John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was the Rockefeller who changed things dramatically for the Rockefeller name and the family. The family’s name though prestigious, was often a name associated with ruthless business practices and more commonly, greed.

The only son of John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil, “Junior” was the man who would carry on the Rockefeller name. Born on January 29, 1874, John Junior was the youngest of four children. He was raised under strict values and disciplined to believe that one should always ask of himself “is it right, is it duty?” The Rockefellers choose to teach their young children to live serious lives almost from birth and Junior was the Rockefeller who would need to show much promise as he would be expected to take over the family reins as the only boy in the family.

Responsibility was placed on young John D. Rockefeller’s shoulders at such a young age that many outsiders were not surprised when Junior suffered the first of many breakdowns at the tender age of thirteen. This first breakdown made John Junior extremely dependant upon both his mother and his father. And this dependence continued until he went away to college.

In 1893, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. found himself surrounded in a new environment at Brown University and ultimately met the lady of his dreams. Abby Aldrich, the daughter of a US Senator, was not at all impressed with Rockefeller money. Instead she was impressed with John. In 1901, over one thousand guests were invited to the wedding of the century when John and Abby married. The couple had six children and John became a most extreme father. His children kept accounting ledgers of their allowance and he made them realize where every dime they earned in allowances were spent.

At the age of 26, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. walked into the offices of Standard Oil with the good intentions of spending his life there working for the company that had indeed built the Rockefellers unprecedented wealth. At the age of 36, he walked out on the Standard Oil Trust and chose instead to dedicate his life to philanthropy.

Even after Junior had decided to leave the world of business to someone else, issues still arose that threatened to forever tarnish the family name. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. always came out of bad situations with his name in tact, resolve in place and feeling like he very much made a positive difference.

To begin to cover all of the philanthropic endeavors of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. would most certainly begin with a note that it is estimated that Junior gave away over 537 million dollars during his lifetime to charities. His contributions were directly responsible for creating the General Board of Education in the South and his contributions to many educational focuses have exceeded tens of millions of dollars.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. became the Rockefeller that his grandmother Eliza Davison Rockefeller would have been so very proud of because he was everything the family stood for yet had such a difficult time of showing. He wasn’t ruthless, but giving. He never manipulated a monopoly but instead walked away from it and he gave more than anyone could have ever imagined. Junior was the Rockefeller to be remembered because he forever changed the Rockefeller’s public image.

Napoleon Hill could easily be coined one of the greatest American authors of all time because of the way his book, Think and Grow Rich impacted the lives of all who picked up the book to read and follow the advice from within the pages of Hill’s great formula for success.

Napoleon Hill was born in the rural, but beautiful area of Wise County, Virginia. When he was ten years old, Napoleon Hill’s mother died and he was raised by his father and stepmother. While many people attribute lifelong achievements to their parents and grandparents, Hill’s successes would be due in part to the fact that Andrew Carnegie took a keen interest in Napoleon Hill as a writer.

Andrew Carnegie suggested and requested that Napoleon Hill interview wealthy and more importantly, very successful men and women and learn their secrets to success. Carnegie, though supportive of Hill’s work, never offered to pay him for his documentation realizing perhaps, the author would undoubtedly be able to stand on his own two feet because of his splendid writing talent.

For the sole purpose to find out the secrets behind the men and women who were certainly successful and to begin documenting what he learned in order to develop a book which would later become Think and Grow Rich, Hill began his interviews and research. He spoke with some of the most famous and influential people of all time including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, George Eastman, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and many others. His research was a twenty year undertaking and produced a guide to success which was initially titled The Law of Success.

Aside from being a well respected writer, Napoleon Hill was an editor and publisher as well as an advisor. He often gave his insights on many subjects to Carnegie but he also formally advised President Franklin Roosevelt.

In 1937, Hill’s polished and most notorious manuscript Think and Grow Rich went into print and has remained in print throughout the years with over thirty million copies sold and with that number still growing.

Most notably, some of Napoleon Hill’s quotes are still used in training seminars and goal-oriented training manuals as well as throughout other courses of study both in and out of the universities across the world. “A goal is a dream with a deadline” is one of Napoleon Hill’s famous quotes that many writers still use fondly.

Other Napoleon Hill quotes include: “Your big opportunity may be right where you are now,” and “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” The inspirational quotes of Napoleon Hill show that he was certainly a protégé of Andrew Carnegie but also show that he was able to clearly motivate individuals to lead extraordinary lives even when those people might otherwise consider themselves ordinary if it wasn’t for the writings of Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich will always be responsible for motivating numerous successes among average individuals thanks to the work of Napoleon Hill.

