If you sold all of Cornelius Vanderbilt's assets at the time of his death, you would take out 1/20 of all dollars in circulation... That's insane. Let's take a look at 2 stories from his childhood to see if we can uncover some of the mystery of his rise...
Vanderbilt was riding down the streets of New York in a wagon. He was in charge of getting three wagons onto a ferry to meet his father. He was 11 years old.
Young Vanderbilt's father was involved in shipping back in 1805. A ship had run ashore on a sandbar and his father was hired to collect the stranded cargo and transport it across the river.
Young Vanderbilt was tasked with moving the cargo to where it needed to go on land. Only there was one problem... His father didn't give him enough money to pay for the ferry to make it back home after transporting all the goods.
When the young boy made it to the ferry, the ferryman would not allow him to get on board with the wagons, unless he paid $6. Vanderbilt didn't waste any time arguing with the ferryman. Thinking quickly, he ran into a nearby tavern and spoke with the owner.
He asked to borrow the $6 from the tavern owner. He offered to leave one of his horses at the tavern as collateral and promised to pay back the debt within 24 hours. It worked.
Vanderbilt got the money and drove the wagons onto the ferry, returning home just in time for dinner.
Let's look at another story from Vanderbilt's childhood. He loved to sail. He felt at home shipping cargo around the city.
At 15, Vanderbilt signed up to travel across the ocean to transport goods to Napoleon's Europe (yes, Vanderbilt was alive during this time... pretty wild). But the plan was shut down by his parents out of fear of something happening to him.
He then decided that if he wasn't allowed to visit Europe, he would at least captain his own ship in New York. He made a deal with his mother. If he cleared, plowed, and sowed their 8-acre plot of land, his mother agreed to give him enough money to get his own small vessel.
The land was: "so hard, rough and stony" according to 1800s biographer W.A. Crofutt, "that it had never been plowed before" It was not going to be an easy job... He immediately gathered up his friends to conquer the land.