Are You Rockin' The Rockefeller Habits?

You can learn plenty from the one-time richest man in the world!

Gotta start with a reminder that there are 5 days left to subscribe to (or upgrade to) our premium edition at the current rate of $100/year. On May 1, the price will increase to $250/year…still a superb value in my opinion but why not save a few bucks while you can? So click the button below now and save!

Before we jump in, a word of warning. As many of you know, Shanghai has essentially been shut down for weeks now in China’s attempt to reach zero Covid cases. This includes their port and airport, creating a huge backlog of freight.

Per Freightwaves.com: “Shanghai is one of the largest manufacturing centers in China, with heavy concentrations of automotive and electronics suppliers. It is home to the largest container port in the world and a major airport that serves inbound and outbound air cargo. Exports produced in Shanghai account for 7.2% of China’s total volume and about 20% of China’s export container throughput moves through the port there, according to the BBVA report. Most warehouses and plants are closed, nine out of 10 trucks are sidelined, the port and airport have limited function, shipping units are stranded in the wrong places, and freight is piling up.”

The concern is once shipping opens up, these backlogs will create unprecedented demand for containers, ships, and ultimately receiving in the U.S., potentially overwhelming capacity. The result could be major increases in both lead times and freight costs. Plan accordingly as the impact, according to some, may be worse than what we experienced in 2021.

---

Sponsored Content

---

Business practices have evolved dramatically over the years and continue to do so at a rate possibly never seen before. So why in the world should we pay attention to “habits” (tactics and theories) developed and used by a guy who was born in 1839? That’s not a typo, 1839!

Well, let’s begin by touching on the life and accomplishments of John D. Rockefeller.

Per Philanthropy Roundtable: “After starting life in humble circumstances, John Rockefeller came to dominate the burgeoning petroleum industry by the time he was 40 years old. He became the richest man of his time, and indeed has a good claim to perhaps being the richest self-made man who ever lived. At its peak, Rockefeller’s net worth was around 1.5 percent of the country’s total annual economic output—the equivalent of about $280 billion today, or about three times the wealth controlled by Bill Gates.

He was equally distinguished as a philanthropist. A natural businessman with a strong moral sense and intense religious convictions, he dedicated unprecedented resources to charity. Within his lifetime, Rockefeller helped launch the field of biomedical research, funding scientific investigations that resulted in vaccines for things like meningitis and yellow fever. He revolutionized medical training in the United States, and built China’s first proper medical school. He championed the cause of public sanitation, creating schools of public health at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, and helped lead major international public-health efforts against hookworm, malaria, yellow fever, and other maladies. He vigorously promoted the cause of education nationwide, without distinction of sex, race, or creed. He created the University of Chicago, virtually from scratch, and within a decade turned it into one of the world’s leading universities.”

Pretty impressive. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil dominated both the industrial and philanthropic landscapes of the modern era. He was the first billionaire ever, considered by many to be the richest person in history (sorry Elon, Jeff, and Warren), and was self-made (his father was a traveling salesman). In the 1870’s, Standard Oil held close to a 90% share of the oil refining industry in the U.S.

Not a bad resume and worth a bit of focus as to how he achieved such impressive results. Enter The Rockefeller Habits. Enter author Verne Harnish, who published his book “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” in 2002. Harish did a deep dive on 10 habits which were embraced by Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller as he grew his business. The book became a bestseller and The Rockefeller Habits evolved into a set of growth habits embraced by fast-growth companies. Let’s jump into an overview The Rockefeller Habits:

Three pillars of the habits

As you read through The Rockefeller Habits, you will see they all revolve around three distinct pillars: