How to become a billionaire with only $ 100 in your pocket: Cornelius Vanderbilt

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It was this amount that his mother promised to lend to the unlucky son. True, not just like that, but for work: Cornelius had to plow and sow the most rocky plot of 8 acres on their family farm in the month that remained before his 16th birthday (this is more than 300 acres!). Legend has it that the young man succeeded, and with the money received, the future transport tycoon bought the first barge. 60 years later, sailing past his native fields on a yacht that looked like a floating palace, Vanderbilt ordered a military salute in honor of his mother. The old woman was then already 86 years old, and she was able to fully appreciate the success of her son, who is still considered one of the richest and most successful entrepreneurs in the history of the United States.

The family of the future billionaire did not live in poverty, but his father could not earn much wealth either. Dutch Americans who settled on Staten Island, near New York, worked the land and earned money by boat. Cornelius was the fourth child in the family, he was born in 1794 and gave his parents a lot of trouble with a tough and quarrelsome character. He always knew what would be best for him. So, having studied at school quite a bit, at the age of 11 he left this boring and useless, in his opinion, occupation. Learned to write - and okay. Then, however, he will regret this decision and will finish his studies all his life: mathematics, law, accounting, but so far he seriously explained to his parents that if only to study, then there will be no time to do something else, and began to help his father.

Towards the age of 16, the young man announced to his mother that he was going to enroll in the navy. She tried to bribe him with a hundred dollars, and she succeeded. The boy completed an almost impossible task and received his coveted initial capital. With this money, Vanderbilt bought an old barge and began transporting goods and passengers from Staten Island to Manhattan. The trip cost about 18 cents, but a year later the young man not only returned the debt to his mother, but also contributed a thousand dollars to the family budget.

Then things went uphill for him. Like any good businessman, Vanderbilt had the ability to turn any events in the country to his advantage. So, for example, in 1812, despite the British blockade of the New York harbor, he was transporting supplies for six American garrisons by sea and managed to get up quite well on this.

At the age of 18, Krnelius married his cousin Sophia, and he also made the right decision. The faithful wife gave birth to 13 children for all the years of their marriage and never discussed his decisions. She soon also began to help her husband in business - she ran a small port hotel "Bellona". This family was always in the right place at the right time and knew how to notice possible benefits. For example, from the small difference in the prices of goods in Staten Island and New York, Vanderbilt managed to squeeze out several thousand more dollars for his increasing capital and soon he had a small fleet of cargo and passenger ships.

Interestingly, even after achieving a lot, Vanderbilt did not suffer from pride and understood his own boundaries. At the age of 24, he decided to take up steamships, but in order to study the issue thoroughly, he went to work for another company. Leaving his own transport line to the manager, the young businessman went to work as a manager himself. So he gained experience in managing a large and developed business, made the necessary connections and spent ten years of his life on this, which replaced his studies at the university.

It was there that Vanderbilt received his first lessons in dealing with competitors. Later, he became a real master in this quiet war. The first battle for steamship transportation in the waters of New York, Cornelius won in court - the authorities recognized him right in the case against the impudent monopolists. In subsequent years, seizing more and more traffic flows under his control, Vanderbilt "did not take prisoners", but sometimes he took "compensation". For example, the Hudson River Association paid him 100 thousand dollars just a year later and promised to pay another ten years in advance just for Cornelius to leave the New York-Albany route alone, because he reduced prices on his ships to almost zero, and even called this line "People's" (by analogy with the slogans of US President Andrew Jackson). American commoners were bought with giblets, and Vanderbilt's rivals gave up very quickly.

During the time of the gold rush, as you know, it was not the gold miners themselves who showered with gold, but the dealers who supply them with goods, tools and food. Of course, Vanderbilt was also on this list, because it was he who paved the shortest route to California. True, for this he had to dig a canal between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean through the territory of Nicaragua, but the game was worth the candle, and his corporation received the status of intercontinental transportation.

By the mid-1850s, Vanderbilt had become the largest shipowner in the United States, and by the end of his life he had conquered railroad transportation, and his capital was about 100 million (more than $ 150 billion in buyers' equivalent at modern prices). Unfortunately, the descendants did not last long on this pedestal. If the son still supported the family business, then one of the grandchildren, William Kissam Vanderbilt, according to legend, receiving the inheritance, remarked: “Inherited wealth is a real obstacle to happiness … It leaves me nothing to hope for, and nothing definite, what you can strive for”.

However, the descendants of the Vanderbilts did not have to "suffer" from the fabulous wealth for long. Their passion for luxury and overpriced real estate, which coincided with the crisis in the transport business at the beginning of the 20th century, led to a real collapse. New York Centra, a company that was once the second largest railroad in the United States, had filed for bankruptcy by 1970, but by this time the family had long been bankrupt.

Another well-known family, whose name has become a household name, on the contrary, was famous for its friendly and well-coordinated work for the common good. The children and grandchildren of the Rothschilds knew no worse than the founder of the clan How to make money on crises