AT 16, JOHN ROCKEFELLER WALKED EVERY STREET IN CLEVELAND FOR 6 WEEKS. EVERY SINGLE EMPLOYER CLOSED THE DOOR IN HIS FACE.
He finally got hired as a
bookkeeper's assistant. He celebrated that
hired date every year. More than his own
birthday.
He saved every cent. Worked
every hour God gave him. At 26, oil was
discovered in Pennsylvania. He saw his
moment. He scraped together money and
built a small refinery in Cleveland. Then he
did something his competitors
never saw coming. He struck a secret
deal with the railroad companies.
Cheaper shipping rates.
But only for him. Never clears throat for rivals. His competitors
couldn't understand why they kept
losing money.
Rockefeller was out-selling
them while paying less than they were.
He then gave every single
competitor the same choice. SELL TO ME. OR I
WILL DESTROY YOU. MOST SOLD. THE ONES WHO REFUSED, HE CRUSHED.
By 1880, Standard Oil
controlled 90% of all oil in America.
The government took him to the
Supreme Court. In 1911, they broke
Standard Oil into 34 separate companies.
Rockefeller owned shares in
every single one of them. The breakup made
him even richer than before. At his
peak, worth $400 billion in today's money.
He gave $500 million away
before he died. The boy every employer
rejected became richer than all of them
combined.