First of all, John D. Rockefeller, born July 8,1839, was the richest man in the world when he was alive. In fact he is still considered the richest man in the world even after having died. His wealth well surpassed any business man in today’s times and even surpassed any king or queen to have ever existed.(Gladwell) Many things accounted for Rockefeller’s wealth. After his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was 14 he started working doing small jobs. His first real full time job started out when he was 16 years old. Rockefeller started out as an assistant bookkeeper with Hewitt & Tuttle, commission merchants and produce shippers.(Biography.com, Rockefeller) When he turned 20 he left that job to pursue his own business alongside a partner. …show more content…
Rockefeller. While Rockefeller used a lot more of his natural business intuition, Carnegie put in much more hard work. He started from the bottom and rose to power. Andrew Carnegie was born November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. A factor that greatly helped Andrew Carnegie was his family 's belief in books, reading and learning.(Biography.com, Carnegie) Having this as his environment growing up taught him many things, especially lessons in hard work. When Carnegie’s family moved to Allegheny, Pennsylvania he was only 14 years old. He went straight to work in a factory only making $1.20 a week. (Biography.com, Carnegie) Going to work at this young of an age helped him learn even more lessons in hard work. Carnegie wanted to learn and become successful. Within a year he got a job as a telegraph messenger. He eventually worked his way up higher and higher until he got a job at the Pennsylvania Railroad. Working here taught him much. He learned about the railroad industry and even more about business in general.(Biography.com, Carnegie) He was smart and made investments in the oil business. THis proved to be a wise choice as it soon led to great amounts of profit for him. He eventually left the railroad company and focused his time on the steel business. His business would later be known as Carnegie Steel. The strategy Carnegie used to make his business progress faster than anyone has seen before. He could produce steel faster, cheaper, and easier than anyone else in the business. He owned everything he needed to do this. He owned the raw materials, he owned the means to ship his product by water and by land, he even owned coal fields to fuel his factories. (Biography.com, Carnegie) Due to the mass and power of his steel foundries he was known as one of the leading people to help shape the nation and power the economy.