Wednesday, July 21, 2010

crisis or hardship - it's the best crucible to ..

Context:
I heard few comments on Michel Jackson, saying he was innocent and was vilified; many think it’s all due to his bad childhood. I have nothing for or against him. But I wanted to share on two people’s lives, which had terrible adulthood and childhood . This is not so that you may imitate them, but just for your info; sometimes some info gives us new perspectives.

Andy Grove – Intel ex-CEO


Born into Jewish family – survived near death experience from scarlet fever - hearing loss – hunted by Hitler– Father “disappeared” – Mother raped by Soviets – hunted by Soviets and communists - He had lived 20 years under murderous oppression, surviving by always remaining alert to the possibility that even a simple attempt to purchase a loaf of bread could cause him to disappear along with many other young Hungarians - immigrated from Austria to the United States with the help of International Rescue Committee – taught English himself – few more yrs in college – worked in Fairchild – joined Intel as 3rd employee – Became CEO in 1987 – Saved Intel from near death by Japanese competition – Pushed Intel into microprocessors from memory chips – Intel Market cap grew from $4billion to $197billion during his tenure- Though with several 100 millions of wealth, He lived modestly, eschewing many of the trappings of great wealth and power.


What if there was no Hitler or Soviets or Grove was born in a peaceful country? He would have been a local journalist or a chemistry professor.

John. D. Rockefeller - Standard Oil Co

Father was a philanderer & absentee- Cheats even his children - Fathers comment "I cheat my boys every chance I get. I want to make ‘em sharp." - Mother struggles to raise children - she taught her sons that "willful waste makes woeful want" - he did his share of the regular household chores, and earned extra money raising turkeys, selling potatoes and candy - @16 age got his first job - from his first pay started giving 6% - 10% for charity - started doing business with small savings - slowly moved into oil industry, borrowed & reinvested - Formed Standard Oil Co - ruthless businessman - Controlled 80-90% of oil refining of the world. Wealth was close to 1 billion $ in 1911 – yet was a faithful church attendee, taught Sunday school, and was a church trustee, clerk, and occasional janitor - Later Standard Oil was split into multiple companies by govt, since it became a monopoly – After the split each company became big on its own - Today the child companies are worth trillions of dollars(Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Conoco, part of BP etc) - his own wealth would have been 400billion$ in today’s dollar value, 8 times that of Bill Gates. – He gave away most of his wealth to charities, missions, and foundations. Wikipedia

this is one forward mail, which made me to think for a ling time, sharing it here in my blog...thanks to the sender of that mail.