The Power of Rockefeller's Perseverance
How Rockefeller's faith, perseverance, and patience built him into the character capable of becoming the wealthiest man in the world.
“I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”
-John D Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller is one of the most mystical figures in American history. The story of his business career and his business empire, Standard Oil, has been interpreted in many different ways. Some viewed him as a saint, while others thought he was the devil. Nonetheless, the one thing that stands out is his ability to persevere, a characteristic he held in high regard. Rockefeller was a deeply religious man, and despite what people may say about him, it is hard to ignore the fact that his life seemed to follow a divine path. Rockefeller's story consists of one tale after another where he pursued the objective he was after and completely ignored everything else that stood in his way. In this article, I want to look at the early pursuits of Rockefeller's life and how they combined to create the grounds for the beginning of his oil empire.
John D. Rockefeller's first business move came at the age of 16, when he began his job search. He had two objectives when he began the search: one was to work at a big company, and the second was to work as a bookkeeper. Rockefeller felt destined for success in the business world, which was why he was drawn towards working for a big company, and he was confident in his ability as a bookkeeper, a skill he had practiced throughout his childhood. The job search would consume six weeks of Rockefeller's life, and he was eventually hired as an assistant bookkeeper. Once he got into the position, he approached the job with an obsessive spirit and took on as much responsibility as the firm would allow him to have. After three and a half years of this work, Rockefeller was given the opportunity to work with Maurice Clark, an English businessman who was in his late twenties. Together, they opened a partnership called “Clark and Rockefeller,” where they bought and sold produce. This is where Rockefeller began to experience obstacles in his early business career. The majority of these obstacles were due to the fact that Rockefeller's personality was exactly the opposite of the people he was in business with. He took his life more seriously than his colleagues because he was responsible for the well-being of his siblings and mother. He had been thrust into the role of a fatherly figure early in his life because his dad was rarely home. Due to this responsibility, Rockefeller was serious, frugal, and strict. Clark and his colleagues were immature, hedonistic, and flamboyant. Their actions also had a direct effect on Rockefeller's bottom line, making clashes between the two frequent. Due to this, Rockefeller had to develop himself into a more stoic character, and he learned how to outthink and outmaneuver his colleagues. He used their attacks, emotional outbursts, and bad decisions against them by cultivating patience, craftiness, and strategy within himself. When the opportunity presented itself to him, he used their weaknesses against them to gain control of the company and establish himself as a highly rated businessman within the Cleveland community. Rockefeller's lesson here is simple: let other people's weaknesses run them out of business and use their weaknesses to develop the opposite positive trait.
While Rockefeller was working as an assistant bookkeeper, he began to take a more active role in his religious life. He was raised a Christian and was encouraged by both of his parents to go to church. His mother represented the ideal Christian woman, and a lot of the traits Rockefeller exhibited later in his business career were because of her influence. Rockefeller not only joined a Baptist church, but he took an active role in running it. He cleaned the chapel, became a Sunday school teacher, and managed the finances. The church was where he began to build a social circle, and he surrounded himself with people of the same beliefs. It is worth noting that the beliefs of the Baptists coincided nicely with capitalism, and a lot of Rockefeller's success can be attributed to him putting these principles into practice. The Baptist believed that the reason to work was to fulfill the mission sent to you by God and for no other reason. In all of their work, the Baptists focused on developing methods that lead to prosperity, and money was a sign from God that you were on the right track, but it was by no means the end goal. They were working for God, and money was simply the byproduct of good work. The Baptist also placed strict rules, abstaining from a lot of the vices that people used. By doing this, they automatically gave themselves an advantage. The young Rockefeller abstained from a lot of the temptations that held other people back. In the middle of the 18th century, before the Gilded Age, there was a self-improvement movement led by people like Benjamin Franklin. Rockefeller and a lot of his future colleagues, such as Andrew Carnegie, were big practitioners of this. Rockefeller took his habits to the extreme, where he monitored his working hours and internal desires and tried to control his ambitions. These early habits likely led to the routines that would define the reminder of Rockefeller's life. When you combine Rockefeller's religious beliefs with the way in which he was able to control his worldly ambitions, you have the perfect character traits to set the stage for an aspiring capitalist.
There is a dichotomy in Rockefeller's life where, from the outside, it looks as if he rushed into decisions, but if you take a deeper look, everything he did was premeditated. For example, when he entered the oil industry, it was the most unpredictable market he could have chosen. He wanted to have control over every aspect of the business, and he took an active role in doing all of the menial tasks that went along with it. The oil industry was the perfect opportunity to combine his Baptist beliefs, need for order, and perpetual quest towards self-improvement in order to capitalize on a promising but uncertain market. Rockefeller's faith in God was what allowed him to jump at opportunities where other people hesitated. As in the case of the oil industry, when everyone around him was hesitating, he calmly looked at the prospective future of the business, put his faith in God, and never looked back. This confidence was once again the result of a combination of his skillset and his religious beliefs. Once Rockefeller had established his business and religious life, he began to build the last pillar in his triad, and that was his family. Using his patience, persistence, and absolute clarity of what he wanted, he married a woman with the same values that he had and began raising his family with those same values. For better or for worse, his kids were raised on the same routines that he implemented in his life. Routines that were predictable and centered around self-improvement and spirituality. Due to Rockefeller's religious beliefs, his practice of abstinence from vices, and the control he had developed at Standard Oil, he put himself in a position to take an active role in raising his children.
Overall, Rockefeller was obsessed with going after things he was uncertain that he would be able to get because it was a chance to develop and deepen his faith. Once he achieved the thing he was after, he used the same routines that he had developed personally and applied them to the situation. His family was run in an orderly fashion, and his kids were all on schedules. Standard Oil was run on a schedule, and they repeated the same tactics, routines, and practices year after year. This all stemmed from the way that he lived; his schedule was kept to the minute, but only he had control over it. His most valuable asset, time, was run by him, and he never let anything get in the way of that. He never worked just to work; he worked when his schedule demanded it. He consulted God, and no one else's opinion was going to get in the way of him pursuing that answer. He became the richest man in the world while at the same time leading a balanced life. A life focused on progress in the key areas he wanted to see improvement and an exclusion of nearly everything else that got in the way.
Takeaways - Methods & Routines
What three areas of your life do you want to see improvement in?
Rockefeller focused on three main things: religion, family, and business. There was nothing outside of that, which allowed him to focus all of his effort on those three things. What are your three things, and what are you willing to sacrifice in order to make those three aspects of your life great?
How do the three areas combine to give you a competitive advantage in each endeavor?
Rockefeller's business activities gave him more time to devote to raising his family and practicing his religious beliefs. It also provided a place for his children and grandchildren to go to work. His religious beliefs gave him advantages in business and order in his family life. For example, without his religious beliefs, he would have engaged in different vices that took time away from his family. His family life gave him the freedom to pursue his religious endeavors and business affairs. All of the activities combined to improve each of the pursuits. He wasn't forced to give up one in order to pursue the other, as most people are.
Developing methods and routines for each of your endeavors
Once you have decided on the three main areas of your life, what are going to be the methods and routines you develop in order to achieve greatness within each activity? Design a schedule for your month that focuses on improving each of the three areas. Start with what you are going to avoid, and then work backwards from there. It’s going to take time and effort to develop these methods, but once you do, you can lock into them month after month and see a steady stream of improvement in each of the areas.