John D. Rockefeller Sr.

"Phil Anschutz’s migration to fiber optics, a dynamic growth area of his era, has many historical parallels. John D. Rockefeller Sr. began his career as a commission agent dealing in produce, with no particular ex¬ pertise in the oil business. Breaking in was comparatively easy, however. The petroleum industry had just been born with Edwin Drake’s 1859 discovery and (no less important) successful extraction of oil in Ti¬ tusville, Pennsylvania. Rockefeller’s home base, Cleveland, was well situ¬ ated to become a refining center. It was as an investor in a start-up refinery that he began his ascent to monopolistic power through the Standard Oil Company."

"Financial theorizing held little interest for Ross Perot, however. Like other billionaires who grew up far from New York, such as John D. Rockefeller Sr. and Warren Buffett, he was skeptical of Wall Street. One of the few investment bankers who impressed Perot was Charles Allen of Allen & Company. Perot paid him the supreme compliment by saying that like his own father, Allen had “the style of the great cattle traders.”27 In the end, Perot awarded the underwriting mandate to the most opti¬ mistic firm of the lot. R. W. Pressprich and Co., which he had never heard of until then, assured him that EDS could be launched at 100 times earnings."

"D ominating a market is a highly effective strategy for accumulating wealth. It has produced both the first self-made billionaire, John D. Rockefeller Sr., and the first self-made centibillionaire, Bill Gates. In both cases, as well, market dominance has prompted calls to break up the com¬ panies that made them rich, Standard Oil and Microsoft. Developing a thick skin is an especially important principle if you pursue this path to fortune. Market dominance is not synonymous with monopoly. Complete elimination of competition is the ultimate form of dominance, but it is not a realistic objective. Moreover, dominating a particular market does not confer unlimited economic power, given the interdependence of sup¬ pliers, producers, and customers."

"John D. Rockefeller Sr. I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dic¬ tates of my conscience.2"

"John D. Rockefeller Sr., a veteran of many negotiations in the course of creating Standard Oil Company, threw his counterparts off guard by speaking as little as necessary. He made it easier for independent refiners to sell out by not always driving for the lowest possible price, but he gen¬ erally bargained from a position of strength. They knew that if they did not sell, Standard Oil could use its power with crude oil producers and the railroads to prevent them from making a profit."

"Even in retirement, John D. Rockefeller Sr. remained a veritable dynamo. After catching the golf bug at the age of 60, he constructed courses at his various estates and was soon playing four to six hours a day. When it snowed, he brought in horses and snowplows to clear the course and handed out paper vests to keep his golfing partners warm. Rockefeller also devoted himself to landscaping his grounds at Pocantico, north of New York City. Initially, he hired the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, most famous for designing Central Park. Rockefeller then took the supervision into his own hands, even heading the work gangs personally. He took pleasure in transplanting trees as tall as 90 feet and planting as many as 10,000 saplings at a time, some of which he sold for profit.2"

"John D. Rockefeller Sr. did not try to fatten the profits of Standard Oil by exploiting workers. At times, he willingly paid his employees more than the going wage. His stated objection to labor unions was that he viewed them as frauds engineered by irresponsible workers: It’s all beautiful at the beginning; they give their organization a fine name and they declare a set of righteous principles. But soon the real object of their organizing shows itself—to do as little as possible for the greatest possible pay.2"