Biography Edition: Crafting Your Empire on Rockefeller's Principles of Business Mastery

Imagine stepping into the shoes of John D. Rockefeller, a man whose name is synonymous with triumph and tenacity. We promise to take you on a profound journey through his life, from his modest upbringings to becoming the paramount figure of the oil industry. Our latest episode is steeped in the history and wisdom of a man who wrote 38 letters to his son, letters which now serve as an invaluable resource for anyone keen on mastering the art of business and the pursuit of success. Discover how embracing the joy of work, the significance of taking action, and the principle of self-reliance can elevate not only your professional life but also redefine your personal achievements.

Get ready to unravel the strategic mindset that made Rockefeller a legend, highlighting planning and foresight as the catalysts for his unprecedented success. We analyze the intricacies of his conquests, from the chessboard to the boardroom, and how his philosophies on management, accountability, and team dynamics resonate with successful leaders like Andrew Carnegie. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a leader, or simply fascinated by the narratives of historical giants, this episode is a treasure trove of lessons that transcend time. Join us as we decode the life of a man who didn’t just amass wealth but reshaped the economic landscape, leaving a legacy that continues to inspire.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Profitable Painter Podcast Biography Edition, where we delve into the lives of some of history's most successful individuals to uncover the strategies, tactics and mindsets that propelled them to greatness. Today we're exploring the extraordinary life of a figure whose passion for work and conqueror mindset allowed him to monopolize an industry. Joining me as we navigate through this journey of this remarkable individual and extract valuable lessons you can apply to elevate your professional painting business. Get ready to be inspired, to learn and to transform the way you think about success and leadership in your own entrepreneurial journey. John D Rockefeller was an American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870, which became the world's first and largest multinational corporation. His business practices set the standard for the oil industry and later for American capitalism. Rockefeller became one of the wealthiest men in history and used his fortune to fund extensive philanthropic endeavors, significantly impacting education, public health and scientific research. His legacy is a complex blend of ruthless business tactics and generous philanthropy. So I recently read the 38 letters from JD Rockefeller to his son, and these letters are just jam-packed full of wisdom, and so I'm going to go through John D Rockefeller's life and talk about basically read some excerpts of the letters that he wrote to his son about different parts of his life. He wrote most of the letters towards the end of his life, when he's kind of mentoring his son as his son takes over Standard Oil and his businesses, but he's often writing about what happened in his past. So let's get into things. So in 1839, that's when John D Rockefeller was born in Richard, new York, and he was basically raised by his mom. He had an absentee father who was in and out a lot. His father did teach him about loaning money and negotiation. He was pretty hard on John, and one of the things that folks noticed about John D Rockefeller is that he always seemed to be thinking. He was a slow learner but patient and persistent. And Rockefeller described himself as a reliable, as reliable but not brilliant and from very early on John D Rockefeller wanted to be the richest person in the world.

Speaker 1: 2:29

There's a story that he tells his son about when a photographer came to the school to John D Rockefeller's school when he was in elementary school, and they were going to take a picture, and back then getting your picture taken was a big deal obviously because this was back in the 1840s or somewhere in there and so John D Rockefeller was excited about it. He was like, oh okay, great, I get to be in a picture. So he was feeling pretty good about himself. But then the photographer motioned to the teacher and was like, hey, let's not get that kid in there. He's got tattered clothes and it's going to ruin the picture. And he was pointing at John D Rockefeller. And so the teacher pulled John out of the picture because his clothes were all tattered. Because John came from a very poor family. He was very proud and he held himself well, but he just didn't have the funds to get nice clothes. So he wasn't able to get in that picture and he kind of told himself like I'm going to show everybody because I'm going to become the richest person in the world and take all the pictures I want. So 1855, when he turned 16, he starts his first job as an assistant bookkeeper and he's very excited about getting this job. He actually Marked it as a celebration for the rest of his life, as job day, and he celebrated it more than he celebrated his own birthday.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Here's a quote from the book. As you know, when I was young my family was very poor. I remember that the books I read when I was in high school were Bought by my neighbors in the beginning of my career as a bookkeeper. I was only earning a weekly salary of five dollars, but it was only through unremitting effort that have enabled me to establish an Inviable oil kingdom. And the eyes of others, this may seem to be a legend, but I think it's. It is the reward for my perseverance and hard work From the God of destiny and he.

Speaker 1: 4:41

There's a whole letter where he goes on about how you should view your work as pleasure. And if you view your work as pleasure, life is heaven. If you view your work as duty, life is hell. And there's other quotes. Like I never treat work as hard labor without fun. Instead, I found infinite happiness from work. Work is a privilege. Work is the foundation of all businesses, the source of prosperity and the shaper of genius. So the lesson here is you should embrace work, don't shy away from it. Dig into things and it really comes through that. Jondi Rockefeller he was all about work. He celebrated job day every year, more so than his own birthday, because he loved the work and he was all in for that. So in 1859, rock Rockefeller enters the commodities business with his partner Maurice B Clark forming Clark and Rockefeller, and Then, feel it, few years later he enters the oil industry by investing in an oil refinery in Cleveland, ohio.

