TO: Paul Welch, Vice President of Research

FROM: Colten Harris, Jackson Wallace,
Easton Heigley, Daniel Gift

DATE: March 10, 2015

SUBJECT: America’s Wealthy

Introduction Since America’s conception, new pioneers have walked this country not with a goal to finish a map like Lewis and Clark, but to strive for “The American Dream” and never settle for less than absolute success. Each man researched is from a different time period, with different circumstances surrounding them. With different presidents, different rules and regulations, even with different life expectancies. However, all men had one dream, to make America a better place. From oil pipelines to windows operating systems, these men truly did create things that changed the lives of all Americans for the better. They are the unspoken heroes. Not of war or battle, but of ingenuity, hard work and of sound mind. These are America’s Wealthy.
Findings
John D Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1836. He began with humble beginnings and is a perfect definition of a rags to riches dream that many Americans that try to live by. His life at home was somewhat shaky. His father was never at home very much because he was a traveling salesmen who sold elixirs. In his early teens his family moved to a suburb of Cleveland, there he took a 10 week business course that would help him later in his life as the richest man in America. His first job was with a bookkeeper at a commission firm. He excelled at keeping track of transportation cost. His first salary was $50, but he wanted more much more, he said that he wanted to make $100,000 and live for 100 years.

Rockefeller opened his first oil refinery in 1870, and called it the world renowned Standard Oil Company. He eventually started a monopoly that cut out the middle man by having it sent on rail cars and wagons that took it to the local markets, this cut the cost by about 80%. Kerosene was used for at the time over 300 products from Vaseline to chewing gum. By the end of the 1870s Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company controlled 90% of all the kerosene production in the US. He saw himself as the “Angel of Mercy” for helping the market for buying out failing companies and turning them around and allow them to start making money.

During the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and his Sherman Anti-Trust acts caused Rockefeller to break up his empire. But with this Rockefeller donated huge amounts of wealth to education programs, churches and various philanthropies across the United States. Rockefeller was a shrewd business man who at one point was the richest man in America, but also he was a very caring man who gave back to provide greater changes for other Americans.

