The 38 Letters From J.D. Rockefeller to His Son

I expect you to stand out from the crowd in future and outdo me. However, I have decided to keep you by my side, because I want to bring you to a higher starting point in life, so that you can indulge in the rapid opportunities without having to face obstacles.

Reminds me of this clip from Steve Harvey. No matter how successful the father, they always want their sons to be even better than they were.

The founding belief of the United States of America is that all human beings are created equal, but this equality is only present in the context of rights and laws. It has nothing to do with economic and cultural advantages.

Precisely. Equality is before the eyes of the law, not in terms of ability or anything else.

The only truth is that as long as you work hard enough, you will succeed. I firmly believe that our destiny is determined by our actions, not by our origins.

Preach.

I deliberately concealed the fact that I was well off. I instilled many values ​​such as frugality and personal struggle in you because I know that the quickest way to harm someone is to give them money.

I think this is an extremely healthy way to live. Buffett and Munger lived very frugally despite their wealth.

In the eyes of ordinary people, luck is always innate. As long as they find out someone has attained success or have been promoted, they will say casually, with contempt: “This man’s luck is so good, it is luck that helped him!” Such a person can never have a peek into the truth that makes one successful: everyone is a designer and architect of his own destiny.

This is the biggest thing. To be lucky, one must take constant action. So from the eyes of those who practice inaction, all success seems like luck.

Those who blindly follow the crowd and rules, I view them with disdain. Their brains are entangled with wrong thoughts, as they think that it is worth being complacent just by being able to withdraw themselves.

A person is smart. People are dumb.

The greatest reward for our hard work is not what we get, but what we will become.   If you view work as a pleasure, life is heaven; if you view work as a duty, life is hell.

Engineering yourself is the greatest gift. The money and fame is just a byproduct.

I think that work is a privilege, as it brings more than just sustaining life. Work is the foundation of all businesses, the source of prosperity, and the shaper of genius. Work makes young people work harder and do more than their parents no matter how rich they are. Work is expressed in the humblest forms and lays the foundation for happiness.

The happiest people in life work until the day they die. Retirement is not a thing people should aspire to.

I often heard that a person who wants to climb to the peak needs to make a lot of sacrifices. However, as the years passed, I began to understand that many people who were climbing to the peak were not “paying the price.” They work hard because they really like work. People who climb up in any industry are fully committed to what they are doing and are dedicated. Sincerely love the work you do; you will naturally succeed. Loving work is a belief. With this faith, we can heave the desperate mountain into a rock of hope. A great painter said it well, “Pain will eventually pass, but beauty will last forever.”

Exactly.

Income is just a by-product of your work. Doing what you should do, accomplishing what you should do well, the ideal salary will come. And more importantly, the highest reward for our hard work is not what we get, but what we will become.

He repeats the same message over and over - it’s an important one.

Heaven and hell are created by ourselves. If you give meaning to your work, you will feel happy regardless of its size and you will feel fulfilled no matter what self-set results you have attained. If you don’t like to do anything, even the simplest things will become difficult and boring.

There is a lot of wisdom here that we are only now starting to prove. Some who experience trauma are forever broken, while others grow by leaps and bounds. What’s the difference? If you can convince yourself that your trauma has meaning, you will grow. If you believe that your suffering had a purpose, you will experience post traumatic growth. It is entirely within our own minds.

…if you do not take action, even the world most practical, beautiful, and viable philosophy will not work.

At some point, I really need to stop reading and start doing.

…an opportunity comes from another opportunity as even the best ideas have flaws. Even if it is a very ordinary plan, if it is actually implemented and developed, it will be much better than a good plan that is abandoned halfway, because the former will be carried out consistently, but the latter has already been given up.

Preach.

Life is an opportunity at any time, but there is almost nothing perfect. Those passive people have a mediocre life, precisely because they must wait for everything to be 100% profitable and perfectly safe before doing something. This is a fool’s approach.

I defintely felt this. When I was young I’d always start the school year off with a perfect score, but once I got that first ding, that first absence, that first broken streak, I’d wait for the next semester or the next month. Somehow it was never good enough to just re-start again tomorrow. No more seeking perfection.

Sentences such as “tomorrow”, “next week”, and “future” have the same meaning as “can never be done”.

Ouch.

…unlike some people, I take failure as a glass of spirits. It is bitter when you drink it, yet it gives you plenty of vitality.

Based on everything I knew of Rockefeller, I’m surprised he drinks?

