My Summer with Rockefeller: 5 Lessons from Reading and Listening to Titan
This summer, I spent countless hours with America's first billionaire. Here's what I learned about business, life, and the deceptive power of simplicity from John D. Rockefeller.
This summer, John D. Rockefeller became my constant companion. As I crisscrossed America’s heartland, from Indiana down to St. Louis, up to Boston, and through Kentucky, his story played through my car speakers and rested on my dashboard, a tome as weighty as the legacy it chronicled.
Somewhere between Indianapolis and St. Louis, I pulled into an ExxonMobil station, one of Standard Oil’s many descendants. Standing there, watching the numbers tick up on the pump, I couldn’t help but smile at the irony: here I was, reading about the birth of the American oil industry while filling up at one of its modern outposts. These stations dotted my journey like breadcrumbs of Rockefeller’s legacy, each one a reminder of how deeply his influence still runs through American life.
But it wasn’t just the gas stations. Every city held echoes of his impact: hospitals that grew from his philanthropy, universities shaped by his giving, research institutions born from his vision. Even as I flipped on the Today Show and saw Rockefeller Plaza, I found myself looking up at his modern footprint on our world with new eyes.
Over those miles and months, Titan by Ron Chernow became the soundtrack of my summer. Through Chernow’s masterful telling, I discovered a man far more complex than the cartoonish robber baron of popular imagination. Here was someone neither purely villain nor saint, but fascinatingly, frustratingly human. In his story, I found wisdom that feels surprisingly relevant to our modern world.
These are five of my favorite insights from my summer with Rockefeller — lessons that stuck with me long after the last page was turned and the final mile was driven.
“One of Rockefeller’s strengths in bargaining situations was that he figured out what he wanted and what the other party wanted and then crafted mutually advantageous terms. Instead of ruining the railroads, Rockefeller tried to help them prosper, albeit in a way that fortified his own position.”
In an age of complex negotiation frameworks and multi-step deal-making strategies, Rockefeller’s approach feels almost radical in its simplicity: figure out what both parties want, then find a way to deliver it. That’s it. No 4D chess, no elaborate mind games, just clear-eyed focus on mutual benefit.
What makes this insight so powerful is how it cuts through the noise of modern negotiation theory. We often overcomplicate deals, getting lost in layers of strategy and counter-strategy. Should we anchor high? Play hard to get? What’s our BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement)? While these considerations have their place, Rockefeller’s approach reminds us that at its core, successful negotiation is about something far simpler: understanding and delivering value to all parties involved.
The genius lies in how this approach simultaneously served both sides while strengthening his own position. Rather than viewing negotiation as a zero-sum game where one party must lose for the other to win, Rockefeller saw it as an opportunity to create lasting partnerships.
“To explain his extraordinary longevity, he later said, doubtless overstating the matter, ‘I’m here because I shirked: did less work, lived more in the open air, enjoyed the open air, sunshine and exercise.’”
There’s something wonderfully ironic about history’s greatest industrialist admitting he “shirked” work to spend time outdoors. Here was a man who built the largest business empire of his era, yet he credits his longevity not to relentless grinding, but to fresh air and exercise.
In our age of hustle culture, where working yourself to exhaustion is often celebrated as a badge of honor, Rockefeller’s wisdom feels both refreshing and rebellious. If the man who created Standard Oil could make time for walks and outdoor exercise, surely we can step away from our screens for a moment of sunshine.
What’s particularly striking is how he frames it. He almost apologetically notes that he’s “doubtless overstating the matter.” But was he? Rockefeller lived to be 97 years old, remaining sharp, active, and funny well into his later years. His approach wasn’t complicated: no data-driven workout programs or optimized fitness routines, just consistent movement in the open air. He found his joy in long walks and rounds of golf.
The lesson? Find your thing and just do it. You don’t need an elaborate fitness plan or expensive gym membership. Take a walk during lunch, squeeze in a quick run, or hit the local gym. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you get moving and away from your desk. After all, if America’s greatest industrialist could make time for fresh air and exercise, what’s stopping us?