With the Oil business exploding, America was in need of a transportation system that utilized all of the excess fuel. Here enters Henry Ford, a man of great vision and attitude whose invention would take America to new heights never before conceived by the human brain. The Ford Model T would become a staple in the lives of every American who called this great country home.
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was born on his father’s farm in Dearborn, Michigan on July 30, 1863. In the early years of Ford’s life he showed many characteristics that gave him the potential to become a very successful young man. His engineering careering started early building steam engines and rudimentary machines. He learned a lot about these steam engines by making friends with the men who ran them. Engines were not the only thing Ford worked on, he learned how to work on watches and many other small mechanical devices to give himself a better understanding of how machines work. Ford was also a great leader, he did not do all of these things on his own he organized groups of men to help build these engines. In 1879 Ford made the decision to leave the family farm and move to Detroit Michigan to work at Michigan Car Company, a railroad car company. He worked several jobs after this moving to where he thought he had better opportunities to learn.
Ford returned home in 1882; he did many things once he returned such as operating and servicing steam engines, cutting timber, and from time to time returning to Detroit to work in the factories. In 1888 he married his wife Clara Bryant, and in 1891 they moved back to Detroit. Ford had taken a job as a night engineer at Edison Electric illuminating Company by 1896 Ford had already become chief engineer. Ford had other interests than the electric company, he along with many other Americans was trying to create a horseless carriage. In 1896 Ford also built his first horseless carriage the quadricycle. Ford created his second car in1898, but this time he approached things differently. Ford had a group of investors back his second invention, he was going to create a business and sale horseless carriages. Ford’s first company failed, but in 1903 he started Ford Motor Company.
Ford Motor Company became a huge success due to the Model T. The Model T dominated automobile sales for more than ten years. Ford began tired of the investors interfering with his work, he bought the company outright in 1919. In 1927 Ford recreated the Model A, but the model A would not be built at the original factory. Ford’s business grew so large he had to move into a bigger factory back in Dearborn Michigan. In this new factory he not only assembled these cars, but he built many of the parts to go on them.
In Forbes magazine’s first “Rich List” Henry Ford appeared at number four. That year his income exceeded 25 million dollars. Many people say that Ford was one of the few who actually made all of his money honestly. Ford left behind a dynasty, his company is still going to this day Ford is still in the top three in cars sold. Ford Motor Company has come a long way from the horseless carriages.
Much like Henry Ford, with the Model T. Bill Gates brought forth a new era of science and technology a platform for new ideas and innovation to come to fruition. A new company called Microsoft emerged a superpower among the technological elite. A revolution was brought forth, not one of guns and powder but of mouse and keyboard, of science and of the most powerful weapon to ever exist, the human brain. Bill Gates is the equivalent to George Washington in America’s new modern revolution.
Bill Gates
On October 28th 1955 the world gave birth to one of the most brilliant minds in modern technology. His name was Bill Gates. Bill was just like any other child in most ways, he loved to play and was full of life, but when it came to his personal hobbies he preferred to be a loner. He spent most of his time in his room, reading book after book, soaking up the knowledge. At the age of 13 his parents enrolled him in a private school in Seattle called Lakeside. There he would be introduced to his favorite tool of trade, the computer. He was fascinated by it, and even wrote a basic program allowing friends to play tic-tac-toe against the computer. The school had an open lab where Bill would find himself spending countless hours working on projects for coding and development of different programs, even at that early age.
The rest is history, Gates later dropped out of college to join longtime friend Paul Allen to create “Micro-Soft” a company that combined the words “micro-computer” and “software” into one. They would later drop the hyphen in their early years of business and the business as it stood was booming. With the development of the windows program that allowed a “mouse” interface that allowed the user to print what they saw on screen.
At the age of 31, Gates became an instant millionaire when stocks for the Microsoft company rose to over 90$ a share, Gates owned 45% stake in the company. Later down the road in 1999 Gates wealth topped over 101 Billion dollars. We all wonder what we would do with vast amounts of money. What would happen if we won the lottery? What would we do that we could never dream of doing before? Some would buy houses and automobiles, some would go on extravagant vacations and use the money for a college funds for our children. But Bill had another vision, one that would help many Americans and one that could help the world.
In 2000, Bill and his wife Melinda started the Gates Foundation which is used to help bring clean water to families of poor countries and poor sanitation. A foundation which is used to help feed the hungry and heal the sick. Bill was quoted in an interview stating: “It’s amazing how many fields of science can help the poor. Materials science can lead us to toilets that work for the 2.6 billion people who don’t have access to clean sanitation today. Genetics can generate high yielding crops. Energy research can provide the poor with affordable energy that can also help mitigate climate change.”
Bill and Melinda use their vast wealth to help people, to help get them on the right track and path to success and also to help humanity in general. There are many out there that need clean water for drink or who are hungry and desperate for food. That is the mission of America’s Wealthy. Not to swim in their gold vaults like Scrooge McDuck, but to give back to those who need it the most.
With the establishment of Windows and the internet booming. The internet has become quite literally an extension of the human body. By the mid 2000’s the internet had become integral not only for personal use but gave an opportunity for businesses to expand their client base through advertising and creating self-exposure. Facebook was a way for everyday Americans to give themselves self-exposure to their friends, family, loved ones. By the simple add of a friend a connection is made beyond the physical realm. Mark Zuckerberg created more than just a website, he allowed us to carry our families with us wherever we go and not just in our hearts.
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg was born May 14th, 1984 in White Plains, New York. His father Edward is a dentist, and his mother Karen is a psychiatrist. He is currently 30 years old with an estimated net worth of 35.1 billion. He is one of five founders of the largest social network site, Facebook.
Zuckerberg began his computer programming practices in middle school. He was noticed at an early age by his tutor who referred to him as a prodigy. Zuckerberg made it through high school with ease. He earned awards in physics, mathematics and astronomy. At the end of his high school career he claimed he could read and write in Hebrew, Latin, Greek, French, and English.
After graduating high school, Zuckerberg enrolled in college at Harvard University. Before stepping foot into his classes he was already known as a “programming prodigy.” During his sophomore year of college, he created a program that helped students decide what classes they wanted to take. He named the program CourseMatch. Later down the road he created a website called Facemash. Facemash compared two males, or two females and the user chose which person was more attractive. Each person would have a ranking with their picture. The website gained instant popularity and had to be shut down by Harvard. Without having the consent of Harvard students to use their pictures on Facemash, Zuckerberg was forced to apologize to the students at Harvard
In 2004 Zuckerberg began working on a new website that would take him to the next level. The website he was designing was called TheFacebook. The site was made with the intentions of being used for Harvard University only but spread like a wildfire to other universities when word got out about it. In 2005 TheFacebook was changed to only Facebook. Facebook then became public to any persons over the age of 13 in 2006. By 2011 the number of users soared to 350 million accounts.
May 18th 2012 Facebook made its initial public offering, offering 421 million shares to private investors at the price of $38 per share. This set the value of the whole company at $104 billion, which made Facebook the biggest business going public to date.
Mark Zuckerberg was named to the 100 wealthiest and most influential people in the world list put out by Time magazine in 2010. His net worth is estimated at $35.1 billion in 2015 and he is currently the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the social company. Facebook is used daily by billions of people throughout the world making communication easier than ever in or outside the United States. Businesses can create a page to advertise and generate business for free. Work groups, study groups and other organizations use Facebook to send a message to everybody involved within a few minutes. Facebook has played a huge role in the world and by far the most recognized social media website of all time.

Conclusion
Some of the wealthiest people in the world live in America. Most people measure wealth by the amount of money and lifestyle they live. The wealth in this country all stems from an opportunity given to each and every American to make their life a success. One vision can lead any person to success and a lifetime of easy living. The fact that Americans have free range to follow their dreams and start any business they desire is what makes this country wealthy, freedom is wealth.

References

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A Short History of Mark Zuckerberg. (2013, August 27). Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://businessideaslab.com/mark-zuckerberg.
Ausick, P. (n.d.). Best Selling Cars in the World. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://247wallst.com/autos/2014/11/20/best-selling-cars-in-the-world/
Bill Gates Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved March 3, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/bill-gates-9307520#the-rise-of-microsoft
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