Andrew Carnegie's Success

Andrew Carnegie was an entrepreneur during the late 1800s. He was best known for his success in his own steel company. Over the years Carnegie became very wealthy once his steel business took off. Carnegie was known as the richest man in the world in that era. Being the richest man in the world wasn't always easy, it came with long hours of work and constant decision making. Andrew Carnegie’s success came from hard work and never giving up, that's how he became the man he was ; rich and successful. A quote that describes Andrew Carnegie's success was “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” -Andrew Carnegie (Goodreads.com)

Growing up, life wasn't easy for Andrew Carnegie,

His investments in oil companies started bringing him in lots of money. After lots of hard work he left the railroad industry in 1865 to focus on his other business interests, including the Keystone Bridge Company. In the book “Andrew Carnegie” by Joseph Frazier Wall he says the Keystone Bridge Company was an important American bridge building company. It was one of the 28 Bridge Building Companies in America in 1900. (Wall, pg 271). Finding this company, brought even more success to Carnegie but he wasn't done yet. In the next decade, most of Carnegie's time was put into the steel industry. Carnegie developed his own business called Carnegie Steel Company which was his biggest accomplishment. In the book “Andrew Carnegie” by Joseph Frazier Wall it states that Carnegie Steel Company was a steel producing company used to manage business at his steel mills in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area in the late 19th century (Frazier, pg.311-312). Carnegie's business got more and more intense which lead to him to build more plants around the country, using technology and methods that made manufacturing steel easier, faster cheaper and more productive, kind of like a snowball effect. Andrew Carnegie was always very serious with his jobs and his money but he also says it is important to enjoy what you do, a quote stated by Andrew Carnegie is “Perhaps the most tragic thing about mankind is that we are all dreaming

In 1901, Carnegie sold his business to J.P Morgan which later was later known as the United States Steel Corporation for $480 Million which is roughly $390 Billion U.S dollars today. He had more money than anyone else in that time and decided to put it to a good use. At the age of 65, Andrew Carnegie decided to spend the rest of his days helping others. He started building libraries and making donations to charities. In the book “The Many Lives of Andrew Carnegie” by Milton Meltzer it states that Carnegie donated approximately $5 Million dollars to the New York Public Library so that the library could open several branches for studies (Meltzer, pg. 121,124). Andrew Carnegie says “A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert.”(Goodreads.com) He believed that building libraries were the smartest buildings to build because people of any age can benefit from them. After building libraries and helping people get a better education he established the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh which “is a global research university known for its world-class, interdisciplinary programs: arts, business, computing, engineering, humanities, policy, science” (Cmu.edu) which is now known as Carnegie-Mellon University in 1904. In the book “The Many Lives of