John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller is an example of someone who started out to be very poor, but was worth millions of dollars by the end of his life. He was born on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York, but spent part of his early life in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, William Avery Rockefeller, has been characterized as a con man or peddler. He would pretend to be someone he wasn't and then charge people for giving advice. As a child John grew up in this odd environment, without much of a relationship with his father. He was a very responsible young man, worked very hard to make money, and had good business sense. For example, had a plan where he would buy penny candies from a wholesale business and then sell off the candy at double the price to the kids in the neighborhood. He was intelligent and very good at accounting. He kept track of the money he earned by using a ledger, which is what professional accountants use. He later did start his business life by working as an accountant. Because John grew up without any basic guidance from his father, he became very self-reliant in the ways of doing business, which proved to make him ver
John D. Rockefeller is seen by some as a captain of industry and by others as a robber baron. In my opinion, Rockefeller was a robber baron for many reasons. He tried to eliminate competition by threatening businesses like the railroads, so that he could have total control over them. He used cruel tactics in running his business, and had no problem firing people from their jobs. He didn't care about people as much as he cared about making money in any way that he could. He was very successful and very charitable with his money, but the way he got to the top was ruthless. That's why I would consider him to be more of a robber baron than a captain of industry. John D. Rockefeller went into the oil business as a young man 23 years old, in a group of people that included his brother William. Eventually their firm changed its name to the Standard Oil Company of Ohio in 1870. In a clever move, Rockefeller learned about every aspect of the oil business, from the drilling process to the refining of oil into gasoline. By doing this he was able to control every part of his business. His goal was to dominate the oil business, and
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Approximate Word count = 767
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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