they could be scared away, he became gentle and insinuating; when strength was required, he fought for them, not thinking about the consequences.

The company is gaining momentum

Ultimately, billionaire John Rockefeller came to the conclusion that the only Possible Solution– to seize control over oil refinery capacities on a national scale.

So, as soon as Standard Oil got the lift, the Cleveland acquisitions were quickly followed by others. The Great Depression, which followed the panic in the stock market on September 18, 1873, helped a lot, and by the way. And nothing could stop Standard Oil, which began to buy competitors outside of Cleveland.

Rockefeller had his own method. He provided business leaders with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with his accounting books. No more and no less.

Once they realized that his production was very efficient and that he could sell below their own cost while making a profit, they stopped resisting joining. According to the terms of registration, Standard oil” (Ohio, USA) could not have assets outside her home state.

But John D. Rockefeller was hard to stop with such trifles. He simply told the acquired companies to continue operating under their old names and not to make any written reference to affiliation.

In a secret meeting in 1874, Rockefeller gained control of the leading oil refineries in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. And his new allies, in turn, began to buy up their local competitors. Within two years, the number of Pittsburgh refiners dropped from 22 to one.

Over the next few years, Standard Oil consolidated covert control of all major oil refineries, including New York, West Virginia, and Baltimore, as well as refineries near the Pennsylvania oil producing areas.

In 1877, this company accounted for almost 90 percent of the production of refined petroleum products in the United States.

In total, Rockefeller bought up 53 oil refineries, of which 32 were closed, retaining the most efficient ones. As a result, the company's assets grew even more. Thanks to additional savings due to the increase in the volume of " Standard oil was able to cut the cost of refining oil by two-thirds, from one and a half cents per gallon to half a cent. As the company's revenues grew, so did its market share.

Caricature - Standard Oil Company

I have ways to create money that you don't know about. Rockefeller warned one of the Clevelandians who tried to resist his onslaught

To the main qualities inherited from the father - to low cunning and intrigue, John D. Rockefeller added cruelty and callousness. Once he categorically told his wife that

a person who succeeds in life must sometimes go against the current

and every day he proved this axiom with his business operations.

You may not be afraid of your hand being cut off, he warned another competitor, but your body will suffer.

When threats didn't work, Rockefeller rigged deals. If this did not help, then he simply bought people, or at least their votes, and along with the support of newspapers.

One senator from Ohio received $44,000 as "lobbying fees" for discrediting the state's attorney general who interfered with Standard Oil. According to the Rockefeller reports, this was generally a common practice.

During the "cut" of 1872, Rockefeller controlled ten percent of the nation's oil-refining industry.

By the beginning of the 80s of the 19th century Standard oil” distilled 90 percent of all the oil in the world and John D. Rockefeller quickly got rich. There were, however, two more variables that did not fall under the company's reliable control. To refine oil, it had to be delivered from somewhere, and for it to have economic value, it had to be sold somewhere.

Until Rockefeller controlled both endpoints of the process, he could not completely dominate the industry and maximize profits. It's time for the octopus to grow new tentacles.

To ensure supplies, the company has moved back up the process chain through the production of tanks, railcars and pipelines, all the way to its own exploration and production of oil.

Standard Oil expanded its monopoly power by aggressively investing in oil transportation. The railroads, intimidated by geologists' predictions of the rapid depletion of the nation's oil fields, were in no rush to make huge expenditures to increase traffic.

Then Rockefeller undertook to modernize the Weehawken Terminal of the Erie Railroad, New Jersey for this purpose.

As a result, Standard Oil received preferential rates and valuable information about the cargoes of other refiners, securing the right to block the transportation of oil from competitors. When railways refused to invest in newfangled tanks to replace oil barrels, the company created its own fleet.

As a result, Rockefeller received additional advantages in relation to weaker market participants. Finally, as the oil business is increasingly importance began to acquire pipelines, Standard Oil created its own network and bought a stake in another pipeline company.

Soon the Rockefeller oil pipeline firms and their obvious competitors formed a cartel to increase production and fix prices.

The fight goes on

Having stabilized supplies, Standard Oil turned to distribution and sales. Traditionally, oil was sold on the market by independent brokers who could knock as much as five cents off the price of a gallon of kerosene.

For Rockefeller, this was both an unforgivable loss and an inefficient way to control and increase sales.

We had to develop sales methods that were much more perfect than those that existed then, Rockefeller would say much later. “We needed to sell two, or three, or four gallons of oil where we used to sell one, and therefore we could not rely on the existing distribution channels.

To begin with, Rockefeller bankrupted independent operators and replaced them with their own delivery and sales services: now his influence was quite sufficient to control the industry. In specially built vans, his employees delivered oil to department stores and markets across the country.

Where there was a high population density, vans sold oil even on tap, breaking the line between wholesale and retail trade and further reinforcing the population in the idea that all oil was "Standard Oil".

By the end of the century, the company not only controlled nearly all of American oil refining, but produced a third of America's crude oil, operated the country's second-largest steel mill, and operated a fleet of thousands of railroad cars, barges, and ships. By that time, it had also penetrated into the coal and iron ore industries.

