There was danger lest I should drift away from the manufacturing to
the financial and banking business. My successes abroad brought me
tempting opportunities, but my preference was always for
manufacturing. I wished to make something tangible and sell it and I
continued to invest my profits in extending the works at Pittsburgh.
The small shops put up originally for the Keystone Bridge Company had
been leased for other purposes and ten acres of ground had been
secured in Lawrenceville on which new and extensive shops were
erected. Repeated additions to the Union Iron Mills had made them the
leading mills in the United States for all sorts of structural shapes.
Business was promising and all the surplus earnings I was making in
other fields were required to expand the iron business. I had become
interested, with my friends of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in
building some railways in the Western States, but gradually withdrew
from all such enterprises and made up my mind to go entirely contrary
to the adage not to put all one's eggs in one basket. I determined
that the proper policy was "to put all good eggs in one basket and
then watch that basket."
I believe the true road to preeminent success in any line is to make
yourself master in that line.
Pages:
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240