The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

aggressor’s narrative. He had to convince himself that his quest for
power served some higher purpose. There was a belief at the time
among Protestants that to make a lot of money was a sign of grace
from God. With wealth, the religious individual could give back to the
community and help support the local parish. But Rockefeller took this
further. He believed that establishing order in the oil business was a
divine mission, like ordering the cosmos. He was on a crusade to bring
cheap prices and predictability to American households. Turning
Standard Oil into a monopoly blended seamlessly with his deep
religious convictions.
Sincerely believing in this crusade, it did not bother his conscience
to ruthlessly manipulate and ruin his rivals, to bribe legislators, to run
roughshod over laws, to form fake rival enterprises to Standard Oil, to
spark and use the violence of a strike (with Pennsylvania Railroad) that
would help him in the long run. Belief in this narrative made him all
the more energetic and aggressive, and for those who faced him, it
could be confusing—perhaps there was some good in what he was
doing; perhaps he was not a demon after all.
Finally, to realize his dream of control, Rockefeller transformed
himself into a superior reader of men and their psychology. And the
most important quality for him to gauge in the various rivals he faced
was their relative willpower and resiliency. He could sense this in
people’s body language and in the patterns of their actions. Most
people, he determined, are rather weak. They are mostly led by their
emotions, which change by the day. They want things to be rather easy
in life and tend to take the path of least resistance. They don’t have a
stomach for protracted battles. They want money for the pleasures and
comforts it can bring, for their yachts and mansions. They want to look
powerful, to satisfy their ego. Make them afraid or confused or
frustrated, or offer them an easy way out, and they would surrender to

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his stronger will. If they got angry, all the better. Anger burns itself out
quickly, and Rockefeller always played for the long term.
Look at how he played each of the antagonists in his path. With
Clark, he carefully fed his arrogance and deliberately made him
irritable, so that he would quickly agree to the auction just to get rid of
Rockefeller, without thinking too deeply about the consequences.
Colonel Payne was a vain and greedy man. Give him plenty of
money and a nice title, and he would be satisfied and surrender to
Rockefeller his refinery. For the other refinery owners, instill fears
about the uncertain future, using the SIC as a convenient bogeyman.
Make them feel isolated and weak, and sow some panic. Yes, his
refineries were more profitable, as shown by his books, but the other
owners failed to reason that Rockefeller himself was just as vulnerable
as they were to the ups and downs of the business. If only they had
united in opposition to his campaign, they could have countered him,
but they were made too emotional to think straight, and they
surrendered their refineries with ease.
When it came to Scott, Rockefeller saw him as a hothead, enraged
by Standard Oil’s threat to his preeminent position in business.
Rockefeller welcomed the war with Scott and prepared for it by
amassing vast amounts of cash. He would simply outlast him. And the
angrier he made Scott with his unorthodox tactics, the more
imprudent and rash Scott became, going so far as to try to crush the
railroad strike, which only made his position weaker. With Benson,
Rockefeller recognized the type—the man enamored with his own
brilliance and wanting attention as the first one to defeat Standard Oil.
Putting up obstacles in his path would only make him try harder, while
weakening his finances. It would be simple to buy him off in the end,
when he had grown tired of Rockefeller’s relentless pressure.
As an extra measure, Rockefeller would always strategize to make
his opponents feel rushed and impatient. Clark had only one day to
plan for the auction. The refinery owners faced imminent doom in a
few months unless they sold to him. Scott and Benson had to hurry up
in their battles or face running out of money. This made them more
emotional and less able to strategize.