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What do you need to know about business greats

by: Mansi gupta

Great men are born once in a while. Men are great not because they are born with some attribute of greatness but their deeds make them great and remarkable individuals in history. Such people thus are not born overnight it takes one’s whole lifetime to achieve that success and fame that one only dreamt of. The article throws light on some of the great men who brought revolution in the business world. Their achievements not just brought tremendous credit to their name but are largely beneficial to the multitude.

• The Tobacco Industrialist Washington Duke (1820-1905)- the personal life of this farmer from North Carolina was a sad story for both his wife and son died of the same disease. Adding to the disaster, his cotton crop too failed at the same time. Btu Duke did not let this stop himself from proceeding in life. His life was full of struggle he even became a prisoner of war during the Civil War. Finally the big break that changed his entire life came when he manufactured the popular product ‘tobacco’. The Union Army that was staying in the North Carolina had a great liking for tobacco. Duke’s manufactured tobacco which came to be known as ‘Pro Bono Publico’ was a brilliant sensation that won the heart of all the tobacco lovers very soon. Later Duke also manufactures cigarettes under the name of his company W. Duke, Sons and Company which too was a big hit.

• The inventor of the reaper Cyrus McCormick (1809-1884) has his own place in the B-world. McCormick was the son of a blacksmith who had influenced and helped the people of Shenandoah Valley with his exuberant skill in making agricultural devices. The father made the reaping machine that the son modified extremely and took it to places. The McCormick’s designed inventor was a huge success at his birth place and even when he went abroad. McCormick went to Chicago in 1847 where he opened a factory named the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The factory scaled new heights despite massive competition. McCormick’s device that he had invented and built drastically shrunk the labor and time required to produce grain. Where in 1830 it used to take 20 hours to harvest an acre of wheat, it took just one hour to do so in 1895…all thanks to the great mind behind it- McCormick.

• The industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) needs no introduction in the business market. He was a man who had strived hard against poverty during his childhood. He worked as a bobbin boy and as a telegrapher and also as a superintendent for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His petite savings that hye invested in oil, iron and steel during the Civil War fetched him a turning point in his life. in 1880 Carnegie had brought a lot of companies under the Carnegie Steel Company. By 1990 this company produced a fourth of all the steel in United States. Known to be one of the richest men of the world then, Carnegie believed that rich men act as trustees to their wealth and they must administer it in the favor of the public.

• Thomas Edison (1847-1931) perhaps is unknown to none and has his own coveted place in the history. Edison was the man who had about 1100 inventions in his name that have unbeatable use in the world today and then. The man who spent few hours in school, worked as a railroad newsboy was the first to start of a publication typeset and printed on a moving train. The other inventions added to his list are an electronic vote recorder in 1868, quadruplex telegraph in 1874, phonograph, light bulb and a Dictaphone to name a few. But many of these were mere improvements on what a team or so had manufactured and at times he helped others in creating devices. For instance the Dictaphone, working motion picture system that synchronized pictures with sound and the stock ticker were prepared by others under the help and guidance of Edison. He also formed a company that later became General Electric.

• Apart from these the glorious men like George Eastman, Henry Ford, Madam C.J Walker, Joseph Pulitzer and many others have made significant contributions that has greatly helped mankind every now and then

About the author:
Mansi gupta writes about business greats .Learn more at .

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