Speaker 1: 5:49

Here's another quote from the book a very ordinary plan. If it is Actually implemented and developed, it will be much better than a good plan that is abandoned halfway, because the former will be carried out consistently. So there's a whole letter about action, taking action. Opportunity comes from opportunity. Action is another positive attribute of mine. I never like to talk in vain, because I know that there is no result without action and there's nothing in the world that that is obtained from just thinking.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Here's another quote many people who lack action naively think that others will care about their affairs and, in actual fact, other than yourself, others will not be very interested in them. People are on, only interested in their own things. So basically saying nobody's thinking about you. Handle your own business, take action and go. Don't worry about what others are gonna think they don't really care about you anyway, or with the details of your life or what you're doing. So Worry about your stuff, your business, and take action and get things going. And here's another quote son, life is a great battle to win. You need to take. You need to act, act again and act forever.

Speaker 1: 7:02

So basic let lesson here is taking massive action. Do not sit back, do not over, don't get stuck in analysis, paralysis, don't just read a bunch of books and don't implement them. You need to take action. He even says, says the you know there's that phrase knowledge is power. He doesn't like that. He thinks that's like half of the equation. He's a knowledge is not power, getting knowledge and taking action on that. Knowledge is power and one of the things that really comes through reading Rockefeller is he seemed to be. He was very fond of Napoleon and he, even in one of the letters he goes into about why Napoleon was, was an amazing person. He basically said that Napoleon was able to organize resources and inspire and lead his men very effectively. And he wonders you know what kind of business person Napoleon would have been if he was, instead of conquering on the battlefield, if he was conquering in the business world? And he really admired the fact that he that in Napoleon inspired his officers and made them and trained them to be very Capable on the battlefield. And that was something that I think Rockefeller tried to do in his own business Inspire his, his team and empower them to take action on his behalf.

Speaker 1: 8:24

In 1870, rockefeller co-found Standard Oil Company, which quickly becomes the leading oil refinery company in the United States. And then, a couple years later, he begins aggressive expansion and acquisition strategy, known as the Cleveland Massacre, significantly increasing Standard Oils market share. And here's a quote from the book visionary businessmen are always good at finding opportunities in every disaster, and that's how I did it. Before we started our journey of conquest, the oil industry was in chaos and there was no hope at all. 90% of the refiners in Cleveland had been crushed by the increasingly fierce competition. If they did not sell the factory, if they did not sell the factory, they can only watch themselves go extinct. This was the best time to acquire an opponent. So basically this during this time they're in the Cleveland Massacre, there was a lot of competition and Rockefeller capitalized on this opportunity to get some funding from the banks and buy out his largest competitor and then work down the line from there. He went up, went to the top first, bought them out and then went down to the subsequent smaller oil refineries and bought everybody out. Basically and here's another quote from the book it really has nothing to do with conscience and enterprise is like a battlefield, and the purpose of strategic goals is to create the most beneficial state for oneself.

Speaker 1: 9:55

For strategic considerations, the first target I choose to conquer was not a small company that was vulnerable, but the strongest opponent, clark Payne. This company was well known in Cleveland and were ambitious, as they wanted to acquire my star oil refinery. I will have to strike first to gain the upper hand. I took the initiative to meet the largest stakeholder of Clark Payne. I told him that the chaotic and sluggish era of the oil industry should end in order to protect the industry that countless families depend on for survival. I wanted to build a huge, high performance oil company and welcome to him to join my plan and press Payne, and finally they agreed to sell the company for $400,000. I know that paying Clark Payne is not worth that amount at all, but I did not reject them.

Speaker 1: 10:43

Acquiring Clark Payne meant that I would gain the title of the world's largest oil refinery and will also serve as a strong pioneer in the industry to efficiently bring together the refiners in Cleveland. The trick really worked. In less than two months there were 22 competitors under the leadership of Standard Oil. Basically for the Cleveland Massacre, he first did the bold move of going straight to the biggest competitor and pitching him this plan that he had to unite the oil industry and bought them out for $400,000, which he got from bank loans. Then, once he got the top dog, the other smaller ones fell like dominoes. Basically, in the following years I conquered oil refineries in Philadelphia, pittsburgh and Baltimore and I became the only master of the oil refining industry in the United States.

