Andrew Carnegie

The Classic Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie with the Gospel of Wealth

The Classic Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie - Andrew Carnegie was an industrialist, business magnate, and philanthropist. This brilliant Scottish-American businessman led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. Carnegie is one of the richest people in history. - "The great question now was, what could be found for me to do. I had just completed my thirteenth year, and I fairly panted to get to work that I might help the family to a start in the new land. The prospect of want had become to me a frightful nightmare. My thoughts at this period centered in the determination that we should make and save enough of money to produce three hundred dollars a year-twenty-five dollars monthly, which I figured was the sum required to keep us without being dependent upon others. Every necessary thing was very cheap in those days." - "And that is how in 1850 I got my first real start in life. From the dark cellar running a steam-engine at two dollars a week, begrimed with coal dirt, without a trace of the elevating influences of life, I was lifted into paradise, yes, heaven, as it seemed to me, with newspapers, pens, pencils, and sunshine about me. There was scarcely a minute in which I could not learn something or find out how much there was to learn and how little I knew. I felt that my foot was upon the ladder and that I was bound to climb. I had only one fear, and that was that I could not learn quickly enough ..."