Carnegie Community Library

How did it all begin? Andrew Carnegie lived around 1904 and was “America’s First Billionaire”.
Over a hundred years ago, there was a young Scottish boy who was raised in a world where there were few or no books.
Can you imagine? No books? In that day and age, books were not only rare, but strange and scarce. There was, of course, no internet, and there were not even any public libraries.
Libraries, such as they were, were private and owned by wealthy individuals in the community. Books were very rarely loaned or allowed to leave the home (”library”). The rule of the day was: books were for personal use only.
However, there happened to be an unusual situation in the area in which Andrew Carnegie grew up. In fact, it was so unusual that people actually gossiped about it!
The wealthiest man in that area was actually allowing his books to go out on loan! He allowed people, even young people, to “take” a book, so they could read it, and then bring it back. What a “funny” idea!
But Andrew didn’t think so. He took advantage of this very special opportunity. It made such an impression on him, it impacted not only his world but ultimately the world at large forever.
Goals and Gold:
Years went by and Andrew Carnegie did very well in business. As a young man he had two goals:
- Goal #1: in the first half of his life, to become extraordinarily successful and
- Goal #2: in the second half of his life, to give all that money away in appreciation to America for what it had done for him.
the Rich become Richer – how do they do that?:
As it became exceedingly clear that he had accomplished his first goal, and he began undertaking the second goal, people began to ask him how he had become successful.
It might seem to be an easy answer, but it became more and more difficult for him to say exactly what had been the things, which had been the foundation of his success.
Of course he had lived his life, and done many things, but he didn’t believe many things had created his success. He thought there had to be something simple, even if he wasn’t quite sure where the true power lay.
So he hired young cub reporter, Napoleon Hill, to compile what would later become the book we know as “Think and Grow Rich”.
At the time, he asked Napoleon to go around and interview 550 presidents of the largest corporations in America, most of who were Carnegie’s personal friends. The interview had one basic question: what has made you so successful?
The Secrets of the Millionaire Masters!:
It took over 2 years to complete all these interviews. When it was done, Carnegie reviewed all this information, added his own experience, and found their “Secrets of Success” could be summarized in just two simple phrases:
If you would be exceeding successful in this life:
1) Know very clearly where it is you want to go
2) Be a member of a group that also wants to succeed.