"By the 1990s, vertical integration was complete," writes Jerry Yusim in a review of Rockefeller's organizational methods in the May 1999 issue of INC magazine.

Oil was now flowing from the Standard Oil well, traveled through the Standard Oil pipeline, refined at the Standard Oil refinery, loaded into tankers, and even sold to the end user by a Standard Oil sales agent.

By raking in every step of the process, Standard Oil was no longer dependent on uncooperative suppliers, incompetent distributors, or other market vagaries.

Rockefeller achieved order, and perhaps they helped him in this. From that moment on, money began to pour into the bins of the businessman.

Over the next few decades, Rockefeller amassed the largest fortune in the world. When most Americans were happy to make two dollars a day, Rockefeller was making nearly two dollars a second, more than $50 million a year.

John D. Rockefeller was not the only man of his era to gobble up competitors and build a vertically integrated corporation with brilliant product control. Trusts, monopolies, "octopuses" were everywhere.

Rockefeller only conducted business more efficiently, in fact, independently inventing a modern management organization to manage his vast enterprise. Of course, he relied on advanced technology.

By 1885, when Standard Oil moved into its new corporate headquarters at 26 Broadway in Manhattan, the telegraph was already in place. It was a revolutionary turn in the national communications network.

A century later, with the advent of the Internet, the same upheaval will occur in the communications system. Sitting at a glass table at Standard Oil's headquarters, Rockefeller was able to keep in touch with the entire enterprise, getting in touch every hour or even earlier. The danger of micromanagement loomed.

But the genius Rockefeller did not succumb to this temptation. The businessman did not even try to manage his empire on his own, relying on his own it, individuality or cultivating fear.

Other robber barons tried all three approaches, and Rockefeller ran Standard Oil through committees. The production committee led the production, the purchasing committee - the purchases. Today, this approach is an axiom of any management.

A century ago, the Rockefeller committee system was an audacious creation designed specifically for effective control over a daring, cohesive undertaking.

Rockefeller biographer Ron Chernow notes that even at executive committee meetings, where the boss's word was the ultimate truth, he made it a point to sit in the middle rather than at the head of the table.

“Having created an empire of unfathomable complexity,” writes Chernow, “Rockefeller was smart enough to dissolve his personality into the organization.” At the same time, John D. realized that he had revealed something new to the world. Business historian Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. called Rockefeller "a new subspecies of economic man—the salaried manager."

According to the Brookings Institution, between 1880 and 1920 (this was the period during which Rockefeller ascended to his complete dominance and global dominance), the number of professional managers in the United States increased more than six-fold, from 161,000 to over a million.

To meet the growing demand for the profession, in 1898 the University of Chicago and California gave birth to a new direction in the field of education - the Faculty of Business. By the turn of the century, departments of business also appeared at New York and Dartmouth Universities.

The Faculty of Business at Harvard University began operating in 1908.

At the end of his life, Rockefeller said that Standard Oil was "the mother of a whole system of economic administration. It has revolutionized the way business is done around the world." No doubt the magnate was right, but in his old age he deliberately cleaned up many of the dubious moments of his history.

In a remarkable series of interviews taken from him between 1917 and 1920. By New York journalist William Inglis, Rockefeller offered a detailed rebuttal of virtually every accusation leveled against him and Standard Oil by critics and especially Ida Tarbell.

Whether these interviews were intended for publication - they did not air until 60 years after his death - or were simply to relieve Rockefeller's conscience and prepare him for a meeting with the creator, it is not clear.

In any case, the story presented in these stories is at odds with the facts. And it is no coincidence that Nelson Rockefeller asked his grandfather for an interview for his thesis, in which he wanted to rehabilitate " Mephistopheles Cleveland”, John D. replied that he would prefer not to.

Apparently, it would not be easy for him to lie to his grandson, who was born on the same day as him.

Rockefeller liked to point out that the law was applied to him and his business, after the fact, so to speak. The secret railroad deal that led to the "Cleveland Massacre" was not illegal at the time, although the courts soon ruled against such actions.

Railroad chargebacks only became illegal when the Interstate Commerce Commission was created in 1887, and the combinations to restrict trade that formed the basis of vertically integrated trusts remained legal until the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was passed.

In fact, both Rockefeller and Standard Oil often operated on the edge, or even slightly beyond the law. While collecting material for the biography of the magnate, Ron Chernow found in his correspondence numerous evidence that he simply paid bribes to politicians in order to influence the outcome of the legislation.

Thus, the $250,000 spent in 1896 on the McKinley campaign is only the most innocuous example of a practice that Rockefeller seems to regard as a necessary business expense. Neither the Interstate Commerce Commission nor the Sherman Antitrust Act affected the behavior of the dealer.

Rather, Rockefeller redoubled his efforts to circumvent the legal obstacles placed in front of his company, and found strong assistants who were even less concerned with legal niceties and ethics than he was.

They were Henry Flagler and John D. Archibald. The muckrakers, Henry Dimarest Lloyd and Aida Tarbell, have amassed a staggering amount of evidence of Rockefeller's illegal and questionable activities and " Standard oil».

