John Davison Rockefeller, an oil magnate, industrialist and a philanthropist was born on July 8, 1939 at Richford, New York to William and Eliza Rockefeller. John Rockefeller’s absent father William was said to have adopted a vagabond lifestyle and was a bigamist with many sexual partners. William’s faithful Baptist wife stayed at home and instilled disciplined in his son who followed his father’s advice to be ‘sharp’ and to ‘trade dishes for platters’. John Rockefeller developed a work ethic and earned money by raising turkeys, selling potatoes and candies, and lending small money to neighbours.
Rockefeller was a studious, well behaved and religious young boy. He debated very well, was articulate in his speech, and developed a penchant for numbers and accounting in early life. Rockefeller worked as bookkeeper at the age of 16 years and earned five cents a day for three months (about 50 US Dollars). Rockefeller donated 6% of his earning to charity and started tithing by donating 10 percent of his income to charity and the Church at the age of 20 years. Rockefeller connected to God very early in life; he knew that everything he owned belonged to God, and vigorously tried his best to return it to Him. He also demonstrated this through his philanthropy acts in education, Medicine and research.
With his father absent most of the time, Rockefeller was effectively the bread winner for his household of five. The life and success of Rockefeller could be likened to that of Abraham. Rockefeller obeyed God, not minding his meagre income and the quality of life he would live on the remaining money after paying his tithe. Abraham, on God’s instruction was willing to sacrifice his only son Isaac, and that single act was a defining moment in his life. God said to Abraham: “You mean you believed in me enough to sacrifice your only son? In that case, in blessing I will bless you, and in you all the families of the Earth shall be blessed.” In the words of Dr David Oyedepo (President, Living Faith Church worldwide), God said – “Abraham, by this single act you are blessed. It’s too late for you now to be poor. Even if you don’t want to be rich, you are rich already!”
What then is the secret of John Rockefeller? God gave Rockefeller different ideas and he went into different successful ventures–from wholesale food produce to oil refinery. He became rich after he built an oil refinery producing cheaper general-purpose lighting fuel. In February 1865, Rockefeller bought out the Clark brothers for $72,500, and established the firm of Rockefeller & Andrews. Another investor, Henry M. Flagler joined in, and by 1868, Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler became the largest petroleum refiner in the world. That venture later became the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller’s oil company was part of a deal that saw preferential treatment given on freight to a group of oil refiners and marketers–an arrangement that brought about fierce opposition from their competitors and the government. In short, Rockefeller became the envy of a nation and the government, and several anti-trust laws were brought in to limit his empire and that of his partners. Rockefeller was vilified by the press and politicians at the time, but he pursued relentlessly, his buying of competing oil refiners, improvement in efficiency of his operation, pushing for massive discount on shipments, undercutting his competitors, raising investment pools and buying out his rivals.
Despite the controversies that engulfed the Standard Oil Company, the promulgation of anti-competition laws, and the fierce competition which Rockefeller faced, Rockefeller waxed stronger, became prosperous, and became great. John Rockefeller became the first American to worth 1 billion US dollars in his lifetime and has been easily described as the richest person in history. His wealth was measured in comparison to the US GDP – his personal fortune accounted for about 1.53% GDP of the USA in his days. When Rockefeller died in 1937, his net worth was between US$392 billion to US$663.4 billion in adjusted dollars for the late 2000s. Even in 2012, that kind of wealth is not only staggering but colossal.
The question is: “How does a man who did not have a university education decide on what business to invest in, when to invest and when not to invest, which partners to work with, or which oil well to drill. You must realise that the world then was not saturated with financial advisers, computer software, oil well scanners or sophisticated exploration drills. Rockefeller was a man endowed with divine wisdom, direction and guidance. That was his secret!
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”
(Psalms 32:8, NKJV).
To sum theRockefeller’s achievement only in the money and the wealth he possessed is to underestimate the life of a man greatly helped by God. Rockefeller was a man who understood partnership; he partnered with his mother to keep a stable home when his absent father was not available. His numerous investments and business ventures had all been with one partner or the other (Maurice B. Clark in 1859, and later his brother – William Rockefeller). He was the founder of the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller University. John D. Rockefeller has been described as the greatest lay benefactor of Medicine in history and the Rockefeller’s family name has had influence on philanthropy, Medicine, finance, politics and real estate. John Rockefeller and his son David John Rockefeller (Jnr.) were reported to have given away a combined amount of 1 billion US dollars over their lifetimes between 1860 to 1960 – an equivalent of 10 million US dollars given away yearly for 100 years!
Rockefeller partnered with God, when he released the seed from his earning as a young boy to charitable acts and the Church. Even in his death and by the legacy he left behind, Rockefeller continues to partner with the future generation to affect mankind for the better. John Rockefeller served God in his days and died at a very ripe age of 97 years.
Poem by John D Rockefeller aged 86 years
I was early taught to work as well as play,
My life has been one long, happy holiday;
Full of work and full of play-
I dropped the worry on the way-
And God was good to me every day
7 things that defined the life of John D Rockefeller
- Diligence: Rockefeller showed diligence from very early age.
- Determination: Rockefeller was determined that nothing was going to stop him.
- Duty: Rockefeller had a sense of duty to his family, his community, his local church and his God.
- Divine Assistance: God greatly assisted Rockefeller. He once said, “God gave me money”, and he did not apologise for it.
- Divine Partnership:Rockefeller was a man who understood partnership.
- Divine Purpose: Rockefeller understood that all things belong to God; he followed strongly in the dictate of John Wesley – “Gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.“
- Divine Legacy: There is no aspect of life today that you will not hear the name Rockefeller mentioned.
John Davison Rockefeller in 1885
