Question

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Reflect on the family and educational backgrounds of Cornelius Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller. What is similar and what is different? Analyze the tactics used by each of them to achieve success. Why were these strategies successful? What are your impressions? What do you think?

Answer 1

Answer-

Both Cornelius Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller came from poor families that didn't have much of an educational background. Both had to quit school early to help support their families. So, neither had much of any education to help them with their business decisions, just determination and maybe a mentor or two.

Vanderbilt was able to work with his father who was a poor seaman. Vanderbilt started working at the age of 11 and when he was 16 he purchased his first ferry boat with a $100 loan. Over years of shuttling and shipping cargo for business and people he eventually grew his ferry into a fleet and became the largest steamboat shipping company around. Along the way he eliminated competition. As the Civil War is about to begin he sells everything to invest into to the new railways that he believes will connect America. Vanderbilt made his competitors stocks almost worthless and when he did so by careful maneuvering he bought up the large majority of those competitor’s stocks. Creating the largest single railroad company in the U.S.

John D. Rockefeller on the other hand made his fortune through the oil industry. He grew up in a poor Cleveland family, which he had to help provide for in his early childhood because his dad was not around and known as a con-man. Rockefeller sold candies as a young boy to help support his family. He eventually invested everything into the refinery business. Creating Standard Oil in 1890 to create a consistency in his Kerosene across manufacturing. He eventually teamed with Vanderbilt in a business deal to ship Rockefeller’s Standard Oil across America. Rockefeller eventually creates a cartel with Tom Scott and Andrew Carnegie, to help achieve lower shipping rates. Both gentlemen are pioneers of modern business and engineering. They transformed the way people look at the world. Taking products that are dying and giving them a new purpose.