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"Success is the greatest test of character.
Select the link below or the image above to read the entire article.
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After reading and reviewing "The Life of Andrew Carnegie," a magnificent biography of the industrialist and philanthropist by Burton J. Hendrick and the "Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie" edited by John C. Van Dyke, it seemed appropriate to set up a home page for these reviews and other works by "Andy."
Even as his words have become more electronically accessible with the modern-day internet, his thoughts are the internet's equivalent of little-referenced manuscripts gathering dust on a bookshelf. Unfortunately, his talent, business skills, and humanity are less in vogue with today's chief executive officers. We need to blow the dust off these old biographies, books and publications. If you care to learn more, select the image above or one of the links provided below. Cheers, - Peter E. With the troubles LinkedIn is having in China and Russia, this post seems ever more relevant to make the company more germane, at least, here in the United States. In 2021, I left LinkedIn. The feedback that I was getting on my articles was "muted." By this I mean that too many individuals had come to realize that LinkedIn--as a social media platform--will not necessarily get you a job, but it sure can keep you from getting one: just the "like" of an article may come back to haunt you in a job search.
LinkedIn needs to provide its users, not with a “cloak of secrecy,” but a “veil of protection” to encourage honest, intelligent feedback on matters that should be of a real concern to the economic welfare of our country. This is why, and a suggestion of how it might work.
In 1950, B. C. Forbes published the first of what would ultimately become over two decades a three-volume set of quotes, epilogues and statements on “The Business of Life.” Initially, I started to list some of my favorite quotes from Volume I, but a question came to mind: What was the overall impression—the big picture—of all the quotes in this first volume? What was on the mind of these early industrialists, philosophers, and business founders (and B. C. Forbes) when these short business-life idioms were written, collected and published?
Subject from the "Subject Index" and Number of Mentions
A footnote: Consider that each subject may be more expansive than what is listed here. For instance, the category “Action” does not include “Act, Actions, Deeds, or Doing.” Neither does the category “God” include subjects such as “Faith, Religion or the Golden Rule.” Also, little effort has been made to count the exact number of mentions in the index. These were cut/paste into a Word document and the number of words then extracted. The actual count may be off by one or two—forgive me as this was a trade-off on my part between accuracy and effort. Maybe, if I were a university professor who could put a graduate understudy to work on it, eh?
In January 1926, A. W. Shaw published in System: The Magazine of Business this survey. It is an amazing look inside the minds of some of America's greatest industrialists.
If we do this, maybe our twenty-first century chief executives will once again—like their twentieth-century counterparts, learn to measure success by ideals and not by dollars and cents.
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Peter E. GreulichPete has been studying IBM and early American corporate history since his retirement in 2011. These are his thoughts and musings, and of those whose biographies he has read with links to articles and book reviews on this website. Archives
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