What surprised me the most?
Carnegie was a hard worker when he started off, obviously most people that are successful are hard working, but I expected him to have family help, or just be straight up lucky.
What did I most admire?
I admired Carnegie's work ethic and mindset of growth and advancement. During the course of his young years, he was always working hard to get promoted as his job as a telegraph messenger boy, and this help set him up for success in the rail road business.
What did I least admire?
In his day and age dealing with strikes with brute force is how it was done. But obviously with his strong character, and once being in his own factory workers shoes, I feel like he could have dealt with the Homestead strike better rather than causing bloodshed.
- The competencies that I noticed that Carnegie exhibited was relentless dedication and a very strong work ethic.
- One part of the reading that was confusing to me was the Johnstown flood. If Carnegie was the man of integrity he obviously was why didn't he say something about the structure of the dam? He obviously knew there was something up with it and should have done something about it.
- If I was able to ask him 2 questions I would ask him:
- Did your success in any way contribute to your overall happiness in a good way?
- I would ask this because I feel like a lot of people who work all the time and I wonder if Carnegie enjoyed his work, or if in the end he got tired of it.
- If you were alive today and could see the legacy you have left behind would you be happy with it?
- I would ask him this because I'm curious on how he would want to be remembered and if he would be happy with how the world views him today.
- I think Carnegie's opinion of hard work was that it was necessary for success. He was an immigrant and is a major example of the rags to riches story of the American dream. He went from a poor child laborer from the riches person in the entire United States. Going from that low to that high requires a tremendous amount of hard work, and I'm sure he would preach that.
Greetings Ethan, I became aware of Andrew Carnegie in the 11th grade and was so surprised at all the things that he’d accomplished. I completed my reflection on Mary Kay Ash and I see similar characteristics that both of these entrepreneurs shared. Overall, I believe that you did a splendid job summarizing the life of Carnegie and including details that you deemed as important.
ReplyDeleteHey Ethan, I found this post very interesting because I did not have much knowledge of what his historical significance was. I really felt like I learned so much about him just from reading your post.I really like how you told his story of the "boy born from nothing made something big" story. These stories are always great to hear, because they serve as as source of inspiration to keep up us going in today's world.
ReplyDeleteHey Ethan,
ReplyDeleteThe two things that stood out to me in your blog was the work ethic of Carnegie and your question, “Did your success in any way contribute to your overall happiness in a good way?” As for the work ethic part, reading about all of these great entrepreneurs, they pretty much all have that relentless desire for greatness accompanied with an unmatchable work ethic. Ad for your question, I enjoyed this because many time people who are successful do not carry out happy and joyful lives no matter how much money they have.