We’ve been building up to this point, and you’ve held on patiently to hear it, so without further intrusion from me, let’s get on with the story of how Hill’s principles, put into action, translate into historical success. This is the story of how Charles Schwab turned an after-dinner speech into one of the biggest successes of the American Industrial Revolution.
A Pretty After-Dinner Speech For A Billion Dollars
When, on the evening of December 12, 1900, some eighty of the nation’s financial nobility gathered in the banquet hail of the University Club on Fifth Avenue to do honor to a young man from out of the West, not half a dozen of the guests realized they were to witness the most significant episode in American industrial history.
Meet The Society, Mr. Schwab
“J. Edward Simmons and Charles Stewart Smith, their hearts full of gratitude for the lavish hospitality bestowed on them by Charles M. Schwab during a recent visit to Pittsburgh, had arranged the dinner to introduce the thirty-eight-year-old steel man to eastern banking society. But they didn’t expect him to stampede the convention. They warned him, in fact, that the bosoms within New York’s stuffed shirts would not be responsive to oratory, and that, if he didn’t want to bore the Stilhnans and Harrimans and Vanderbilts, he had better limit himself to fifteen or twenty minutes of polite vaporings and let it go at that.
“Even John Pierpont Morgan, sitting on the right hand of Schwab as became his imperial dignity, intended to grace the banquet table with his presence only briefly. And so far as the press and public were concerned, the whole affair was of so little moment that no mention of it found its way into print the next day.
Picking The Moment
“So the two hosts and their distinguished guests ate their way through the usual seven or eight courses. There was little conversation and what there was of it was restrained. Few of the bankers and brokers had met Schwab, whose career had flowered along the banks of the Monongahela, and none knew him well. But before the evening was over, they—and with them Money Master Morgan — were to be swept off their feet, and a billion dollar baby, the United States Steel Corporation, was to be conceived.
Billion Dollar Baby
That’s all we have time for today, and yes I’ve done it again—left you at the edge of the precipice, and teased you into coming back for the next post. Of course, if your impatience gets the best of you, you could always download Mindset Mastery and read the story for yourself. If you do, I do hope you’ll come back anyway to share your thoughts on it with us all.
Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com © 2004 – 2009
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello.
I from Turkish.
Your site is very good.
And it helps for improve my english.
Thank you for everthing.
Osmans last blog post..Sivas High School.Com Mevlit Kandilinizi Kutlar
Dear Mr. Sean Rasmussen
Greetings
Really You Are Playing a Great Role In improving our life style & living Standerds.
Literally I started to know my way out from the dilemma I was living in previously.
Accept my sincere gratitude
Hi Sean,
You always do this to us. I’m so glad I don’t have to wait too long to hear the next installment of Schwab’s story. It’s clearly a defining moment in US history and Schwab’s life.
Hi Sean, very clever writing on your part.
So there is not one post where I not learn something new (sorry, awkward english)
I will go straight to the next post ….
.-= Renee´s last blog ..Overcoming Procrastination =-.
Just noticing the earlier comments in this thread and the impact this blog has had on people from around the world. And the kindness the readers show by expressing their gratitude. A lot of hard work goes into making a blog. There’s no bigger compliment for a blogger than to have someone, across the oceans (who may be a complete stranger) express such deep gratitude for your work. It’s great to witness that here.
.-= Lina Nguyen´s last blog ..Richard Branson Business School: A day visit =-.
There goes another paradigm. I was just about to be cynical and capricious about a dinner for bankers, all bunkered down eating their 7 or 8 courses and with little conversing, all in the name of meeting another person. And then my perception cleared. All to often we just go through the motions of our dealings of the day, not really being aware of our surroundings or opportunities. Thank goodness for those persistent enough to ask us to take note, wake up, be aware and be open to new concepts.
.-= Jo Carey-Bradshaw´s last blog ..Empowering Mindset – Mastering Self =-.
I don’t know how many times I have read this page in TAGR and just skipped over the name Monongahela, but now that I read this online I can Google it and find out more about where Schwab operated his business from. So I now know that Pittsburgh, “The Steel City”, is at the junction of Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, tributary to the great Ohio river that feeds into the Mississippi.
.-= Wal Heinrich´s last blog ..Think And Grow Rich Mindset Mastery =-.