Dec

8

Rev. Thomas W. Armitage warned me that it was worse than folly to extend our plans and our operations. He was sure we were running unwarranted risks, that our oil supply would probably fail, the demand would decline, and he, with many others, sometimes I thought almost everybody, prophesied ruin. None of us ever dreamed the magnitude of what proved to be the later expansions. We did our day’s work as we met it, looking forward to what we could see in the distance and keeping well up to our opportunities, but laying our foundation firmly. As I have said, capital was most difficult to secure, and it was not easy to interest conservative men in this adventurous business. Men of property were afraid of it, though in rare cases capitalists were induced to unite with us to to a limited extent. If they bought our stock at all, they took a little of it now and then as an experiment, and we were painfully conscious that they often declined to buy new stock with many beautiful expressions of appreciation. — “Random Reminiscences of Men and Events,” by John D. Rockefeller (Tarrytown, N.Y.: Sleepy Holly Press and Rockefeller Archive Center)

Steve Ellison responds:

This is an interesting quote in light of recent posts about hubris. There are so many nay-sayers ready to give a thousand reasons that any new venture will fail, that exceptionally high confidence is an advantage to an entrepreneur. Such a person might easily cross the line into hubris given enough success. I once worked with a man who had been a high school classmate of a well-known entrepreneur. My colleague recalled, “He was the most arrogant SOB I ever knew.”


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