Sunday Success Story: Andrew Carnegie
Sunday Success Story
Andrew Carnegie was one of the very few men throughout history that built an entire industry from the ground up, creating an empire that to this day is one of the biggest in history. He was a man that came from nothing, going to work at nine years old to help support his mother. As a child he worked in a factory for two cents an hour. Later he met the man that would have a grand impact on his life, that man was Tom Scott. Tom Scott was a leading man in the railroad industry, competing with Cornelius Vanderbilt for the top railroad company in America. As Scott’s right hand man, a young Carnegie excelled at the position, always looking to improve the company. His lifelong rival John D. Rockefeller shut down Tom Scott’s railroads and left Scott a broken man. Carnegie vowed to avenge his mentor that helped him in so many ways. In the industrial revolution he realized the true potential that a new compound had on society, that compound was steel. Carnegie had little knowledge of the production of steel but knew that massive cities could be built with it. Carnegie surrounded himself with the best people to build Carnegie steel into a massive empire. Carnegie looked to better the world with the massive wealth he attained. Believing that the first third of your life should be spent on gaining as much education as possible, the next third making as much money as possible and the last third giving that money away to charitable causes. Carnegie also competed with Rockefeller for most of his life, both building immense empires in the process. Carnegie also understood the power that the mind possesses, saying that was the real reason why he got to where he was in life. Sparking a young Napoleon Hill to write one of the best self-books of all time and influence millions in the process. Andrew Carnegie was a figure that believed in giving away all money to charity and providing something that would change the world. He accomplished both of these things as well as laid the groundwork for many others.
