Rockefeller

Maria Garland

2/23/2007

John D. Rockefeller

The realm of history is filled with individuals of both fame and infamy. What all famous individuals throughout history all have in common is their ability to impact others around them to a great degree and, in some cases, these individuals have been literally able to shape the world through their actions.

John D. Rockefeller remains one such individual. Rockefeller has carved a special niche in history for himself as the guiding light behind the establishment of the Standard Oil Company. In establishing Standard Oil as a major force in the world's energy market, Rockefeller was able to amass an incredible fortune. However, Rockefeller was not an individual who let his acquisition of wealth cloud his ability to have compassion for others in the world.

Rockefeller was famous for his philanthropic pursuits. While many individuals amass wealth to improve their own personal lot in life, Rockefeller used much of what he acquired to help improve the quality of life of other people. Such actions allow Rockefeller's character to have a level of depth and humanity that is often missing from the more bloodless corporate entities that the Oil Industry is (whether fair or not) is more commonly known.

So what was it that made Rockefeller tick? What guided and motivated his decisions? To answer these questions would require an incredibly lengthy examination of the life of a rather complex individual. While such depth is not possible is a short essay, a brief highlighting of Rockefeller and his more notable accomplishments will be clearly examined.

A brief glimpse into the psyche can be viewed in the following:

A very religious man, John D. Rockefeller thought that God would reward the chosen ones. He had the frugal man's hatred for waste, disorder and middlemen. He did not like public life and the only places where he was to be seen was his office, his house and the Baptist church. With a calculating coldness and an enormous determination he began very soon. In 1863 with and associate and a chemist, he builds his first refinery in Cleveland, producing naphtha and kerosene. Reinvesting constantly the profits and keeping costs and wages as low as possible, John D. Rockefeller grew quickly his business. (Micheloud)

As one can see within the context of that quote, there are those historians who have a somewhat negative view on the man. A great deal of this negativity derives from the fact that Rockefeller was a man of wealth and he made his fortune in the oil business. For many, wealth and oil are inherent with evil and greed. Sometimes, such preconceived prejudices can lead to the glancing over of the positives of what an individual had performed in his life. Yes, the oil industry can be an industry that is notoriously amoral, but in the case of Rockefeller, the oil industry becomes the standard bearer for successful entrepreneurship.

John D Rockefeller but twenty-three years old when he first went into the oil business, but he had already got his feet firmly on the business ladder, and had got them there by his own efforts. The habit of driving good bargains and of saving money had started him. He himself once told how he learned these lessons so useful in money-making, in one of his frequent Sunday-school talks to young men on success in business. The value of a good bargain he learned in buying cord-wood for his father: "I knew what a cord of good solid beech and maple wood was. My father told me to select only the solid wood and the straight wood and not to put any limbs in it or any punky wood. That was a good training for me. I did not need any father to tell me or anybody else how many feet it took to make a cord of wood." (Tarbell)

To a great degree, the above except describes a man who has self motivated. If there ever was a single, common thread to success it would be self motivation because an individual who seeks to achieve for personal reasons and personal drive is usually quite successful.

Standard Oil saw its glory days from 1870 to 1911 and it was originally formed in Ohio by Rockefeller and several partners. The scope of Standard Oil was rather vast as it included the drilling, refinement and transportation of oil. In a very short period of time, thanks to the skill and vision of Rockefeller, Standard Oil grew exponentially in a very short period of time and quickly eclipsed a number of competitors.

Keep in mind while Rockefeller was a person of ambition and compassion, Standard Oil was a company that ran all its cylinders on pure ambition alone it would seem. That is to say, Standard Oil was designed to become the dominant oil company in the United States and it "played hardball" against competitors and sought to corner the oil market.

This was deemed predatory