However, it wasn't until 1906 (one year after Aida Tarbell completed her McClure articles) that the magnate hired the first publicist to improve his public image. Perhaps Rockefeller initially underestimated the extent of the hatred for him, the power of the press, and Roosevelt's determination to turn him into his political capital.

Easily buying politicians, Rockefeller could not imagine how else to deal with them. For the most part, he ignored the storm because he saw himself in the service of a higher interest: cleansing the business of inefficiency was a matter not only pleasing to the economy, but also to the country, and to God.

By the time the law finally got to John D., Roosevelt had stepped down from office, handing over power to William Howard Taft.

May 15, 1911, having collected 23 volumes of testimonies for a total of 12 thousand pages in 21 years and convened 11 separate litigation, on the last of which 444 witnesses were called, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Standard Oil Trust was indeed a monopoly and subject to fragmentation.

The news found Rockefeller on the golf course. His only reaction was to advise his golf partners to buy stock in Standard Oil. This is some of the wisest advice John D has ever given. Standard Oil was broken down into 34 separate companies, among them the parent companies of modern industry leaders such as ExxonMobil, BP Amoco, Conoco, Inc., ARCO, BP America and Cheesebrough Ponds.

Rockefeller retained control of each of them.

In 1911, when the final session of the Supreme Court took place, Rockefeller was "worth" about $300 million.

Two years later, as a result of the execution of the "sentence" by the federal government, its "cost" jumped to $ 900 million. The loss of the antitrust case turned out to be the greatest rise of Rockefeller's career. By that time, oil had a new purpose: the car.

Not only did the decision of the Supreme Court make John D. Rockefeller even richer, it did not make him repent. When approximately twenty thousand strikers were evicted from company-owned homes near a Rockefeller-controlled coal mine in 1913, the state police intervened, shot the strikers and set fire to the campground where they had taken refuge.

Dozens of women and children died in the fire - it was the infamous "Ludlow Massacre". Like his father, Rockefeller Jr. blamed the bloodshed on strikers who "recklessly" insisted on their union right.

$900 million in 1913 is equivalent to more than $13 billion today. However, as Ron Chernow points out, comparing these figures is only a one-sided approach to the problem.

Whole federal budget 1913 was $715 million, almost $200 million less than the net "value" of Rockefeller, one citizen of the country. The federal debt was then $1.2 billion. Rockefeller could pay off three-quarters of it.

Personal life

He was twenty-five, acquaintances thought that he was forever engaged to accounting accounts. But in life there is always a place for a miracle - one girl has been waiting for John Rockefeller for nine years now.

Laura Celestia Spelman was born into a wealthy and respected family. She read a lot, tried herself in literary editing and suited Rockefeller in all respects. Laura was a typical puritan: dancing and theater seemed to her the personification of vice, but in church she rested her soul.

The future Mrs. Rockefeller preferred black to all colors. They met at school: he confessed his love to her - she replied that first he needed to achieve something in life, to find Good work to become a wealthy person.

From the outside, this story seems immensely dull, but in reality everything was different. The bony boy had by this time turned into a tall, fit and very charming young man, and Laura (the family called her Setty) became a pretty girl. She was well versed in music (three hours of daily piano lessons!). Rockefeller also played music well (his exercises infuriated Eliza, who was busy with the housework).

In addition, John Rockefeller did not manage to freeze himself completely - Setty knew that he could be very kind person. For a diamond engagement ring, Rockefeller paid $118 - for him it was a real feat.

He did not repeat it: the wedding was modest, the house in which the young people moved after their honeymoon, Rockefeller rented cheaply, they had no servants.

By this time, he owned the largest oil refinery in Cleveland, the bride's parents were wealthy and respected people in the city, but there were no reports of the wedding in the newspapers - he did not like being talked about. Subordinates and competitors were afraid of Rockefeller like fire, and his wife considered him the kindest person.

Exactly at 9.15 he appeared in the "Standard Oil", gradually turning into one of largest companies countries. A tall figure, a pale, clean-shaven face, an umbrella and gloves in his hands, a white silk hat on his head, black onyx cufflinks with the letter "R" engraved on them peek out from the cuffs.

Rockefeller quietly greets his subordinates, inquires about their health, and slips through the door of his office like a black shadow. He never raises his voice, never gets nervous, never changes his face - it is impossible to piss him off. One day, an enraged contractor burst in, yelling for half an hour without a break.

All this time, Rockefeller sat buried in the table, and when the enraged, red-faced fat man ran out of steam, he raised his imperturbable face and said quietly:

I'm sorry, I didn't catch what you were talking about. Is it possible to repeat?

He dined at a fixed time once and for all: when the milk and biscuits had been eaten, the owner of Standard Oil made his rounds of his property.

Rockefeller walked with a silent measured gait - he always covered a certain distance in the same time. In front of the tables of his clerks, Rockefeller appeared like a devil from a snuffbox, smiled sweetly, asked how the work was going, and people were horrified.

Rockefeller was a good owner - he paid a salary higher than anyone else, assigned excellent pensions, issued sick days - but he dealt with those who contradicted him ruthlessly. He always had a kind word for his subordinates, and yet they were mortally afraid of him.

