Andrew Carnegie (Part 2)

It's nineteen o one in New York City. Outside, the streets are loud and dirty and full of smoke. But it's quiet and clean in the private office off Wall Street where a small wiry Scotsman in his mid sixties sits at a polished table. Andrew Carnegie's beard is white now. His suit is immaculate, and he still has the barest trace of an accent. Across from him sits the great banker of his age, JP Morgan. On the table between them is a single slip of paper. Earlier that day, Morgan had said something simple. Write down your price. Carnegie had taken out a pen. For years, he had been talking about this moment, selling his steelworks, cashing out, turning from industrialist to full time philanthropist. He had written essays about the duty of the rich. He had told his friends that a man who dies rich dies disgraced. And so what he did now, he did not for himself, but for the good of the world. He wrote down his price. A four and then the zeros seemed to just keep on going. $400,000,000. He slid the paper across the table. There's a long silence as Morgan looks at the number. Finally, he nods. Mister Carnegie says, I accept. They shake hands and Morgan says to him, congratulations, you are now the richest man in the world. But for Carnegie, it was a bittersweet moment because it was never about the money. Of course, that's easy to say when you're worth $400,000,000 but with Carnegie, I actually believe it. He was after all a poor weaver son. He was someone who had scratched and clawed and worked his way from the bottom to become the richest man in the world. And through it all, Carnegie had always been a happy man. There had been a palpable sense of enjoyment. He had loved being an industrialist, and now he had to find a new purpose. He would need a new mission now, a harder one. He had promised to give his fortune away. He wants to build universities and libraries. He wants to reward heroism, and if possible, establish world peace. He walks out of Morgan's office not just as the richest man alive, but as a man who thinks he's finally free to do what he was really put on earth to do. For Carnegie, this is a rebirth. It's the death of an old man, the death of Andrew Carnegie the industrialist, and the birth of Andrew Carnegie the philanthropist. So this is the story of how Andrew Carnegie became the richest man in the world but it's also the story of what happened after he won and how at the very end losing his purpose hurts him more than losing any fortune ever could. I'm a show you how great I am. But have mighty power. I just wanna say from the bottom of my heart, I'd like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely …