The Business of Success

American Values and Entrepreneurs

• Americans value hard work and admire ambitious people who take risks to achieve material success.
• Entrepreneurs, who start with little but become rich and successful with a good idea and hard work, are a representation of the American Dream.

The Rise of Big Business in the 19th Century

• The mid-19th century US was a land of opportunity for entrepreneurs with a good idea, eager to take risks and work hard.
• Natural resources like coal, iron, oil, and wood were abundant in the country.
• The Industrial Revolution, which began in Europe, had reached the US, with small factories across the country.

Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller

• Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant, came to the US and worked in a factory for $1.20 a week.
• He saved money, invested in various businesses, and made more money.
• Carnegie built a steel factory and implemented vertical integration, controlling all aspects of steel production, including iron mines and railroad companies.
• He became the richest man in the country by buying out competition and achieving a high level of vertical integration.

John D. Rockefeller

• Rockefeller started working at 16 for a shipping company and invested in the oil business.
• He controlled all aspects of the oil industry: drilling, refining, and transportation, buying out small oil companies to reduce competition.
• By 1877, his company, Standard Oil, controlled 90% of the oil industry in the country.
• Rockefeller's business practices led to the creation of a monopoly.

Government Intervention and American Values

• In the 1890s, the federal government took action to reduce the power of monopolies.
• Despite changes, the businesses of Carnegie, Rockefeller, and other major entrepreneurs remained large and successful.
• Their lives illustrate American values such as hard work, independence, and self-reliance, as well as the pursuit of material success and the darker aspects of the American Dream.