Andrew Carnegie: Philanthropy, Steel, and Success

America gained an influential philanthropist and businessman when Andrew Carnegie rose to success through his steel company. Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), was a Scottish immigrant who emigrated to the United States after his father found it hard to find work. After settling near Lake Erie, Carnegie regretted not having an education but took advantage of a personal library that provided access to any boys working there. Carnegie worked his way up through many positions such as a telegraph messenger, personal secretary, and head of the Pittsburgh division to become a successful steel company businessman. Was Andrew Carnegie: The Father of Vertical Integration, a hero? A hero is someone who has financial success, intelligence, and concern for others.

Carnegie thrived in business when he took his own advice throughout many situations in his life. Harold C. Livesay in Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business, comments on how Carnegie was always on his toes when it came to his steel business and when it came to competition. Livesay also mentions how Carnegie gave Doubleday advice in leaving a poorly ran company. (Doc. 3). Carnegie was a role model to other businessmen. He paid well attention to his costs and earnings, also growing competitive as business competition stiffened. In addition to his competition, Carnegie bought out his competition and provided jobs for many workers. In Document 5, Carnegie’s business technique of Vertical Integration portrays Carnegie’s properties starting from raw material to manufacturing. Carnegie’s many properties depicted him out as a very successful man and attracted envy from other businessmen. This evidence helps explain why Andrew Carnegie was a hero because Carnegie’s role modeling and advice helped other businessmen take care of their properties better and may have granted them to be financially prospered as well. Andrew Carnegie can be connected to the intelligence trait because his own advice allowed him to change America’s industrial life and allowed him to be

Financial success, intelligence, and concern for others are some traits that make Andrew Carnegie a unique hero. Although Andrew Carnegie later on lost public support on his ideas, his appearence of a “hero” to Americans remains because of his impact in “improving the humankind”. Andrew Carnegie and heroism are important today because of his selfless humanity towards the world and business