3. John Rockefeller’s first job was as a bookkeeper for a produce company
Although John had held odd jobs as a boy, such as selling turkeys and vegetables to townsfolk, his first full time employment was as a bookkeeper for a company brokering produce. John rapidly developed a skill which would serve him well throughout his career – the ability to reduce the cost of shipping products to markets, enhancing profits. He learned to negotiate shipping costs previously believed to be fixed by ship owners and freight managers, and through the use of rebates with preferred shippers he developed long term business relationships which remained relatively free of the influence of changing market conditions. He worked as an apprentice, for a period of three years, the last of which saw him compensated at the rate of $58 per month.