John D. Rockefeller And His Controversial Reputation

John D. Rockefeller was a prolific business tycoon during the mid to late 19th century despised by the upper class and competitors but, adored by the common man. He was despised for his unmatchable intellect and his instincts in the realm of business who tainted his reputation. John D Rockefeller is remembered as a notoriously bad person, but he was a caring and charitable man due to his philanthropic work and ambition to help humanity.

Rockefeller amassed his great fortune through disreputable business tactics and profitable partnerships. His most infamous strategy was also the one that propellered him into success, destroying his competitors in a ruthless game of monopoly. He controlled most of the world's oil refineries through the Standard Oil company and the line of work that took to distribute and produce his product. For Rockefeller to gain complete control, he started what is dubbed a 'price war', that is dropping his prices so low that the competition couldn't keep up. They were then left no choice but to sell their assets to Standard Oil. However, one of the most disagreeable tactics that marked him as a 'greedy capitalist' was the intimidation he bestowed on his competitors. He would let them know how indubitably he would bankrupt them and still buy their assets through his books and numbers and a price war. Leaving them no choice but to sell their assets in fear of losing everything. Thus, his reputation floundered and as mentioned in Why Big Bad Oil, '- doing all these things made the Standard Oil a record number of hostile competitors'.  Shockingly, behind the scenes Rockefeller's last ambition was wealth and riches, it was the power of being able to give. 'Only fools get swelled up over money.' – John D. Rockefeller

On the other side of the veil was a business genius who stabilized an unstable industry through his world game of monopoly. Rockefeller knew of the capriciousness and dishonesty of the oil industry. So, through his reign of the oil kingdom, he brought countless jobs and he dropped the price of oil down by almost 80% and making it accessible to the public and with his national control of it remained that way during Standard Oil's run. In his business, he would carefully select men he deemed to be good and gave them the freedom in projects to empower the common man. He took advice from even those from the lowest social ladder, always interested in what they had to say an unnamed employee stated, 'He always has a nod and a kind word for everybody. He never forgot anyone.'. Most notably, however, he gave just as much as he received. He was a man of deep faith and volunteered in his church, no job was beneath him, and throughout his rise in wealth, he stayed true to his church. Since he first acquired money as a child to a man he donated to charities of every kind. He devoted his time to silent charitable donations and a mass amount of funding, most of whom he insisted not to carry his name. Creating the Rockefeller Foundation, whose sole purpose was to 'benefit the whole mankind'. (Fisher,2014,105). His greatest ambition in life was to create a future for everyone, he had the ambition to build. No man in modern history has ever topped the unfathomable mass of money he's donated to the public, medical institutions, schools, African American causes. Due to his mass amounts of donations, hookworm was almost eradicated from the South. 'Having been endowed with the gift I possess, I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money, and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dictates of my conscience.' - J.D. Rockefeller.

John D. Rockefeller's reputation as a capitalist business tycoon follows still stains his memory, but one undebatable detail is his influence of good that has beyond impacted modern humanity. His genuine love and interest of his neighbor deeming no one too low for him, giving chances for good men and changing the market to make it accessible to the common man. Ultimately his core belief that he was destined by God to make money to benefit the whole mankind and donating more than half his fortune for the betterment of humanity. Because there's nothing worse than a man whose sole ambition is money.

References

• Olien, Diana Davids, and Roger M. Olien. “Why Big Bad Oil?” OAH Magazine of History, vol. 11, no. 1, 1996, pp. 22–27. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25163113.
• Montague, Gilbert Holland. “The Legend of the Standard Oil Company.” The North American Review, vol. 181, no. 586, 1905, pp. 352–368. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25105452.
• Fisher, Donald. Isis, vol. 105, no. 4, 2014, pp. 862–863. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/680294.
• McKay, Brett. 'John D. Rockefeller's Keys To Success | The Art Of Manliness'. The Art Of Manliness, 2018, https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/john-rockefellers-keys-to-success/.