27A - Reading Reflection No. 3

Assignment 27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw

1) This is an extremely long book, so I did not read it verbatim. I did however, acquire many takeaways from this book.

What surprised me most – I have heard of and learned of Andrew Carnegie in the past; however, I was shocked to read how much impact he had on the political world. Carnegie is not simply a self-proclaimed businessman and philanthropist, but he lived the life of both. He did not keep to himself, but instead corresponded his beliefs with key politicians.

What I most admired - Andrew Carnegie came from a background of poverty and through entrepreneurship, he became very wealthy. I most admire that Mr. Carnegie did not forget where he came from. He became perhaps the world’s most well-known philanthropist and gave tremendous amounts of money in effort to aid others.

What I least admired – From what I read, I find little to not admire about this entrepreneur. Although I am not sure that he did anything wrong with regard to the environment, perhaps he could have been more considerate regarding the steel industry’s effect on the environment.

The entrepreneur’s adversity and failure- I believe that Andrew’s childhood is a great example of the adversity that he faced. He grew-up in poverty but was a very ambitious young man, whom wanted to have a lasting effect on the world. That he did. Carnegie kept his eyes fixed upon achieving his goals and he certainly did.



2) I noticed that Carnegie exhibited essentially every entrepreneurial competency. Most notable to me was his competency to network. Carnegie had lasting relationships with key politicians and businessmen in both the United States and England. He developed very respectable social capital throughout his life.



3) Much of this reading was confusing to me. I do feel like this book was unnecessarily long. It being so long does show how much Carnegie accomplished in his life time. I found some of Carnegie’s writings to politicians hard to fully understand.



4) If I could ask this entrepreneur two questions, I would ask the following two questions:

Do you have any regrets regarding your life?

Which of your goals do you feel you did not successfully accomplish in your 83 years of life?


5) I think Carnegie was naturally a hard worker. I feel like it was “in his blood” to work tirelessly to achieve his goals. Carnegie learned from his failure and refused to be kept down. I hope that I will be able to develop a work ethic like his.