The horror that he inspired was mystical in nature - his own secretary assured that he had never seen Rockefeller enter and leave the company building. Obviously, he used secret doors and secret corridors (ill-wishers said that a millionaire flies into his office through a chimney).

Scarecrow and his house: Spartan furnishings, quiet voices, laconic, well-trained children. Only its inhabitants knew how amicably they live here.

The owner of "Standard Oil" taught children music, swam with them, ran on skates. If one of the little ones whimpered at night, Rockefeller immediately woke up and rushed to his bed. He never quarreled with his wife, touchingly cared for his mother.

Eliza grew old, began to get sick, and when another attack happened, Rockefeller dropped everything, went to her and sat by her bed until her mother got better.

But two children of his brother, who had gone to the civil war, died almost from starvation, and, returning, he took their bodies from the family crypt:

I don't want them to lie in the land of this monster!

And in business, he was completely ruthless. It was rumored that Rockefeller's net worth was five million dollars. It was not so - in the eighties of the XIX century, his company was valued at $ 18,000,000 (the modern equivalent is $ 265,000,000).

Rockefeller became one of the twenty richest and most powerful people in the country and launched an offensive against competitors: he entered into an agreement with the railroad kings, and they raised the tariffs for transportation.

Small oil companies went bankrupt, big capitalists ceded their blocks of shares to Rockefeller. Soon he became a monopolist in the oil market and was able to set his own exorbitant prices for oil, which at the beginning of the twentieth century became a strategic commodity.

The race has begun. Great powers built more and more huge battleships, fuel for them was fuel oil extracted from oil.

Standard Oil turned into a transnational company, its interests spread to the entire globe, Rockefeller's fortune was estimated in tens and then hundreds of millions of dollars. At the turn of the century, he was recognized as the richest man in the world.

Newspapers wrote that Rockefeller's fortune approached eight and a half billion dollars. His monopoly was called " the greatest, wisest and most dishonest of all that ever existed».

Rockefeller knew that by becoming rich, he was fulfilling God's plan - in Protestant ethics, wealth was seen as a blessing from above.

His employees recalled how, during one of the meetings, where they talked about the gloomy prospects of the company (it was about the fact that electric lighting would soon replace kerosene), Rockefeller raised his hand to the sky and solemnly said:

The Lord will take care!

And he took care - the First World War began, and all military fleets switched to oil. According to the Protestant faith, wealth is not a privilege, but a debt - part of what Rockefeller earned, he began to distribute.

Charity

When John Davison started, his fortune was in the thousands of dollars, and all the money went into business. Now that he had hundreds of millions, it was time for godly charity.

Fifty thousand letters came to Rockefeller a month asking for help - as far as possible, he answered them and sent people checks.

He helped found the University of Chicago, instituted scholarships, paid out pensions - all paid for by the consumer, whom Rockefeller forced to shell out for kerosene and gasoline as much as Standard Oil needed.

Half of America dreamed of extorting more money from John Davison Rockefeller. The other half was ready to lynch him. Rockefeller is getting old. The passions that were seething around him were getting on his nerves. Sometimes he sighed.

Wealth is either a great blessing or a curse.

"Standard Oil" seemed to Rockefeller to be a kind of branch of the divine office, which sucks the blessings of the Almighty out of the ground in the form of oil and distributes them among people. At one of his anniversaries, Rockefeller chanted in an inspired tenor: “God bless us all, God bless Standard Oil.”

Raising children was also a duty. They were to inherit a huge fortune, and that was a big responsibility.

Rockefeller knew that God's gift should not be thrown to the wind, and he did his best to teach children to work, modesty and unpretentiousness.

John Rockefeller Jr. later said that as a child, money seemed to him a mysterious substance:

They were omnipresent and invisible. We knew that there was a lot of money, but we also knew that it was not available.

For someone who was dressed in girls' dresses until the age of eight (the Rockefellers wore trousers and sweaters one after another, and they did not have a second boy), the future billionaire put it extremely mildly.

John Rockefeller Sr. created a model of a market economy at home: he appointed his daughter Laura as "general manager" and told the children to keep detailed ledgers. Each child received two cents for killing a fly, ten cents for sharpening one pencil, and five cents for an hour of music lessons.

A day of abstaining from sweets cost two cents, each subsequent day was estimated at ten. Each of the children had his own garden bed - ten weeds pulled out were worth one penny.

Rockefeller Jr. earned fifteen cents an hour for chopping wood, one of the daughters received money for going around the house in the evenings and turning out the lights. Little Rockefellers were fined one cent for being late for breakfast, they got one piece of cheese a day, and on Sundays they were not allowed to read anything but the Bible.

Setty walked around in her own patched dresses and was in no way inferior to her husband: the generous Rockefeller was about to buy a bicycle for the children, but his wife said that extra bicycles were not needed in the house:

With one bike for four, they will learn to share with each other

The results of such upbringing were rather contradictory. Rockefeller Jr. almost withered away. When the boy grew up and the university was discussed, it turned out that he was constantly ill and, moreover, suffered from various nervous disorders.

It was winter outside, but John immediately sent his son to a country house. The sick boy uprooted stumps, burned bushes and chopped wood for the stove - during the day he worked up to a seventh sweat, and at night he shivered from the cold. John survived, graduated from the university (he had no pocket money, and he constantly “shooted” a few dollars from his friends) and entered the family business.

