[Music] Charles Schwab wasn't born into wealth or the Upper Crust of society but what he did have was endless energy and determination to persevere through every challenge he was faced with never giving in and never slowing even as he climbed from a mailman to the president of one of the largest companies in the world at just 35 years old but unsatisfied with being the leader of the largest company in the world he decided to start again by acquiring Bethlehem Steel and while he would grow this company to new heights his continued drive for growth would
ultimately lead him to losing nearly everything bankrupting him by the end of his life this is the rise and fall of Charles Schwab and this is learn something new born in Williamsburg Pennsylvania in 1862 Charles Michael Schwab was the oldest child of parents John and Pauline Schwab at the age of 12 Charles moved with his family to Loredo Pennsylvania a nearby town where his parents had originally gotten married though even before this time Charles often going by Charlie loved to perform and entertain in front of anyone who would watch he would do tricks and play
the piano becoming so good at playing that he began offering lessons to others when he wasn't playing he was contributing to the family income taking a horse from his father's Livery stable and delivering mail that was brought in by rail in the nearby larger town of Cresent in order to make even more money he would often watch for passenger trains that would come in and offer to give those disembarking a ride to their final destination throughout his youth he had an intense passion for learning picking up on bookkeeping surveying and Engineering skills in school while
also taking a keen interest in history from his extracurricular reading but although he enjoyed learning like many others of his time he never completed High School choosing instead to set out from home at the age of 17 in 1879 he moved about 70 M away to a city just outside of Pittsburgh called bradoock it was there he got a job as a store clerk getting just $10 a month but not satisfied with this pay or the impact he was making on the world he began putting forth a tremendous effort to prove himself he began working
12-hour days doing his regular responsibilities while also balancing the books for the store this particular store had a recurring customer always returning for more cigars and he quickly became impressed with Schwab's intense work ethic and energy this man was Captain Bill Jones a Civil War veteran who after the conclusion of the war found himself working in the steel making industry eventually becoming employed by none other than Andrew Carnegie a steel business magnate that we previously covered in this video Jones wanted Charles Schwab's enthusiasm in his own Factory offering him a starter job at his steel
mill for $25 a month a pay increase that Schwab simply couldn't refuse while at first he was simply in charge of carrying rods used by the surveying team in the plants engineering department he was committed to proving himself indispensable as he would later Claim about his time there and it was with this intense effort that his name continued to be brought up among higher management but really there was one particular instance that made him Stand Out Among the rest at one point Jones was planning a major new engineering project but when he brought it to
the head of engineering he was asked which new engineer would be assigned to it Jones responded in a way that was not unusual for the time saying just ask all of them to work late tonight overtime without any extra pay and I will observe them as the men worked grueling hours into the night people began to tire and bore constantly glancing at the clock wondering how much longer they could possibly be asked to stay all except for Charles Schwab and so he was granted the opportunity to lead the project it was around the time of
this promotion that Schwab decided to tie the KN at the age of 21 he married Emma urania dinky but this new stage of Life did nothing but accelerate his drive you see Jones was required to make weekly reports to Andrew Carnegie himself who was over in Pittsburgh this was timeconsuming and tedious for Jones and so he entrusted Schwab who was quickly becoming his right-and man to deliver the reports on his behalf granting him FaceTime with the leader of the entire company after meeting with such an energetic smooth talking extrovert Carnegie began to take a liking
in Schwab seeing exceptional potential in his abilities and while Schwab understood the possibilities that this kind of relationship with the president of the company could provide for him he felt that he was vastly underprepared for what might come next he began to talk to everyone around him that was willing to lend him their experience and advice regardless of age and position he was learning more about the steel business and whatever he couldn't learn from talking to co-workers he sought out through literature on the industry as time went on Schwab began making himself more indispensable to
those around him becoming the person everyone turned to when they needed answers or a difficult problem solved and at just 24 years old Charles Schwab was promoted to general superintendent of another steelworks company that Carnegie had recently acquired and with this promotion came a massive pay Boost rising to $10,000 a year at a time when an average factory worker was bringing in just about $2 a day but in his usual fashion swab wasn't satisfied at this level and he sought to learn more about steel so that he might become even more valuable he set up
a chemistry lab within his own home so that after work he could explore the internal chemistry Behind the Steel making process and in 1887 a British steel maker wanted to poach him from Carnegie offering him an astounding $50,000 a year to run a mill in Birmingham England even agreeing to a 5-year contract that included annual increases to to the salary that would equate to a remarkable $1.6 million annual salary today and he was just 25 years old and yet he turned it down this came after he found out that they wouldn't give pay increases to
his top workers that he wanted to bring with him and so he pushed forward unaware of the tragedy that lay just on the horizon because in the fall of 1889 Captain Bill Jones was helping his workers in the steel mill he managed when one of the furnaces jammed and exploded killing Jones the tragedy saw over 10,000 people lining the streets for the veterans funeral procession on the business side Carnegie now needed to find a replacement for Jones and so at age 27 chab became general superintendent of the biggest steelworks in America Carnegie liked to reward
his employees and promote from within but that didn't mean that he didn't push them hard and ultimately to their limits leading to the bloody Homestead stri of 1892 that resulted in a dozen deaths and many wounded before the entire town had to be put under martial law during this time Schwab moved into the plant living there while working 72-hour stretches of time to keep the mill from completely collapsing under the pressure of the Striking workers after this he was awarded partial ownership in the company and when the country hit a recession in 1893 Carnegie steel
was one of the only that not only survived but made a profit and just Just 4 years later at the age of 35 Charles Schwab was named president of the Carnegie Steel Corporation the very next year profits tripled and within 2 years after that they doubled but then JP Morgan approached Carnegie interested in acquiring the steel Behemoth Carnegie was willing to entertain the idea as he was now 65 years old and ended up agreeing to sell for $400 million since Schwab at the this point was a 6% owner of the company he received 24 million
of this money going on to be named the first president of the new Corporation after the acquisition called us steel becoming the first company whose assets exceeded $1 billion dwarfing every other steel maker in the world but Schwab found the work environment post Carnegie to be less than ideal with the chairman of us steel being far more conservative than Schwab who always was looking to invest in new technology in steel plants eventually after an extended trip to Europe he too would resign from us steel at the age of 41 his story could have ended here
he had more than enough money to retire early and ride off into the sunset but Schwab felt that he had more to give to the world acquiring a much smaller Steel company than us steel called Bethlehem Steel he would go on to run the company how he and Carnegie used to work as opposed to the conservative style of us steel and within 20 years years Bethlehem was the third largest industrial company in the US but then the Great Depression hit and Bethlehem Steel lost over $19 million Schwab continued to Double Down believing that recovery was
just around the corner but that was tragically optimistic his big bets continued to not pay off and his fortune plummeted he was forced to move from his Mansion into a small apartment and when he ultimately had a heart attack and passed away at the age of 7 just 8 months after his wife had passed he only had assets of 1.4 million while his outstanding debts stood at 1.7 million bankrupting his estate although his persistence in life allowed him to rise to some of the greatest Heights far quicker than many others throughout history that same drive
to keep going blinded him to the realization of when to pull out thanks for watching if you enjoyed this video please consider liking and subscribing to the channel or if if you want you can check out the Channel's patreon linked Below in the description special thanks to the Channel's patrons including the newest patreon top tier member Musa Cameron but as always thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next [Music] one
