The American business magnates of the nineteenth century—the so-called robber barons—were fond of grand pronouncements.
Some of their famous quotes sound like the words of exploitative tycoons, like the time railroad developer Jay Gould (b. 1836) supposedly claimed he could “hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.”
Yet some of the words of early industrialists seem downright wise, even for CEOs running a business in the twenty-first century. Though nebulous “knowledge work” has largely supplanted the industrial operations of these men, here are seven slices of wisdom from their bygone era that still ring true.
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1. “Statistics are no substitute for judgment.” —Henry Clay Frick (b. 1849)
Steel magnate Frick said this over one hundred years ago, back when there were a lot fewer statistics than there are today. In the data tsunami confronting modern business leaders, his words are truer than ever: we can’t let abundance of data points replace informed insight and judgment.2. “A man to carry on a successful business must have imagination. He must see things as in a vision, a dream of the whole thing.” —Charles M. Schwab (b. 1862)
Update “man” to “person” and you have another observation (also from a famous steel magnate) that’s utterly relevant to business today: a company’s leader has to own the vision.3. “The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to where he wants to go.” —J. P. Morgan (b. 1837)
Morgan’s quote—though perhaps a little stilted—hits upon a timeless truth about achievement: vision isn’t enough. You have to draw a map of how to get there, even if the map has to change as time goes on. It’s equally true for individual achievements and corporate objectives.
4. “An ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory.” —John Jacob Astor (b. 1763)
The United States’ first multimillionaire would have agreed with Morgan’s quote above. Thinking, planning, and strategizing are all important parts of the CEO role, but if you don’t help your team put it into practice, all that theorizing does little good.
5. “Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.” —John D. Rockefeller (b. 1839)
Still true today. The CEO is ultimately responsible for everything, even the things he or she can’t control.
6. “No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.” —Andrew Carnegie (b. 1835)
Then and now, the buck does stop with the CEO, as Rockefeller said, but he or she can’t take all the credit. Getting the right team in place and acknowledging their contributions is a requirement for success.
7. “I have always looked after the little things of my business; weightier matters will take care of themselves.” —Collis Potter Huntington (b. 1821)
The big stuff—like vision and strategy—must be handled, but Huntington, who helped build the first transcontinental railroad, rightly notes that the details matter, too.
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