flâneur

Founders: #248 John D. Rockefeller (Titan)

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What I learned from reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow. ---- Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com ---- [2:15] Rockefeller trained himself to reveal as little as possible [4:22] Once Rockefeller set his mind to something he brought awesome powers of concentration to bear. [4:44] My whole life has been spent trying to teach people that intense concentration for hour after hour can bring out in people resources they didn’t know they had. —Edwin Land [9:00] When playing checkers or chess, he showed exceptional caution, studying each move at length, working out every possible countermove in his head. "I'll move just as soon as I get it figured out," he told opponents who tried to rush him. "You don't think I'm playing to get beaten, do you?" [9:20] To ensure that he won, he submitted to games only where he could dictate the rules. Despite his slow, ponderous style, once he had thoroughly mulled over his plan of action, he had the power of quick decision. [14:49] When John was child, Bill would urge him to leap from his high chair into his waiting arms. One day he dropped his arms letting his astonished son crash t

[00:00:00] The life of John D. Rockefeller was marked to an exceptional degree by silence, mystery, and evasion. Even though he presided over the largest business and philanthropic enterprises of his day, he has remained an elusive figure. A master of disguises, he spent his life camouflaged behind multiple persona and shrouded beneath layers of mythology. He lingers in our national psyche as a series of disconnected images, ranging from the aggressive creator of Standard Oil, brilliant but bloodless, to the elderly man dispensing dimes and canned speeches for newsreel cameras. It's often…

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