John D. Rockefeller

“Bernard is like this odd combination of, I would say Warren Buffett and a John D. Rockefeller.”

“Between 1917 and 1922, John Dee gave almost half a billion dollars to his children. Almost all of it went to Junior.”

“What's fascinating is that he actually retires before the mass production of cars. And so all the demand that the automobile industry will bring for oil. So he actually gets much richer in retirement, technically retirement, than he did when he was actually wo…”

“Rockefeller, he was asked questions like, who's the best businessman you ever know, you've ever known, and he said, without hesitation, Jay Gold, and then Cornelius Vanderbilt, when he was in his seventies and by far the richest American alive, he said that Ja…”

“Taking for granted the growth of his empire, he hired talented people as found, not as needed.”

“Keep a fortress of cash. This is what John D. Rockefeller did. This is what Warren Buffett did. They kept fortresses of cash. It is a distinct advantage to have near at hand All the supplies you need.”

“Charlie Munger believes that Rockefeller built the greatest company of all time.”

“Rockefeller already controlled more than 90% of all American oil exports and was the domineering force in all world markets except Russia.”

“There's this very hard to find interview that John D. Rockefeller gave towards the end of his life. It's like, I think, 1700 pages. I think the transcript is 1700 pages long. It's the William O. Inglis interviews that he did with Rockefeller, and on Charlie's …”

“Rockefeller used a very similar tactic in the early days of his career. He would go around to all the Cleveland banks. And any of the ones that lent him money also got stock in his company. And Rockefeller did that. So the banks couldn't or wouldn't fund Rocke…”

“Arrogance, I feel, can fuel you, especially if you keep that arrogance to yourself”

“There is no standard oil empire without the experience of Rockefeller as a Hewlett and Tuttle. And there is no great Northern railway empire without James J. Hull having all these businesses and jobs that all interacted with the railroad for two decades before…”

“If you were to ask Charlie Munger and I did, I got to talk to Charlie Munger about this before he died, like who he thought the greatest entrepreneur of all time was. And he would say Rockefeller.”

“So let's start the dawn of the 20th century when Rockefeller was at his peak, right? Production was a 174,000 barrels a day. Even at that size that can make Rockefeller probably the richest person on the planet, right? You fast forward 45 years where we are in…”

“When I went to Charlie Munger's house and got, got to have dinner with him, he actually said that he thought Rockefeller was the greatest entrepreneur of all time.”

“Rockefeller made more money in retirement from his oil stocks because Henry Ford invented the model T invented the mass production of automobiles, which then what does that do drastically increase the demand for Rockefeller's product?”

“Rockefeller's likely the richest person on in the world at the time he retired, but he actually got richer and wealthier in retirement than he did when he was working because somebody else invented a technology that created more demand for his product.”

“Someone once said Bill wants people to think that he is Thomas Edison when he is really Rockefeller. If he was Edison, he would be less dangerous. He is utterly relentless. He is indefatigable. He is absolutely focused, and he wants it all.”

“He would cut the price of refined to below costs, knowing that every sale is now competitor had to drop the price to meet only hasten their demise. He would keep the prices low until he broke the competitors that didn't want to consolidate or sell.”

“So even though later on Rockefeller would say that he despised speculators early in his career, he speculated in oil futures and he may have not survived if he didn't do this. And speculating oil futures is a very tricky business. And it was so important to hi…”

“Regardless of where he was in the world, every day he received a sheet that listed how much crude oil they had on hand, the number of barrels, the total number of gallons of refined that were shipped the previous day and any other vital statistic of the busine…”

“There is no standard oil monopoly without this happening. Since they are shipping commodities all over the country, this is before he gets into the oil business. Obviously he has to study the business of transportation. The business of transportation is going …”

“The final element in Rockefeller, Rockefeller strategy is that only a fraction of the profits would be distributed as dividends among the five stockholders. He wanted the rest retained in the business.”

“Standard Oil had secretly approached Tweedle and told them that they will cover all the legal costs when Tweedle gets sued for patent infringement, which indeed happens. They then purposely drag the case through the court slowly to bleed the smaller company. E…”

“Now, another trait that Rockefeller had is this maxim that says the good ones, no more. This is not an issue of talent or intelligence. This is an issue of effort. They just collect more information. They know more about what they're doing.”

“So these rebates are adding 50,000 dollars a year in profit each year at a time when most other refiners Couldn't even break even. Most of them were losing money.”

“So when they think about who to target for the largest possible rebates, they concentrate on the Erie railroad. Why? Because it was one of the smaller railroads at the time and therefore more hungry for traffic. This deal at Rockefeller is going to work out wi…”

“Rockefeller would buy the companies, but you'd have them operate as if nothing had changed. They'd keep the same name. No connection to standard would ever be revealed publicly. The hidden company was a technique that Standard would use to build its empire. Th…”

“Do not many of us who fail to achieve big things fail because we lack concentration. The art of concentrating the mind on the thing to be done at the proper time and to the exclusion of everything else.”

“Many employees said that he never lost his temper, raised his voice, uttered a profane word or acted discourteously.”

“It is impossible to comprehend Rockefeller's breathtaking ascent without realizing that he always moved into battle backed by abundant cash. Whether writing out downturns or coasting on booms, he kept plentiful reserves and won many bidding contests simply bec…”

“Find a problem. Work at it, solve it as well as I can, put the administration of that problem in good hands, and then go on to the next one.”

“He approaches a guy named Oliver Payne, and he offers to buy his company for 400,000 dollars and to give him a position in Standard Oil. The company was only worth 250,000, but Payne came from a politically connected family in Cleveland, and Payne's connection…”

“And Rockefeller would only meet with Vanderbilt if Vanderbilt came to Cleveland and met Rockefeller inside of his office.”

“Rockefeller's company is refining about 1500 barrels a day, but they're shipping 4200 barrels a day.”

“Rockefeller gives Flagler one job. You see how he keeps doing this over and over again. You are going to focus on your top priority. What does he want Flagler to focus on? Concentrate fully on our highest priority transportation. Flagler had a single objective…”

“Shipping by water was 50% cheaper than shipping by rail.”

“When there was a boycott organized by companies taking crude out of the ground against Rockefeller, they essentially shut off his supplies to his raw materials. This goes on for several months. It's so drastic. It takes standard oil's employee count from 1200 …”

“In fact, the information he gets from this association helps him become a monopoly. And so Rockefeller's actually chosen to be the head of the association. That's really important because then he gets to know every single business. He has to see their books. H…”

“A few weeks later, the newspapers announced his new partnership, revealing who had backed his bid, and the news that Rockefeller is, at 25 years old, an owner of one of the largest refineries in the world.”

“He wanted to collect information and never give any information. He sat quiet in meetings. He encouraged his partners to quote, let the other fellow talk.”

“So when he gets into the oil refining business, it has no barriers to entry costs about a thousand dollars to start a refinery and only requires a few people to run it.”

“So standard oil sold over 50 byproducts from the refining of oil. Standard did not create a single one of those innovations. Rockefeller would let others experiment. He'd wait until they developed a profitable market, and then he would move in.”

“Rockefeller collected more information than anybody else. He studied all sides of the oil industry. He traveled to the oil regions and got to know the business from that end. He talked to producers, the men who drew oil from the ground, to the people that carr…”

“Rockefeller would tell his partners, concentrate first on the largest and strongest independent with him secured. The balance can be brought in easily.”