Assignment 13

Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

·       What surprised you the most?

He didn’t get married until fifty to Louise Whitfield Carnegie (30) but did not have a child for another ten years making Louise 40-years old. I was also surprised by the fact that he came from a poor immigrant family but went on to become the wealthiest man in the world at that time.

·       What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

He donated about $200 million through libraries and schools. Towards the end of his life, he became heavily involved in world peace and anti-war causes. He sought to donate all is money through charities before he died and set up the Carneige Endowment, which was a dedicated to world peace. When he died all of his wealth went into the trust which would disperse the money to charities even after his passing.

·       What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

He made much of his money by unethical means, floating bonds and shares on companies that were on their way to becoming broke. Along with this he would gamble with shares, he knew in advance whether a company was worth it or not and would sell his bonds ahead of time. He also fought against unions in his company, after winning he raised working time to 12 hours a day and lowered wages to $1.30-1.50 a day.

·       Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

He went against his brother’s better judgement and bought two British patents for creating stronger railway rails. When these failed, he lost much of the family wealth.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

He had many jobs and interests through his lifetime; these included oil drilling, developing metal bridges, steal business, and investments. Carnegie was able to see that steal was going to be a in big demand in the future and took this opportunity to expand his company before most.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I was confused as to why a man who became so charitable could be so greedy at the same time. The money he made would go back into his community or to fight for world peace but was unethical with his bonds and share. Not to mention he created horrible working wages and hours for his employees.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

Do you believe coming from a poor background to achieving great wealth in this day’s economy?

- I would ask this as today becoming successful depends heavily on education and resources. Whereas Carnegie’s time working hard and getting into an industry at the right time was the main way to achieve such wealth.

If you could do things differently, would your business still provide products to the military?

- I would ask Carnegie this as later in his life he became heavily involved in anti-war causes.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

I believe Carnegie’s idea of hard work was dependent on the monetary value behind it, his driving force was money whether making it through unethical means or otherwise. My main driving force is being passionate about my work rather than based on wealth, so I would say I do not share the same opinion.