Rockefeller

“Vanderbilt told a newspaper that Gold was the smartest man in America. Rockefeller, when asked who he thought had the best head for business, answered Jay Gold.”

“The two name paper idea plus the fact that he's going to be shipping oil for Rockefeller equals Ludwig's wealth. Which then in turn causes him to go out and buy and start, you know, the hundreds of these businesses.”

“I think now you're starting to see why Munger said, Hey, this James J Hill guy was one of the best business operators. He's up there with a Carnegie. He's up there with a Rockefeller.”

“Out of everybody, you know, out of every single person I've read about who do you, who I think is the best strategist and the two names that came to mind without hesitation was Rockefeller and Bezos.”

“At the time, Rockefeller accounted for 65% of all traffic on the Pennsylvania railroad.”

“In four weeks, Rockefeller bought 23 companies.”

“Of these 23 people, he would offer stock or cash. You choose. Only five took the stock.”

“So Rockefeller would buy politicians and he would make sure that they stayed bought. When the media wrote critical articles about standard oil, Rockefeller would buy off the reporters in the media too.”

“What's crazy is Rockefeller's wealth wealth grows more in retirement than it did when he was active. And it did this because he never sold his stock.”

“He would settle disputes between himself and his partners in a very clever way. He would put all the risk and the blame on himself.”

“The bulk of Rockefeller's borrowing in the early days went to buy crude. When the price dropped, he would make massive purchases.”