13a Reading Reflection No. 1

Reading Reflection

Book Title: Andrew Carnegie, David Nasaw

Andrew Carnegie was a chameleon. That is what stood out to me the most after reading this book. Carnegie could blend in anywhere, even at the age of 24, when he wore a tall hat and thin beard to cover the fact that he was short and so young. He was also sharp and knew where the market was.

It's easy to get mad at Andrew Carnegie for modern problems. It is easy to be mad at his early efforts in oil drilling because oil isn't a renewable resource, but the fact is that nobody back then had any idea that drilling oil would lead to the negative impacts known today. One thing that you CAN be mad at Andrew Carnegie for doing is being a distrustful tycoon, especially early in his career. He sold off a large family fortune without telling anyone, took advantage of immature shareholders, and even printed unauthorized share certificates that paid him huge dividends. He was a snake, and one could argue that in the business that he was in, you had to be.

Others would argue that you must have your values in sight when you are an entrepreneur. Late in his life, Carnegie did. I respect Andrew Carnegie the most for his philanthropy late in life. His endowments to libraries and scientific research furthered human progress substantially.

Although I am a finance student, some of the Wall Street lingo was at times hard to comprehend, simply because it is a complicated topic. It is also a subject that has changed substantially since Andrew Carnegie's time. As corny as it sounds, if I were to ask Carnegie one question, I would ask if the money made him any happier. It must be like a drug to have all that money and power. But did it fulfill him? Did it make him any more content?

I believe Andrew Carnegie had strong feelings toward the subject of hard work. I bet he believed everyone should dust themselves off. I believe this to a certain extent. I believe you must do something that you would care about talking about. And I believe after that, it will be easy to succeed.