Andrew Carnegie and Success

My Inspiration:    Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was a poverty stricken boy in Scotland who began working at two cents per hour and finally gave away three hundred and sixty-million dollars. He attended school for only four year, yet somehow managed to climb way ahead of those who had decades of formal education.

What was the reason for Carnegie's success?

He was nicknamed "The Steel King"; yet he knew little about the manufacturing of steel. Instead he had hundreds of men working for him who knew far more about steel than he did.

It is believed that the Key to Andrew Carnegie's success was his ability to handle people. After all, that is the root of all business. He just took that talent viral in everything he did. He showed respect to people, no matter what their class, or position. 

There was a time when he and George Pullman were battling for supremacy in the car business, Carnegie controlled The Central Transportation Company and was fighting with the company that Pullman owned.

 Both were fighting to get the non active care business of he Union Pacific Railroad, butting heads, cutting prices, and literally destroying profit. Both these men had gone to New York to see the board of directors of the Union Pacific, trying to gain leverage.

One evening they met in the St. Nicholas Hotel, Carnegie immediately pointed out the advantages of working together instead of against each other. He knew that the power struggle was destructive, expensive, and wanted to merge interests, so he described all the benefits of a merger with Pullman still unconvinced, asking what the company would be called, Carnegie was quick to say, "The Pullman Palace Car Company." And the rest is history.

Andrew Carnegie's genius was to remember and honor names, and could call many of his laborers by their first names; and as a result, very few, if any strikes disturbed his thriving steel mills.

He even went out of his way to praise his employees publicly, as well as privately. 

Anyone who has had an unappreciative boss who harps on the minor things, while ignoring your great accomplishments will know that resentment and eventually, indifference result from being under appreciated.

Remember to acknowledge talent honestly and thoroughly, and it will always want to perform at the highest level.