His father broke his will. The heir forever remained his shadow, suffering from this and nevertheless meekly fulfilling his duty. He was tormented by the fact that he was a less talented businessman than his father, that for four years he was afraid to explain himself to his girlfriend, that journalists wrote nasty things about dear dad.

Johnny Jr. was saved by his marriage to Abby Aldrich, a cheerful and charming girl, the daughter of a senator from the state of New York - her father was a well-known bon vivant. Rockefeller was about to have a non-alcoholic wedding, but the bride's father said that he would rather shoot himself. Champagne flowed like a river, and the pious Setty, being sick, did not come to this sinful act.

Abby taught John Jr. to enjoy life. He served his term at work and hurried home - stock reports made him depressed, and among children he flourished. (However, John raised his offspring in the same way that he was raised. The unfortunate grandchildren of John Davison Rockefeller received ten cents for every mouse they caught.)

There were more significant costs of upbringing: John's sister Bessie Rockefeller went insane and spent most of her life in bed. (She thought her family was ruined and spent her time patching up old dresses.) At times the truth hit her, and the poor woman happily informed the nurses that she now had money for guests again. And Edith Rockefeller became a legendary reeler.

At the age of 21, she went to the hospital with a nervous breakdown, and then married a man who upset her dad - Harold McCormick refused to swear on the Bible that he would never drink or pick up cards in his life. The McCormicks were also millionaires, they also raised their children in strictness and taught them to help the poor.

Harold and Edith turned out to be a wonderful couple. They blew more than tens of millions - Edith derived the Rockefeller family tree from the French aristocrats of La Rochefoucauld, acquired a coat of arms, antique furniture, a collection of diamonds and overshadowed the wasteful Vanderbilts with her spending.

She constantly did not have enough money, and she was forced to live in debt, but at one of the balls a noble lady appeared in a dress made of silver of the highest standard. She preferred not to meet her father - apparently, Edith Rockefeller was ashamed in front of him.

Rockefeller's personality

Contemporaries said with surprise and fear that everything human was alien to John D. Rockefeller. He did not trust anyone, did not forgive anyone for anything, was equally merciless to competitors and to his closest assistants.

His right-hand man was John D. Archibald, the second man in the company after the owner. But even this influential businessman trembled before his patron. For example, for many years, Archibald provided John D. Rockefeller with a written oath every Saturday that he had not touched alcohol during the previous week.

His avarice was legendary (as were Andrew Carnegie, Paul Getty, Aristotle Onassis, Warren Buffett, and many others).

In the early 1870s, John D. Rockefeller at Standard Oil was inspecting a machine that soldered caps to five-gallon canisters of kerosene for export. The future billionaire asked the employee who was in charge there, how many drops of solder are spent on each cover.

Hearing that forty, he first asked to plant a few caps of 38 drops. These canisters are leaking. The canisters, sealed with 39 drops, were in order. Rockefeller calculated that this saved $2,500 in the first year of operation, and with the growth of kerosene exports, the profit increased to many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you follow the path of total cost reduction, then keep in mind that this habit can also affect your personal life. John D. Rockefeller spent a lot of time studying the grocer's bills and somehow knocked his supplier's fee from $3,000 to $500 by threatening to sue him.

At that time, his annual income exceeded $50 million after taxes. A big golf lover, he insisted on using old golf balls whenever the players approached the water. Expressing his dissatisfaction with the fact that people are not afraid to lose their new balls in such circumstances, he quietly grumbled:

They must be very rich!

Ascetic in appearance, with an egg-shaped naked skull, tiny eyes, huge, like bats, ears and a lipless mouth, Rockefeller always spoke in a low and even voice, usually showing neither anger nor joy.

One day, an angry contractor burst into his office and began to vilify the tycoon furiously. The billionaire sat quietly at his desk, not raising his eyes to the man until he was exhausted. Then he turned in his swivel chair and calmly said:

I didn't get the point of what you were talking about. Could you repeat this one more time?

It seemed that nothing could excite him, unbalance him, and his main concern was the account books. But that's just how it seemed. There was something that worried the magnate even more than dollars. This "something" was his own person.

Two fears overshadowed the life of John D. Rockefeller: the fear of losing even one dollar of the millions received through all sorts of fraud and fear for his own health.

The latter eventually prevailed. Fifty five years old John Rockefeller earned all the standard "gentleman's set" of a businessman - a stomach ulcer and frayed nerves. At the insistence of the doctors, he handed over all the affairs of the management of the company to his eldest son - John D. Rockefeller II and focused entirely on treatment.

Aged 18 years John Rockefeller set himself the goal of becoming the richest man in the world by all means. And got it.

At the age of 55, another goal was set - to live to a hundred years. And this goal was almost reached.

health care

When John D. Rockefeller left an active business, his main goal was to gain a healthy body and spirit, long life and respect for loved ones.

But how can money give all this? It turns out they can! Here's how he did it.

