#258: Jay Gould (Dark Genius of Wall Street)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer, but if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. He was raised on a farm and milked cows as a boy. He neither drank nor smoked. He was affable to every employee, from the head of the department to the humblest.
He enjoyed his wealth quietly.
He rarely lost his temper.
Self-control was one of his most profound attributes.
He was a quiet man, and when he spoke, his words were both few and carefully chosen.
He rarely boasted, but once speaking for himself and his fellow capitalist, he said, We have made this country rich. We have developed the country. We have created the earning power by developing the system. When he died, the press said that he was the world's richest man.
It also called him the world's most hated man. The man just described sounds like John D. Rockefeller. It is not, it's Jay Gould. Rockefeller and Gould had much in common. The two were nearly the same age. Their careers spanned the same period. Gould died at the end of 1892 as Rockefeller was preparing to retire from business.
Their fortunes that year were about the same, around $100 million.
When an acquaintance asked Rockefeller who was the greatest businessman he had known, his answer came without hesitation. Jay Gould, he said.
He echoed the sentiment of Cornelius Vanderbilt who had long ago tangled with Jay Gould and lost.
Vanderbilt said Gould was the smartest man in America. Their judgments must stand.
Gould was perhaps the single most unsettling force ever to appear on the American industrial scene.
He thought in continental terms when few contemporaries saw beyond state boundaries. He shook to his heels an industry already settled in its ways and set out to realize his dream of a transcontinental railroad.
Given the obstacles he faced, Gould's achievements were phenomenal.
He was an advanced thinker in the field of corporate finance and he set precedents which were later followed by investment bankers and by state and federal governments.
Among wheelers and dealers of his day, he had no peer.
He was obsessed with piling up a fortune, no holds barred. He mastered the details of running a railroad with embarrassing ease.
He was a loner.
Labels do not imply judgments, but if such were to be made, Gould must rank as the less honorable and less trustworthy, but the more brilliant of the two.
For he was indeed the smartest man in America, at least in the business world of his day.
That was not an excerpt from the book that I'm gonna talk to you about today. That was actually an excerpt from a book I covered a few podcasts back on episode 254 And it's John D. Rockefeller, The Founding Fathers of the Rockefellers, written by David Freeman Hawke. And I wanted to start there because I think it demonstrates how important understanding and studying Jay Gould is, is if you're reading a biography of Rockefeller and an entire chapter is dedicated to another person. And that made me want to read a biography of Jay Gould. And the book that I'm gonna talk to you about today is The Dark Genius of Wall Street, The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons. And it was written by Edward J. Renehan Jr. And I actually found out about this book because the author is the one that sent it to me. So I wanna jump into what would have been the introduction to the podcast for this book. And it's at the funeral of Jay Gould. And actually, before I start there, let me go to the very back cover of the book because I thought this paragraph was very interesting. It talks about the thesis of the author. It's like, well, there's a ton of biographies written about Jay Gould. Everyone basically says the same thing, that he's evil, he's unscrupulous, he was the most hated man in his day.