In my real memory, no one is greater than Lincoln. He has woven a successful and moving history of the United States. With his indomitable spirit, courage, and generosity, he liberated four million of the humblest black slaves and crushed 27 million locks that have been placed on the soul of people of colour. This put an end to the sinful history of depraved, twisted, and narrow souls due to racial hatred.

Interesting to see his political opinions come through here.

I hate it when my business fails and lose money, but what really concerns me is that I am afraid that in future business, I will be too cautious and become a coward. If that is the case, then my loss will be even greater.

Don’t scar at the first cut.

There is nothing in the world that can replace perseverance. Talent is not acceptable. Unprecedented talents abound, and geniuses who accomplish nothing is common; education is also not acceptable. The world is full of people who are useless in learning. Only perseverance and determination will never be disadvantageous.

From Elon to Paul Graham to Jensen, every single one of them values determination over intelligence.

I only show my feelings when the situation is only beneficial to myself; I can let my opponent teach me, but I will never teach my opponent, no matter how much I know about it; think twice about everything, no matter how others may urge, do not act without making a full consideration; I have my own truth, only responsible for myself; be careful of those who ask me to treat them sincerely, they want to reap benefits from me.

This is very much how he operated. He has such an iron control over his feelings so as to never let his opponents grasp how he truly felt about anything.

I do not like money. What I like is making money. What I like is the good feeling of victory.

Very much like Mrs. B.

The people who can get ahead in this world are those who know how to find their ideal environment. If they cannot do it, they will create it themselves.

Know your nature. Find a game that suits your nature. If none exists, create one.

In my opinion, donating money is a wrong kind of help. It will make a person lose the motivation to be thrifty and diligent, and become lazy, unpredictable, and unaccountable. More importantly, when you give alms to a person, you deny his dignity, and if you deny his dignity, you take away his destiny, which is extremely immoral in my opinion. As a rich man, I have the responsibility to be a messenger for the benefit of mankind, but I cannot be the initiator of making lazy people.

He is one of the most prolific philanthropists of all time. Might be good to listen to what he has to say.

To endure hardship deliberately is one of my beliefs of success.

Very Jensen-like. I wish great suffering on all of you.

Playing stupid brings you many benefits. The meaning of pretending to be stupid is to stay a low profile and become humble, in other words, to hide your cleverness. The smarter the person, the more necessary it is for them to play stupid, because as the saying goes – the more mature the rice, the more they sag.

Do not boast about everything you know. Keep your cards close to your chest.

As immigrants, it is our nature to be hopeful and hardworking. When I was a child, my mother implanted the virtues of frugality, independence, diligence, trustworthiness and unremitting entrepreneurial spirit into my bones. I sincerely believe in these virtues and regard them as great success creeds.

There is no one I have less sympathy for than a lazy immigrant.

Opportunities are only reserved for hardworking people! When I was young, I believed in a law of success: wealth is an accident, a by-product of hard work. The achievement of each goal comes from diligent thinking and diligent action, and the same is true for realizing the dream of wealth.

Preach.

In my opinion, “excuses” is a mental illness, and people with this serious illness are all losers without exception.

Savage.

The first action that the loser takes to settle the later events is to find various reasons for his failure.

Absolutely savage. I love Rockefeller so much.

I do not need an “expert” who can only remember and cannot think. I want people who can really solve problems and come up with various ideas, who have dreams and have the courage to realize their dreams. Creative people can make money for me, but people who can only memorize information cannot.

First principles thinking! Stop regurgitating how some big company used to do things.

The achievements that Ford created proved one of my life credos: wealth is proportional to goals. If you have big ambitions and big goals, your mountain of wealth will rise to the sky. If you just want to pass by, then you will end up in the rat race, or even nothing, even if the wealth is close to you, you will only get a little bit of it.

The craziest part of Rockefeller’s wealth is that it was all accumulated before the invention of the automobile! By the time Ford comes around, Rockefeller has already retired.

Only by curiosity can you discover opportunities, and by taking risks can you make use of them.

Be curious. Be bold.

It is almost certain that safety first cannot make us rich. If we want to get paid, we must always accept the necessary risks that follow.

Scrounging and saving will not make you super rich. It will prevent you from going broke, which is good, but it will not provide you insane wealth.

You and Mr. Morgan finally shook hands. This is the greatest handshake in American economic history.

This is hilarious considering how much he disliked Morgan. Eventually they seem to have made up, but this is a rather dishonest spin on the whole matter.

A person’s self-esteem is the core of his personality. What kind of person you think you are, will make you become that person.

