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How did John D. Rockefeller build one of the most powerful business empires in American history?
Yes, he found and refined more oil than his competitors. But that wasn’t the key to his success.
Rockefeller ultimately built his legacy by owning the pipeline, not the oil — the infrastructure that every barrel had to flow through to get from the ground to the market.
Once he controlled that layer, the game changed. Competitors could find all the oil they wanted. They still had to move it through him.