So Rockefeller:

Every Sunday he attended a service at a Baptist church, where he took notes in order to better assimilate the principles that can be applied in everyday life. He slept for eight hours a night and set aside time for a short daytime nap every day. With the help of rest, he got rid of fatigue that was detrimental to health.

I took a bath or shower every day. Maintained a clean and tidy appearance. Moved to Florida, where the climate was more conducive to good health and longevity. He led a harmonious, well-balanced life.

Daily practice of my favorite game - golf - provided the necessary exposure to fresh air and sun. He did not forget about indoor games, reading and other beneficial activities.

He ate slowly, moderately and thoroughly chewed everything - at this time, the saliva in the mouth thoroughly mixed with the crushed food. This mixture was very well absorbed. In addition, the food was swallowed at room temperature.

The stomach was protected from too hot or too cold food that could overcool or burn the walls of the esophagus. Do not forget about vitamins for the mind and spirit. Before each meal, a prayer was said.

During dinner, Rockefeller made a habit of asking the secretary, some of the guests, or family members to read the Bible, a sermon, inspirational verses, or articles from newspapers, magazines, and books. Hired full-time physician Hamilton Fix Biggar.

Dr. Biggar was paid to keep John D. healthy, happy and active. He did this by motivating his patient to maintain a cheerful and optimistic mood. From the moment he retired, he, strictly following the prescriptions of doctors, lived no less than 42 years and died on May 23, 1937 from a heart attack, at the age of ninety-seven. Surviving at the same time 43 of his doctors.

The new head of the dynasty, John D. Rockefeller II, turned out to be a worthy son of his father. He possessed both arrogance, and cruelty, and tenacity, and resourcefulness, and shamelessness. John Rockefeller Jr turned his dad's million-dollar business into a multi-billion dollar business.

The key with which he opened the door to vast wealth was military supplies. The First World War brought the Rockefeller family $ 500 million in net profit.

The Second World War proved to be an even more profitable venture. Tank and aircraft engines demanded rivers of gasoline. It was produced around the clock Rockefeller factories.

But a strange thing: it was at that moment that the price of gasoline began to rise rapidly. First for a few cents a gallon. Then more and more. It was then when gasoline and other petroleum fuel for aircraft, ships, tanks, which fought american soldiers against the fascist hordes, were needed as air for life, the prices of petroleum products, the lion's share of which in America was produced by the Rockefeller factories, were growing day by day.

To all attempts to reason with them, to appeal to their patriotism, the Rockefellers answered: if you need our products, pay. The result was $2 billion in net profits made during the war years.

But do not think, please, that everything told here is just a story. It is worth delving into today's statements of the Rockefeller companies, in the articles of the budget of the American military department, and the same picture is revealed. Times change, but the Rockefellers' morals remain unchanged.

Who are they, the Rockefellers today?

At the head of the family are five brothers-grandchildren of the founder of the family business:

John D. Rockefeller III, 65; Nelson, 63; Lawrence, 61; Winthrop, 59, born three years after Winthrop David; as well as the younger brother of the first wife of John Rockefeller II, Abby, 85-year-old Winthrop Aldrich.

Kaykut Manor - the residence of four generations of Rockefellers

The fourth and fifth generations of this family are very numerous - the sons and grandsons of five brothers, there are several dozen of them. But five brothers and their uncle are in charge, there was a time when the rich advertised their wealth in every possible way.

The current Rockefellers have luxurious palaces, yachts, and jewelry. But, unlike the old days, they try not to put it all on display. Moreover, they are hiding, trying to appear before their compatriots as such innocent sheep, no different from mere mortals. The reason for this disguise is fear.

The fear that has settled in the hearts of millionaires since October 1917. One of the official biographers of the Rockefeller family in a recently released book is touched:

They could put guests on white horses and serve champagne in glass slippers, but they don't.

Here is another biography of the Rockefeller family:

If we keep in mind that they are rich people, then perhaps the most striking are some of their habits. Lawrence and John D. Rockefeller III, for example, break their daily routine in the morning for just milk and cookies, just as their father did when they were gone.

In fact, all Rockefellers from birth to death are surrounded by truly royal luxury. John Rockefeller Jr., who convinced his fellow citizens of the need for humility and expectation of "God's grace", so far has equipped heaven on earth for his five sons and daughters. In winter, the young Rockefellers lived in New York in a nine-story family mansion.

They had their own clinic, special colleges, swimming pools, tennis courts, concert and exhibition halls.

David has led the Rockefeller family since 2004.

Daddy Rockefeller's 3,000-acre estate has riding arenas, a velodrome, a half-million-dollar home theater, yachting ponds, and more. The equipment of only one room for games, in which radiant naughty frolicked, cost the child-loving oil king 520 thousand dollars.

When the youngest of the brothers grew up, each received at his disposal city mansions, summer villas and other real estate necessary for secular life. Now everyone has so many houses for personal use that they often confuse their own addresses.

True, this circumstance is not advertised. But reporters tell how the eldest of the brothers teaches his offspring to save. To each of the children as a weekly norm for expenses, journalists are touched, the billionaire gives out 10 cents.

As for David, who heads the family's financial business, according to the American monopoly press, his only hobby is collecting beetles.

