Andrew Carnegie Essay Research Paper Andrew CarnegieThe

Andrew Carnegie Essay, Research Paper Andrew CarnegieThe Rise of Big Business Andrew Carnegie was born in Dumferline, Scotland, in November of 1935. His parentswere Will and Margaret Carnegie. He also had a brother, Tom. The main income for thegeographic location where he grew up was weaving linen. The people who engaged in this typeof employment considered this an art since it had relatively unchanged since medieval times.Andrew’s father was one of those craftsmen. Since there had been so little change in this type ofwork, they were really caught off guard when machine production came around. For some, thisindustrialization was good. The Carnegies were lead to believe that this was the way they shouldbe headed. At first the returns were good for them, but prices and demand

fell, and they wereleft without anything. The whole looming industry was virtually gone; and with that, it was clearthat there would be no trade for Andrew to learn. They had received letters from time to time about the possibility of work in America. Afterthe looms fell through for them, they realized that they didn’t have much of a choice of what todo. So, they borrowed the money for the voyage from Scotland to New York in the hopes ofhaving a fresh start. Losing everything they had didn’t sit well with Andrew or his mother. Thefamily left in shame and determined to make it in there new environment. Upon arriving they immediately set out for work. Will found door-to-door work with aloom, Margaret with shoe binding, and Andrew found work as a bobbin boy in a local

textilemill. Andrew was a hard worker and had the ability to adapt to any type of work. He wasoffered a job as a messenger boy for a telegraph company and he jumped at the opportunity toget out of the terrible conditions of the mill. Andrew seemed to be in the right place at the righttime for his advances. He was also willing to do anything to succeed. He was working longhours and still had the drive to attend classes. With the messenger job, Carnegie not only wasable to “network” with most everyone, but he kind of knew how to manipulate or pursuedpeople; he learned how to say what people wanted to hear. Carnegie was making steps towardbecoming successful in whatever he did. From the factory to office boy, messenger, part and fulltime telegrapher, Carnegie seemed to be

destined for greatness. Because of Andrew’s abilities and understanding of the telegraph system, he was offered ajob by one of Pennsylvania Railroad’s superintendent of its western division, Tom Scott. Hehired Carnegie to be his personal telegrapher and to assist him in dispatching trains over thewestern division’s mountainous main line. Here Andrew was able to really maximize theopportunity set before him. He did public relations work, observations into how shipments weremade and received, and mastered the controlling of the division’s operations. In 1859, Scottwas promoted to vice-president and appointed Carnegie superintendent of the western division.This was Andrew’s big break. His knowledge of operations and innovative thinking pushed himto the top of his field.

From the years1859-1865, Carnegie expanded the road and increasedtraffic to an all time high. By doing this, cost per ton-mile fell. This process was his calling. Theability to lower costs. From there Carnegie learned how to make money without lifting a finger: investing. He alsolearned that it didn’t matter whose money was being used for the transactions as long as thereturn exceeded the cost. It was this type of mentality that led him into investing in sleeping cars, oil companies, and bridge companies at that time. All of these business adventures were not allsuccesses, though. The bottom line for him at this time was to invest no matter what. Carnegiealso learned that he could make money off of selling bonds and shares of stock. He had anamazing ability to understand the