“As someone who tended toward optimism, ‘seeing opportunity in every disaster,’ he studied the situation exhaustively instead of bemoaning his bad luck.”
In our era of relentless positivity and “good vibes only” messaging, it’s easy to misread Rockefeller’s optimism as simple positive thinking. But look closer at this quote, and you’ll find something far more nuanced: optimism paired with exhaustive study.
Rockefeller didn’t blindly believe things would work out. He put in the work to understand exactly how they could. Starting from humble beginnings, he knew that seeing opportunity where others saw disaster was only half the equation. The other half was rolling up his sleeves and studying those situations thoroughly enough to turn that optimism into action.
This combination of positive outlook and rigorous analysis created a powerful framework for problem-solving. It wasn’t enough to say, “Something good will come of this.” Instead, his approach was “something good will come of this, and I’m going to figure out exactly what it is.”
It’s a reminder that true optimism is about doing the work to make the best possible.
“Rockefeller attributed much of his success to his quick head for figures.”
Oh, you want to talk about your perfect brand typography? Your viral TikTok strategy? The cutting-edge AI implementation that’s definitely going to revolutionize everything? (Eye roll). While everyone else was caught up in the excitement and glamour of the oil boom, Rockefeller was doing something far less sexy but infinitely more powerful: he was counting.
His legendary “quick head for figures” wasn’t about him drilling multiplication tables for fun. It was about understanding that beneath all the hype and potential, numbers tell the true story of any business. While competitors were dazzled by visions of unlimited growth, Rockefeller stayed grounded in the cold, hard reality of costs, margins, and bottom lines.
For modern business leaders, especially in creative fields like marketing, this lesson is crucial. Yes, creativity matters. Innovation matters. But at the end of the day, the numbers determine whether you sink or swim. You can’t hide from them, so you might as well embrace them. Learn them. Master them. Because understanding your numbers will put you in a position your competitors can only dream about.
“Do not many of us who fail to achieve big things … fail because we lack concentration—the art of concentrating the mind on the thing to be done at the proper time and to the exclusion of everything else?”
In an age of endless notifications, shiny new tools, and constant “game-changing” innovations (again, eye roll), Rockefeller’s words on concentration hit differently. While we hop from trend to trend, chasing the next big thing, his success came from something deceptively simple: relentless focus over decades.
Anyone can concentrate for a day. Some can maintain focus for a week or even a month. But Rockefeller’s genius was in sustaining that concentration year after year, decade after decade. He didn’t get distracted by every new innovation or industry fad. He understood his business deeply and stayed focused on what mattered.
This lesson feels more valuable than ever. In a world where attention is increasingly fragmented, the ability to focus deeply for extended periods has become a superpower. While others dart from opportunity to opportunity, those who can maintain concentration on a single mission for years will see compound returns that others can only dream about.
Choose what matters and stick with it for the long haul. It’s so easy, it’s difficult. In that light, maybe the greatest business advantage isn’t speed or innovation, but the simple ability to focus deeply and consistently.
More Than Just Buildings and Institutions
As I finished my summer with Rockefeller, I realized these lessons are as much a part of his legacy as the institutions that bear his name. Yes, we can walk through Rockefeller Plaza, fill up at ExxonMobil stations, and benefit from the medical research his philanthropy made possible.
But perhaps his most valuable inheritance is this set of principles: the art of mutual benefit in negotiations, the wisdom of balancing work with life, the power of studied optimism, the importance of knowing your numbers, and the transformative impact of sustained focus.
Beyond the mythology and flaws that colored his legacy, Rockefeller was above all else a pragmatic problem-solver who discovered fundamental truths about success. In an era where we’re drowning in information but starving for wisdom, these battle-tested insights feel more valuable than ever. They remind us that the fundamentals - focus, balance, optimism, mutual benefit, and knowing your numbers - aren’t historical curiosities or platitudes built from survivorship bias. They’re the timeless principles that separate enduring success from fleeting achievement.