Speaker 1: 11:38

If I were only lamenting on my bad luck at the time and followed the crowd, I might have been conquered, but I planned my luck. Anything can happen in this world. He sounds a lot like the Napoleon. When Napoleon discusses luck, luck is the remnant of design. In other words, we create our own luck In. No action can eliminate it. Rockfiller doesn't really believe in lucky things. That you create luck by taking action and making things happen. That was also what Napoleon said as well. Something very similar to the same effect. In 1882, standard Oil Trust is formed to control multiple companies under one entity. And here's another quote from the book.

Speaker 1: 12:23

I'm well aware that if we were to be profitable again and make money forever, we must tame this industry and have everyone act rationally. I regard it as a responsibility, but it's very difficult to do. It requires a plan, a plan that places all the oil refining refining businesses under control my control, john. To be a good hunter in a profitable hunting ground, you need to think hard, be careful and be able to see all possible dangers and opportunities and things, as well as to study all kinds of strategies that could endanger your dominance. Like a chess player, I thoroughly researched the situation and evaluated my strength. I decided to use the base camp of Cleveland as my first battlefield to launch a war in order to rule the oil industry. After conquering more than 20 competitors there, I moved quickly to open up a second battlefield until I conquered all of their opponents and established an oil industry in a new order.

Speaker 1: 13:18

You could tell from the language that he's using. He thinks of himself as a conqueror. This is very. He planned everything out. He talks a lot about action, but it's not like he's just taking action with no plan. He has a very thought out plan to go about taking over the oil industry. The other component is the knowledge. He says knowledge is not power, basically getting that. You want to get the knowledge, but the biggest thing is also taking the action to put that knowledge into practice.

Speaker 1: 13:49

In 1892, the Ohio Supreme Court declared standard oil must be an illegal monopoly. Then, several years later, eventually, the US Supreme Court rules that the standard oil is a monopoly. It must be broken up into 34 smaller companies. Ironically, that's when Rockefeller actually becomes the first billionaire, right around that same time. Then, also around that same time, andrew Carnegie, who started the steel industry, came and visited Rockefeller and they were talking.

Speaker 1: 14:23

Carnegie asked Rockefeller a question.

Speaker 1: 14:27

He said that your people, that you work for you. They seem to be invincible. They're able to accomplish anything. What do you do? Are you incentivizing them with money? What is it that you're doing that keeps them so motivated and inspired to work for you so diligently? Rockefeller said it's basically, I have a principle where I don't blame the folks that I work with, my subordinates. I don't ever blame them, but I also don't ever take any excuses for or tolerate any kind of irresponsible behavior. If something bad happens, if somebody makes a mistake, I just work to solve the problem. Try to work through it, understand what my responsibility is, what their responsibility is, and ensure that they're taking responsibility and that they're not being irresponsible in their behavior, as long as they're not being irresponsible in their behavior. I'm not going to punish them or blame them, because punishing people or blaming them, you'll lose respect from the folks you work with. You want to entrust the folks you work with with great responsibilities and hold them accountable to those responsibilities. If they make a mistake, don't get mad at them or blame them. I thought that was a very insightful distinction of don't ever blame folks if they make a mistake but at the same time you don't want to tolerate irresponsible behavior. You have to distinguish those two things. In 1913, the Rockefeller Foundation was established.

Speaker 1: 16:07

In 1937, John D Rockefeller passed away at 97 years old. He had a long, long life. I think some of the lessons that we can take from John D Rockefeller is, again, big vision, common thing that we keep hearing over and over again. He had a huge vision from when he was a kid. He wanted to be the richest person in the world. He stayed with that vision throughout his life and ended up accomplishing it.

Speaker 1: 16:35

Another thing is understanding all opportunities and dangers through planning. He was a big planner Starting from a young kid when he was playing chess. He was very thoughtful in every move that he did in chess. He also did the same thing when he was taking over the oil industry. As very planned out, he thought of all the dangers, all the opportunities before he took action. The next big thing we should learn from him is taking action with the knowledge that you gained. You studied the opportunities, you studied the dangers, you studied the history. Now it's time to take action. And you take bold action and this is also a very common thread that we hear again and again with these biographies is taking bold action. Fortune favors the bold.

Speaker 1: 17:29

And then another theme that comes out of studying Rockefeller's life is being persistent. John D Rockefeller works hard, he's persistent, he's reliable and throughout his whole life he is working towards a goal. And then the last thing I think we can take away is how do you treat your team to get the most out of them? And he gives that basically that idea of don't lay blame. Don't blame your folks or get upset at them for making mistakes, but at the same time, don't accept irresponsibility. So if they're being irresponsible, it's time for them to go, because you should be clearly telling them what their responsibility is and what you expect of them. They can make mistakes, that's fine. We'll fix it, we'll figure it out, we'll solve it, but if they're being irresponsible, that's the time for them to go, and so, with that, I definitely recommend getting the 38 letters from John D Rockefeller to his son. It's jam-packed full of wisdom, really interesting read, and with that, I'll see you next week.