John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937,) fully John Davison Rockefeller, was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870 and, by 1880, exercised a virtual monopoly over oil refining in the United States.
Born in Richford, New York, Rockefeller began as a thrifty accounting clerk who set up a merchant grain business in 1858. In 1863, with a $4,000 investment, Rockefeller built an oil refinery in Cleveland. In 1870, it incorporated into the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. Through financial prudence and the swift elimination of competitors, Rockefeller soon dominated the oil refining industry. In 1911, his monopoly was broken into 34 smaller companies by antitrust government regulations.
Early in the 20th century, Rockefeller handed over his business interests to his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and devoted his private fortune to numerous philanthropic projects, such as the establishment of the Rockefeller Foundation (1913.)
Rockefeller was the world’s richest man when he died; his benefactions during his lifetime totaled more than $500 million, mostly in support of medical research and to universities and Baptist churches.
Prominent biographies include Allan Nevins’s John D Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Business (2 vols., 1940) and Ron Chernow’s Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1998.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by John D. Rockefeller
Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.
—John D. Rockefeller
I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts.
—John D. Rockefeller
Topics: Effort
When work goes out of style, we may expect to see civilization totter and fall.
—John D. Rockefeller
Topics: Work
The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.
—John D. Rockefeller
Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.
—John D. Rockefeller
Topics: Charity
The only question with wealth is, what do you do with it?
—John D. Rockefeller
Topics: Wealth
I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.
—John D. Rockefeller
Topics: Perseverance, Persistence, Strength, Success
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