America's Most Famous Rags-to-Riches Story

Good Morning,

One hundred and fifty years ago, when a 13-year-old boy stepped ashore in New York with his parents and younger brother, he had no idea that he would one day become the richest man in the world.

This is the story of Andrew Carnegie.

He was born in 1835 in Scotland. During the Depression of 1848 in Britain, his father, a weaver, decided it was best to immigrate to America and brought his family to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh.

Being poor, young Andrew had to give up any hope of schooling when he arrived, and he quickly got a job in a cotton factory for $1.20 a week.

He studied bookkeeping at night and soon took a job in the office as a clerk. He prepared himself for advancement by doing each job to the best of his ability and seizing every opportunity to take on new responsibilities.

Through trial and error, he developed a personal philosophy that led to a simple formula for success that he followed faithfully.

Quite by accident, he had stumbled onto the same formula for success that had been used by all great achievers throughout history.

Guided by this formula, he accelerated rapidly at everything he did.

At 15, he took a job as a messenger boy in the telegraph office in Pittsburgh, and two years later, he was working full-time as a telegraph operator for the railroad.

When he was 20, his father passed away, leaving him with the responsibility of providing for his mother and 12-year-old brother.

He worked even harder. The division superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad was so impressed with Carnegie that he hired him as his personal clerk and telegraph operator. When Carnegie was 24, he became the superintendent of the Pittsburgh division.

To supplement his salary, he borrowed $500 to buy stocks in businesses that he understood. First the railroad and later in steel production. He became quite successful at it.

At 33, he had an annual income of $50,000 ($1,040,000 in today's dollars) and was toying with the idea of retiring to a scholarly life. But since he was now one of the largest shareholders of the Pullman Company, and a director of the Union Pacific Railroad, he couldn't.

He saw a growing demand for steel and much room for improvement in the way steel was produced. So he started his own steel company, the Carnegie Steel Co. Using innovative methods, he improved the quality of the steel, made production more efficient, reduced costs, and watched his business expand quickly.

Because of his efforts, the United States took the lead away from Great Britain as the foremost steel producer in the world in 1890.

He was now the richest man in America, and in a few years, he would be the richest in the world.
Then, in 1901, at the age of 66, Carnegie shocked everyone when he announced that he was going to sell his holdings and devote the rest of his life to giving away every penny he had for benevolent purposes.

He sold Carnegie Steel to J. P. Morgan, who used it as the nucleus for U. S. Steel.

Then, with the same enthusiasm and determination that built his fortune, he spent the next 18 years systematically giving it all away.

Had he lost his mind? Not at all.

In 1911 he wrote: "My chief happiness lies in the thought that even after I pass away, the wealth that came to me to administer as a sacred trust for the good of my fellow men, is to continue to benefit humanity for generations untold."

It may sound cliche, but Carnegie sincerely wanted to leave the world a better place. One of his first acts was to create a pension fund for his employees. This quote from his workers expresses the common sentiment toward him:

"The interest which you have always shown in your workmen has won for you an appreciation which cannot be expressed by mere words."

Inspired by the heroic but futile rescue effort in which a former Pittsburgh mine superintendent and others lost their lives in the Harwick Mine Disaster in 1904, he set up the Hero Fund to honor and financially reward acts of non-military heroism.

He gave a lot of money to causes: to establish the first great medical research laboratory in the U.S.A. at Bellevue Hospital in New York, to the Institute for the Blind, and to Madame Curie for her radium research. He also funded Carnegie Hall.

But his two main interests were education and world peace.

Believing that people in the teaching profession were underpaid, he established The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a pension plan that looked after aging teachers.
Though he was denied an education, he knew the value of learning and was determined that everyone should have access to knowledge. His pet project became his free public libraries.
He made the following offer to communities: He would build a library for free if they agreed to stock it with books and maintain it.

Over the years that followed, he built 2,811 free public libraries. It was estimated that at their completion, 35 million people made use of his public libraries each day.

Most of his money went to build new educational institutions or fund existing ones. He created the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute of Washington, and Carnegie-Mellon University, and he assisted more than 500 others, especially the smaller, lesser-known universities and colleges.

World peace was his other passion. He created the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, with headquarters in New York City and Geneva, Switzerland, and the Peace Palace at the Hague in Holland.

Being a full-time philanthropist wasn't as easy as Carnegie thought it would be. Each day, he was flooded with 400 to 500 "begging" letters. After each announcement of some large benefaction, the number would increase to 700 a day.

For instance, when it was reported that Carnegie donated a new organ to the church his father had attended, requests for new organs poured in from all across the country.
When it was over, Carnegie answered each of their requests and donated 7,689 organs.
Contrary to common belief, he did not require or encourage institutions to bear his name.
"I find it difficult to avoid having gifts for new things called after the donors. Carnegie Hall was called by me The Music Hall. Foreign artists refused to appear in 'a music hall.' The Board changed it in my absence in Europe without consulting me."

He said he didn't want to be remembered for what he gave, but for what he persuaded others to give. By building libraries, he inspired communities to fill them with books, asking only that they inscribe the words "Let there be light" above the entrance.

It's true that he was very public with his library project, pursuit of world peace, and the advancement of education for all people. But there was another side to him that few knew. One of his most enjoyable acts of philanthropy was the millions he gave away anonymously.
During his lifetime, he gave away 90 percent of his fortune. To this day, The Carnegie Corporation, the philanthropic foundation he created, still gives away millions of dollars every year.

But there's something else that he gave away that was even more valuable. I'm sure you've heard of the saying ...

"Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. Show him how to fish, and he can eat for a lifetime."

He learned that everything we do starts in the mind as a simple thought.
Whatever you think about, you will be drawn to. Taking that a step further, whatever you think about ... will eventually come to pass.

Your thoughts become the blueprint for your life — dictating what you do and expect from life.

For instance, if you think about misfortune, you'll expect misfortune to happen. And it will.

You've probably seen it yourself. A loser will quit at the first obstacle, saying, "See! Things never go my way! Why do I even bother trying?" And if things do go right, the loser says, "It was a fluke. I never win." They lose because they expect to lose.

Winners, on the other hand, think about winning. They are successful because they think of themselves as successful.

Until next time, always be aware of your decisions that shape yur destiny!!