John Rockefeller senior is supposed to be the richest self-made man who ever lived.
At its peak, Rockefeller’s net worth was around 1.5 percent of the America’s total wealth—the equivalent of about $280 billion today, or about three times the wealth controlled by Bill Gates.
His story:
As a young boy he sells sweets to local children to help his family. He quits school early, becomes a bookmaker, works in dry goods, and bored, determines to risk all his fortune in business.
He believes refining the crude oil into kerosene is where the money is.
In 1863, at just 24, he invests everything into his first refinery. It fails utterly. By 27, he was on the verge of bankruptcy.
He had only one option to revive his dying business. He had to meet with the rail road magnate Vanderbilt and negotiate a cheap transport rate for his product. But as luck would have it Rockefeller narrowly misses his 6:25 am train to New York for this important appointment.
The train crashes.
He didn’t die. This he took as a sign of a great future and vows to be a devout Christian.
Rest is history.
He takes the next train to meet Vanderbilt and close the deal for cheap transport of his kerosene.
At 33, he buys up most of his competitors to control 90% of the North American oil supply.
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Now, all the rail road companies join hands to squeeze out higher rail rates from him. Instead, he blasts through the countryside building a 4,000 mile pipeline that delivers his oil from Ohio to Pennsylvania, ending his dependence on the railroads. He also withdraws all his cargo from rail road in retaliation.
His oil had accounted for 40% of rail cargo in those days and his withdrawal creates a crash that bankrupts one third of the country’s 360 railroad companies.
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in 1873 the American stock exchange crashed bringing in the great depression. He sees the slump as an opportunity to buy out his remaining competitors at knock-down rates. By the time the Great Depression finishes, Rockefeller has formed the largest corporate empire in America.
Rockefeller now controls 98% of all Kerosene and in today’s money is worth $225 billion.
Like most of the successful people in history, John Rockefeller had seen many defeats, but he could not be defeated.
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