What I learned from reading John D: The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke.
To Rockefeller, business resembled a form of war.
It seemed natural for him to open a letter with the words, I'm in the midst of a hard battle today.
He transmitted messages and code and secrecy covered all of his operations.
That's all too true, he admitted, but I wonder what general ever sends out a brass band in advance with orders to notify the enemy that on a certain day he will begin an attack, he said.
Rockefeller, the field marshal, laid down strategy and relied on his general staff to carry it out.
When tactics for a battle had been set, orders went out to, quote, fight it out.
On this line, it surprised none who knew him well that in old age Rockefeller compared himself to Napoleon.
The revelation came while vacationing in France, not far from a spot where Napoleon had won a great victory.
A casual remark from a companion led to an extraordinary soliloquy, Rockefeller's longest on record.
This is what he said.
It is hard to imagine Napoleon as a businessman, but I have thought that if he had applied himself to commerce, he would have been the greatest businessman the world has ever known.
My, what a genius for organization.
He also had what I always regarded as a prime necessity for large success in any enterprise.
That is a thoughtful understanding of men and ability to inspire in them confidence in him and confidence in themselves.
See the men he picked as marshals and the heights to which they rose under his inspiration and leadership.
It is by such traits as these that men get the work of the world done.
It is all a battlefield.
Napoleon, without the able marshals that he had about him, would not have been the master of his age.
He went into a battle with the knowledge that his marshals could be dependent on that in a given situation, they could be relied upon to do the necessary thing.
Their devotion to him coupled with their enthusiasm, that's another great attribute.