David has 40 thousand of them, David Rockefeller reports newspapers, he always carries a bottle for caught insects with him. The fact that in the interval between the two bugs slammed by him, the bigwig manages to let thousands of people around the world, the press, of course, does not spread. Unprofitable! Dozens of palaces and villas owned by the Rockefellers are valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. Only one of the mansions of this family serves about 350 servants.

The Rockefeller family has long since discovered that government power in America can be used to increase their income.

Even the founder of the family business, John Rockefeller Sr. realized that a person obedient to his will in the government of the country can bring in more income than a few oil wells combined.

The first victim of the "discovery" was his eldest son and heir, John Rockefeller II. Choosing his wife old Rockefeller settled on the daughter of one of the most influential political figures in America at the beginning of this century, Senator Nelson Aldrich, who for a long time enjoyed almost the same influence in Washington as the presidents of the country.

Without fear of exaggeration, we can say that in the last 30-40 years there has not been a government administration in Washington that did not include a significant number of direct henchmen of the Rockefeller family.

The foreign policy department enjoys special attention. At the head of the State Department, as the Foreign Office is called in America, people of the Rockefeller house have been firmly established for many years now.

One of the darkest figures of post-war Washington is John Foster Dulles, the same Dulles who gained the dubious fame of the ancestor " cold war against the peoples of the socialist countries. He was not only a legal consultant, attorney and lawyer for the Rockefeller family, but also one of the directors of the Rockefeller oil company Standard Oil.

Dulles came to the State Department directly from the post of chairman of the so-called "Rockefeller Foundation" - an organization that plays a prominent role in all the affairs of this family. Dulles' successor as Foreign Secretary, Christian Herter, was also closely associated with the Rockefeller companies.

But for some time now, even this has not fully satisfied the family of oil magnates. It is not enough for them, although this is a very real, but still indirect access to the levers of state administration. In recent years, the Rockefeller clan has made several attempts to seize key positions in the state apparatus.

During election campaign In 1964, one of the five brothers, Winthrop Rockefeller, set out to become governor of Arkansas. The capture of the governor's chair in a wealthy and very promising state from an economic point of view promised the Rockefellers considerable benefits, and therefore the brothers spared no expense in financing Winthrop's election campaign.

True, Winthrop Rockefeller, a novice in the political field, failed to sit in the governor's chair the first time. But the failure did not discourage him.

In November 1966, after spending several million dollars, Winthrop Rockefeller got his way and moved into the governor's palace in the capital of Arkansas. Representative already fourth generation Rockefeller - John Rockefeller IV in the fall of 1966 took the post of Congressman in the Legislature of the State of Virginia.

Nelson, one of Rockefeller Jr.'s sons, born on the same day as his famous grandfather, will be Governor of New York, the Republican Party's presidential nominee and Vice President of the United States, appointed by Gerald Ford after the resignation of Richard Nixon.

Another heir to the famous family, Winthrop (repeat) was the governor of Arkansas and an eminent businessman, as well as chairman of the board of Colonial Williamsburg, formed with the direct participation of his father. Lawrence, a recognized advocate for natural resources, donated the land on which he was then created national park Virgin Islands.

John D. Rockefeller III headed the Rockefeller Foundation, which amassed one of the largest collections of Oriental art in the world, and also funded the Lincoln Center for the Fine Arts in New York. David was chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank and chairman of the Museum of Modern Art (another project of the Rockefeller family).

Over the past decades at the helm American power invariably stood "Rockefeller people" - John Dulles, Dean Acheson, Dean Rusk, Henry Kissinger, Sigmund Brzezinski.

The “spheres of influence” in the state apparatus were divided by the Rockefeller brothers “in a related way”: Nelson and John were “friends” with the State Department, Lawrence with the Pentagon, and David with the Treasury Department. The brothers were never stingy in paying for "friendly services."

Not so long ago it became known that Henry Kissinger, for example, when he was appointed to the post of assistant for national security, received from the Rockefellers a "gift" in the amount of 50 thousand dollars.

Others received "gifts" of $120,000, $40,000, $75,000, $230,000. John D. Rockefeller Sr. became a legend, forcing huge capitals to serve people.

Even as a teenager, he donated money to the Baptist Church. Having grown immensely rich, John gave away money almost as fast as he earned it.

According to conservative estimates, Rockefeller and the foundations named after him donated more than $530 million to charitable causes in their lifetime - a fortune then and an even greater fortune in today's terms.

The University of Chicago alone received $35 million from him. The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, by simply distributing tens of thousands of pairs of shoes, destroyed hookworm midiasis in the southern United States, called by one historian the "germ of laziness."

And the Institute for Medical Research, founded with his money, the world's first institute created exclusively for medical research (now Rockefeller University), helped to resist much more serious diseases.

In all the places where the aged Rockefeller appeared, he distributed handfuls of five- and ten-cent coins from his pockets to everyone around him. And I always took a supply of them with me.

Once upon a time, a billionaire estimated that if he kept all the money that he distributed throughout his life, he would be three times richer. But the question is academic at best: for John D. Rockefeller, giving and receiving were two sides of the same gold coin.

P.S. After studying the biography of Rockefeller, I saw that this man has a lot to learn. Agree!

