Andrew Carnegie

2 Pages 493 Words

The Gilded Age and Andrew Carnegie

The Gilded age was a time of industrialization, a time where certain entrepreneurs became filthy rich. For the first time Americans had sewing machines, phonographs, skyscrapers, and even electric lights, yet most people labored in the shadow of poverty .Andrew Carnegie was and is still considered one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all times. He is the equivalent of today’s Bill Gates. Although he was known for making ruthless business trades he built an empire so strong, it made him the richest person in the World.

Carnegie was born in Dunfermline Scotland in 1835. His father was a handloom weaver and decided to move his family to the United States in 1848 to join his other relatives that had already settled in Pittsburg . Things weren’t always easy for young Andrew. Like all Entrepreneurs Carnegie started off working in a cotton mill as a bobbin boy then worked his way up to telegrapher. It wasn’t long before Carnegie moved up again, this time he worked as Thomas Scott’s first assistant to the Pennsylvania Railroad . Carnegie eventually became superintendent of the Pennsylvania railroad in 1859 . For the next six years he worked on improving the railroad systems. It wasn’t until 1865 when Carnegie resigned from the Pennsylvania railroad system in order to concentrate on some of his personal investments with the steel industry.

At this point Carnegie realized America’s need for Steel and jumped at the opportunity. In 1865 he founded the Keystone Bridge, Co which made iron and steel . This made Carnegie a very wealthy man. I think the jump he made from the Railroads to the steel industry was the most influential part of his entire life. It is said that Carnegies success in the steel industry primarily came because surround himself with smart men, he invested in new equipment, and he owned most of his stock so he didn’t have to answer to anyone buy himself . By 1900 Carnegi...