It’s often been a comparison that many historians have touched on in the past when the subject of Andrew Carnegie is the focus. Was he a ruthless business man or was his generosity unmatched by any before him and few after him? He was both. Andrew Carnegie was a man of very humble beginnings. He loathed charity but yet became known for his many charitable contributions. Carnegie and his family were unimpressed by wealth yet during Andrew’s lifetime he became the wealthiest man alive. And along the way Andrew Carnegie, far away from his birthplace in Scotland, became an American leader in business and in life.

Andrew Carnegie was a man who stood up for the working people. He knew what it was like to watch his father lose his job and all but solicit for a job or food. He watched his mother with eager determination borrow the money the family needed to leave Scotland to begin their lives in America and he loathed the fact that his mother and father were at the mercy of financial restraints. Yet, as a family, the Carnegies had never embraced the idea of wealth. In fact, they despised the idea of it.

When historians look at Andrew Carnegie, many believe that he was a man who fought battles within himself all of his life because of the burning ideas of wealth and poverty he had that stemmed from his parents and grandparents. Some historians believed he acted as a man who never knew quite what he wanted. While on one hand he would fight diligently for the working class of individuals, on the other hand he would demolish their safety nets which were their unions. The name Carnegie will always bring to mind generosity, yet the people who worked for Andrew Carnegie worked extremely hard for meager wages. As a Carnegie employee, individuals knew they were always at risk for a cut in salary while Carnegie himself, continued on the road to wealth and prosperity.

Still, Andrew Carnegie was very much a leader who worked his way up from the cotton factory where his father worked to the office of Thomas A. Scott of Pennsylvania Railroad. Sometime after the Civil War, Carnegie left the railroad and went to work at Keystone Bridge Company for a short number of years before the introduction to the steel refining process which was already making Henry Bessemer into a wealthy man. Carnegie threw himself into the steel business and the rest, of course, is history.

One of Carnegie’s favorite quotes was “the man who dies rich dies disgraced.” As the richest man in the world, many laughed at his sentiments. However, Andrew Carnegie systematically gave away over 350 million dollars prior to his death. Because Andrew Carnegie was an advocate for lifelong learning, his fortune was responsible for building over 2500 public libraries and donations to higher learning were dominant as well.

Andrew Carnegie contributed more money to education than any before him but he could’ve been so much more to himself if he had let go of many harbored and unhealthy thoughts toward his wealth and money. His mother and father’s beliefs helped him achieve greatness but hindered him from truly enjoying the wealth and prosperity that he most certainly earned.

Paul Zane Pilzer is a name that many independent contractors will recognize because he is the Dale Carnegie of this day and age. Meaning, that just like Dale Carnegie, Pilzer has been a leader many direct marketers look to for advice and support over the past few years. Pilzer is known throughout the world as an economist who has the unsurpassed ability to look into the future and predict business milestones with authoritative and accurate predictions. Seven best sellers are just part of the appeal to Paul Zane Pilzer as an author; the other part is the fact that he is the poster boy for likeability.

Paul Zane Pilzer completed college in three years and received his MBA in just a short fifteen months. Pilzer’s successes in his very flamboyant career include becoming a Citibank officer at the age of 22 , beginning a very long 20 year career at age 24 as a professor at New York University, becoming a millionaire before age 26 and a multi-millionaire prior to turning 30 years old.

The leadership of Paul Zane Pilzer has been quite evident as he has served two presidential administrations as an economic advisor. Paul Zane Pilzer has been one of the most accurate economists to ever live and his predictions are humbling. The books that Pilzer chooses to put his name on have been books explaining everything from the theology of economics to technology. His work as an author is mind-boggling.

Paul Zane Pilzer is quoted frequently by companies who are actively promoting health and wellness. For example, Fruta Vida International, a company which promotes health and wellness through the consumption of a juice combination of acai berry and yerba mate tea, explains their success to their new members with constant reminders from Paul Zane Pilzer’s Wellness Revolution.

Fruta Vida International is not the only network marketing company or direct sales oriented company to uphold the words of Pilzer. The Wellness Revolution and The Next Millionaires both written by Paul Zane Pilzer, explain why the wellness revolution is becoming the new place to invest and how the economy is going to allow one million new millionaires per year to emerge between 2006-2016. Pilzer is even going one step further in stating how average people can be one of these millionaires. Pilzer predicts that the wellness industry is going to exceed the healthcare industry and goes on to state in The Next Trillion how that is going to happen and why the next trillion is going to be made in the wellness industry.

A family man, much of the appeal Paul Zane Pilzer owns is the fact that he is loyal to his wife and four children and enjoys a very simple lifestyle of snowboarding and other family-oriented activities while enjoying the simple things in life living in Utah.

Even as Paul Zane Pilzer sits at home matching wits in a game of chess with a family member, he is touching the lives of many individuals through his books and audio-tapes. Pilzer continues to show the world why his leadership is needed and why many people rely on his advice. He has become a source of very reliable information when the subject at hand is or involves money or economics.