John D. Rockefeller

The co-founder of Standard Oil, Rockefeller bought out his Cleveland refining company business partner in 1865, and turned the company into the dominant force of the oil industry in its formative period. A remote, solitary genius of management and organization by age 26, Rockefeller was intent on achieving "something big." He played what he called "the Great Game" of making money with gusto, buying tank cars, boats, and warehouses that insulated him from market volatility and improved his competitive position. He had a head for figures, and this, combined with rare vision for where he wanted to go and a ruthless willingness to use Standard Oil's overwhelming wealth, gave competitors "a good sweating." State and federal legislators and courts took interest in his business practices, and in 1911 the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the Standard Oil Trust. Rockefeller officially retired, but his ill-conceived retention of the presidency...