And in conclusion, I suggest watching a video about Rockefeller:

John Davison Rockefeller Sr.: biography

John Davison Rockefeller, photo

John Rockefeller is the richest and most successful man in the history of mankind.

« I never guessed who I would be in this life, but I always knew that I was born for something more.”- so, according to the memoirs of his beloved grandson David, said John Davison Rockefeller.

John with son

Rockefeller was born into a poor family

Full name - John Davidson Rockefeller Sr. he later had a son with the same name) was born July 8, 1839 in the State of New York, USA, and died in 1937 at the age of ninety-eight (98).

Mother was a terribly devout Baptist, so from childhood she inspired John with the idea that you need to work hard and constantly save.
The Rockefellers moved to the New World in the 18th century and are slowly moving north to Michigan. Things are piled into a creaking wagon drawn by oxen, Rockefeller's grandfather holds the reins, his wife and children follow, swallowing road dust. They stopped in the city of Richford, New York: John Rockefeller would be born there in 1839.
He became the "Devil" as a child. His dry, skin-covered face, devoid of luster of eyes and thin pale lips greatly frightened those around him. In fact, he was quite sensitive and emotional, he just seemed to hide all his feelings in the farthest pocket of his soul. Few knew what John really was.

In young age

Education

Starting a business and how to get rich

In 1853, the Rockefeller family moved to Cleveland. Since John Rockefeller was one of the eldest children in the family, at the age of 16 he went to look for work.

John began his career in 1855 at the age of 16 as an accountant in the Cleveland trading firm Gevit & Tettl with a salary of $5 and then $25 a week.

From his first paycheck, Rockefeller acquires a solid ledger. In it, he writes down all his income and expenses, paying attention even to the little things.

In the early 1860s, Rockefeller went out of business and organized a new company, Rockefeller & Andrews, focusing on refining oil and trading in kerosene, and continued to develop.

In 1911, the Supreme Court declared Standard Oil a monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act, and the Standard Oil Company was split up.

Oil prices are the secret of success

In Cleveland, Rockefeller's Standard Oil was just one of 26 refineries battling to survive in a very shaky single-supplier market.

The cheaper it was for a ferryman to deliver oil from the field to the refinery and from the refinery to the market and consumer, the greater the margin he could play with.

Rockefeller successfully did both.

Time to work is the secret to success

John's favorite game

Daily practice of my favorite game - golf - provided the necessary exposure to fresh air and sun. He did not forget about indoor games, reading and other beneficial activities.

A successful marriage is the secret to success

This fully applies to Rockefeller's wife. Before marrying a young promising businessman, Laura Celestina Spelman, who can hardly be called a beauty, was a school teacher and was distinguished by exceptional piety. They met during the short student days of Rockefeller, but got married only after 9 years. The girl attracted John's attention with her piety, practicality of mind and the fact that he reminded him of his mother. According to Rockefeller himself, without the advice of Laura, he would have "remained a poor man."

The state of the Rockefeller clan at the end of the 19th century

In addition to the oil business, which brought in $ 3 million annually, the businessman owned 16 railway and 6 steel companies, 9 real estate firms, 6 shipping companies, 9 banks and 3 orange groves.

« I believe that the destiny of any person on earth is to honestly take everything that you can, and just as honestly give everything that you can.”- this is how John formulated his life credo.

At 16, Rockefeller began working as an accountant and philanthropist.

Rockefeller has always been a philanthropist, he gave 10% of his income from his very first salary to charity. As his wealth grew, so did his contributions to charity.

« Grandfather was not interested in acquiring Scottish or French castles, he was disgusted by the thought of buying art or yachts', says David Rockefeller.

In 1908, John wrote and published a book called "Memoirs", where they were formed.

When John Davison started, his fortune was in the thousands of dollars, and all the money went into business. Now that he had hundreds of millions, it was time for godly charity.

Fifty thousand letters came to Rockefeller a month asking for help - as far as possible, he answered them and sent people checks.

He helped found the University of Chicago with a $35 million donation, established scholarships, paid pensions - all paid for by the consumer, who was forced by Rockefeller to shell out as much for Standard Oil for kerosene and gasoline.
In 1901, he founded the New York Institute for Medical Research (since 1965 - Rockefeller University), in 1903 - the Council for General Education, in 1913 - the Rockefeller Foundation, in 1918 - the Laura Spelman Foundation (in honor of his wife - helping children and social sciences).
His total philanthropic donations totaled over $700 million.
Half of America dreamed of extorting more money from John Davison Rockefeller. The other half was ready to lynch him. Rockefeller is getting old. Passions, seething around, acted on his nerve.

In all the places where the aged Rockefeller appeared, he distributed handfuls of five- and ten-cent coins from his pockets to everyone around him. And I always took a supply of them with me.

John Davison Rockefeller Senior (John Rockefeller), 1839-1937, biography

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John Rockefeller is the richest and most successful man in the history of mankind. His fortune was 318.3 billion dollars (at the dollar rate for 2007). He was 74 years old when he was at the peak of his wealth, his fortune was 1.53% of the income of the American economy, he was America's first billionaire. “I never knew who I would be in this life, but ...