Ego is healthy! Have a good dose of ego.

There are two kinds of people in the world that will never be rich: First, people who like to live a glamorous life, like flies staring at a stinky meat. They are very interested in luxury goods. They spend so much that they do their best to have exquisite costumes, expensive cars, luxurious houses, and highly sought-after art. This kind of life is indeed fascinating, but it lacks rationality, and they lack such vigilance: They are looking for ways to increase debt, and they will become poor slaves to cars and houses, and once they go bankrupt, they are finished! The second type of people, are those who like to save money, and store it in the bank, but it is no different from freezing money. You must know that you cannot make money on interest.

Be in the middle. Stop being a miser, like so many Indian immigrants. But also do not be so glamor-seeking.

…patience does not mean swallowing anger, neither is it humbling. Patience is a strategy, and it also trains your character. What it nurtures is a competitive heart.

How can you read this and think anything other than ‘this guy is a killer’?

I hate my subordinates saying “impossible”. “Impossible” is a term for failure. Once a person is dominated by the idea of ​​“it is impossible”, he can produce a series of ideas to prove that he is right.

In other words, why are startups hard.

…if we want to survive forever, our leadership style means we have to refuse blaming anyone or anything for any reason. The habit of blaming is like a swamp. Once you stumble and fall into it, you will lose your footing and direction, you will become unable to move and then fall into the predicament of hatred and frustration. There is only one result: losing the respect and support of your subordinates.

In defense of blameless postmortems!

If I can treat every obstacle as an opportunity to understand myself, rather than care about what others have done to me, then I can find a way out of the face of adversities.

The obstacle is the way.

Only making excuses without providing solutions is intolerable in Standard Oil.

No venting! We want productive solutioning.

The biggest challenge for leaders is how to create an environment in which people feel that being open is more comfortable than hiding the truth.

100%.

Contrary to what most people believe, in a dialogue, the listener is the one who has the power, not the declarant.

As a professional yapper, I really need to keep this in mind.

The person who is most able to create value is the one who is completely devoted to his favourite activities.

This is why the greats never stop working - they’ve found something that creates value for themselves and the world.

I do not have the habit of picking the most vulnerable characteristics of my subordinates, but I always look for the strongest part of them so that their talents can be fully utilized in the challenges and needs of the work.

Double down on your strengths rather than focusing on your weaknesses.

I do not use my likes and dislikes as the criteria for selecting talents first. I do not look at what signs are attached to them, what I like is their ability that they show when working. I like my preferences, but I prefer efficiency.

You don’t have to like me, as long as you do good work.

I believe that all leaders have the obligation to provide hope, not only for themselves, but also guide their employees onto a broad road.

Nobody wants to work for a hopeless cause. We are all dedicating our lives to something. Let’s make that ‘something’ worthwhile.

As for the employees, I am equally generous and compassionate. Not only do I pay them higher salaries than any oil company, but I also allow them to enjoy the pension system that guarantees them a comfortable retirement. I also give them annual appointments with their bosses for Opportunities to raise their own salary. I do not deny the utilitarian effect of generosity, but I also know that my generosity will improve the living standards of employees, and this is precisely one of my duties. I hope that everyone who works for me will be rich because of me.

Efficiency wages before Ford?

Frankly speaking, the mention of Theodore Roosevelt’s name and everything he did to Standard Oil makes me indignant. He is the narrowest and most vengeful villain I have ever seen. Yes, this villain succeeded. With the power in his hands, he became the winner of an unfair competition that was initiated by him. The federal court issued the huge fine that was unprecedented in American history and ordered its dissolution of our company. See what this despicable man has done to us!

Makes sense - they basically disbanded his life’s work under monopoly laws.

Those stupid guys do not know how big companies are built, and he does not want to know. Every cent of our money is permeated with our wisdom, and we have paid a load of sweat every step forward. The cornerstone of our business building is laid by our lives. But they do not want to listen, they want to be biased, only believing in their own inferior judgments, insulting our business ability, and even ignoring the fact that we use the cheapest and best quality kerosene to illuminate the United States.

In some sense I definitely empathize. Government has, probably since the beginning, been ignorant of how business actually works. The only way Rockefeller gets his monopoly is by driving costs to basically zero. For that supreme public service (in his own view), his company is disbanded.

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Here we get a truer sense of Rockefeller’s personality because it was written to a close family member. Still, we should keep in mind that these were all written well after he had retired. It’s a better read than the Random Reminiscences, but I would still just read Titan instead.