Cornelius Vanderbilt An Entrepreneur

Cornelius Vanderbilt is one of the five tycoons of America. He was able to use both wit and his entrepreneurial skills in order to create a very successful career and legacy.

Starting off from the very beginning, young Vanderbilt was able to start his own business. At the age of sixteen, Vanderbilt decided to start his own ferry service with the loan he received by working through his Mother. With the one hundred he was able to obtain, by clearing and planting eight-acre field, Vanderbilt purchased two small vessels and carried freight and passengers from Manhattan to Staten Island. By being able to utilize his own earnings in order to start up a business for a chance to make an even more of a profit, Vanderbilt was in a road to become a successful entrepreneur. Vanderbilt successfully was able to return his mother’s loan with an additional $1,000 or roughly $25,000 today. This action proves that even at the very start, Vanderbilt proved to be reliable and efficient. He even prospered at the age of 18 during the War of 1812. He realized that there was an opportunity for expansion and thus, he received a contract to supply for the forts all around New York. By doing so, he was then able to build more vessels for more trade. By the end of the war, Vanderbilt was able to establish himself and gain the trust of many. People found him to be hardworking and reliable, just what a business needs in order to thrive.

Soon afterwards, Vanderbilt found the opportunity to work under Thomas Gibbons as a ferry captain and soon became his business manager. Vanderbilt sought out an opportunity to also keep his own business running by implementing his own hotels along the ferry route. However pretty soon, there was competition with a monopoly. L...

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...through their country. Vanderbilt wanted this business to be so successful that he went on his own and tested the route, placed a steamboat on the Nicuarguan Lake, built roads, ports, and cleared the route. Going back to Vanderbilt’s usual business tactics, he dropped the fare from $600 to $400 to $150 so that his competitors can disappear. Due to that two companies were on subsidy and were only allowed to carry mail. Vanderbilt even wanted to carry the mail for free to eliminate any type of competition. However, due to William Walker and others, Vanderbilt lost control of his company but soon began to use another route, the panama route, and soon got back the Nicaraguan interest. Seeing that it was futile to demolish Vanderbilt’s company, the rivals paid $627,000 or $15-16 million today a year to stop Vanderbilt from operating ships to California and back.