Tycoon Profiles
Business lessons and insights from billionaires and tycoons.
David Nasaw Talks About Andrew Carnegie
The Men Who Built America: Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie’s biographer David Nasaw appears throughout The Men Who Built America series to comment on his subject and times. By all accounts, his work Andrew Carnegie is the best biography of the diminutive Scotsman to date. In this 30 minute video Nasaw is interviewed by another prof about the book and Carnegie. If you have any interest in the tycoon invest the time to watch it as it’s well worth it. The two most interesting parts for me were the explanation of what fueled the man’s immense ambition and what his thoughts would have been on the recent “You didn’t build that” tempest in a teapot during the final months of the 2012 election here in the USA.
Go watch it. I am going to grab a copy of the book as well.
History Channel’s The Men Who Built America: Additional Reading
I have received a number of emails asking for book recommendations for people who are interested in learning more about these men. While biographies are one of my favorite genres I must confess that many of the 900-1000 page books I have manged to work my way through are very dry reading and take a serious commitment to finish. Quite surprisingly, many don’t even have any actionable lessons that the reader can implement in his or her own business.
However, there is one book I can recommend for anyone interested in learning more about these tycoons and how they grew their business empires from nothing. The book is also quite an enjoyable read, relatively speaking, because it does offer some insights into their tactics, strategies, and tricks.
History Channel’s The Men Who Built America
I have a few minor quibbles with this otherwise excellent series on the growth strategies of America’s greatest tycoons.
Space Aliens on the History Channel
So far I have seen the first three episodes and will most definitely catch the fourth when it airs next week. This series indicates a possible change in direction for the History Channel. If it truly is returning to serious history, then I welcome the move. All the emphasis of recent years on space aliens was a turn off for me.
My only real criticism of the show is the way they shoe-horned so many celebrities into the first episode for quick sound-bytes. Couldn’t Donald Trump use a rest by now? I would certainly hope so. To be clear, I enjoy hearing from the historians and biographers of Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt as they have interesting insights to add. In contrast, I was rather shocked to see Carly Fiorina, one of the very worst CEOs in history, appear for a couple of soundbites in the third episode. This is the woman who single-handedly destroyed a great American company and Silicon Valley icon. I refer to Hewlett-Packard, of course.
History Channel’s The Men Who Built America
This looks like it’s going to be a great series. On Tuesday October 16 the History Channel premieres The Men Who Built America. It’s a series about the great tycoons of the 19th century: Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Morgan, and more. It will use actors to dramatize events. I look forward to it.
I also recommend the western series Hell on Wheels for anyone interested in this period because one of the key characters in it is the man who built the eastern half of the transcontinental railroad, Thomas ‘Doc’ Durant. For anyone interested in reading about these characters, I recommend The Robber Barons.
John Malone Overtakes Ted Turner as America’s Largest individual Land Owner
Both of these men are on my list of top tycoons to study. Both competed and collaborated for decades in the cable-TV industry where they did deals both big and small. Malone is typical of the men covered in The Tycoon Playbook. They all had the patience and discipline to start off small and build an empire one step at a time. Malone earned a Ph.D. in operations research from Johns Hopkins in the late 1960s and then joined General Instruments Corp., which was part of the cable-TV industry. After quickly becoming dissatisfied with the company’s management he took a major gamble by quitting and moving to Denver where he accepted a 50% pay cut for the privilege of working for a startup teetering on bankruptcy owned by a Bob Magness. The company was Tele-Communications Inc., which later was renamed TCI.
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