1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 4 The Power of Hypocrisy

John Rockefeller is a decisive man, this was obvious when he was only sixteen years old. As soon as he arrived at school, he went through the withdrawal procedures, and then left the school. When Scrooge arrived home after he was leaving school, John Rockefeller came to the door.

“Scrooge, I have already signed up at the business school, and I will go to school there next Monday, which is two days later. Thank you very much for your help. But let’s get started quickly. At noon, Uncle Joseph and I had signed the contract. Now… Well, let’s make up the lessons of the few days you fell ill. I have already inquired about the content of the days when you fell ill. Well, I haven’t taught a book before, so I can barely tell you about it. Take the book out quickly while it’s still dark.”

In fact, John Rockefeller is indeed not a good teacher. Scrooge can clearly feel that although he has a good grasp of some knowledge, he is really not good at explaining it, and in many cases he does not express his meaning. Fortunately, this knowledge, especially mathematics, is nothing more than pediatrics for Scrooge. In addition, unlike in school, Scrooge was not willing to hide his advantages in this aspect too much from Rockefeller. He felt that if he showed some talent in these aspects, he would accept it when Rockefeller started his business in the future. He is more likely to be a partner. So Rockefeller was quickly stunned by Scrooge’s mathematical talent.

“Scrooge, have you done this exercise before?” Seeing that Scrooge just glanced at the question and wrote the answer directly, Rockefeller couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

“No, I haven’t done it.” Scrooge replied without raising his head, and began to list the calculations on the paper and start the calculation.

Rockefeller looked at the calculations that Scrooge had written on the paper, and found that these calculations were just the calculation process of the question for which Scrooge had directly written the answer.

“Didn’t you have the answer? Why do you still do this?” John Rockefeller asked puzzled.

“Ah, John, you know, I did mental arithmetic just now, and the reliability of mental arithmetic is not as reliable as written calculations. Although I believe I am not wrong, it is necessary to do a written calculation. This allows us to avoid many mistakes… …Ah, look, the calculation is complete, and I did not make a mistake.” Scrooge answered calmly, as if it were his habit all the time.

As expected, Scrooge’s serious and rigorous attitude has shocked John Rockefeller even more than he had reported the answer in one bite.

“Scrooge, you are right. You must have such a serious spirit in everything you do. A person with such a spirit will surely be able to achieve success. Actually you are my teacher today, thank you, I will remember This kind of spirit.” John Rockefeller looked at Scrooge’s eyes very seriously and said.

Scrooge was a little embarrassed to be stared at by John Rockefeller, and quickly said: “John, we have other subjects, such as language…”

The so-called language actually refers to English. Scrooge had good English in his previous life. Later he went to study in United States for a period of time. Middle school English was not a problem for him. The difference in the 21st century is really big. The difference is like, um, like classical Chinese and vernacular. Therefore, the current middle school English is really something that Scrooge needs to learn seriously.

However, John Rockefeller’s language proficiency is more limited than his math proficiency, and it is even more difficult to teach Scrooge.

“John, your language needs to be strengthened too.” After the sky was basically dark, Scrooge closed the book and said to John Rockefeller, “If you only plan to do an accounting in the future, then your current language level And expressive skills are enough, but if you want to go further and start your own business, better expressive skills are very important.”

“Yeah.” John Rockefeller nodded with deep experience. “I didn’t think so much before, but now I have helped you make up the lessons, and I think this is really a problem. Scrooge, what can you do?”

“I think about it…” Scrooge thought for a while, “read more books, this is not easy, books are not cheap, well, it may be a good way to go to church to watch priests’ sermons, talk to them, and learn from them.”

“This is really a good idea. I go to church every week, but I don’t notice it. Maybe I should pay more attention in the future.” John Rockefeller stood up and said, “Tomorrow is Sunday. I can’t wait to go to church. Scrooge, let’s go together tomorrow. You just survived a catastrophe, and you should go to the church to thank God.”

Scrooge knew that Rockefeller had always been a devout “Baptist” believer, at least on the surface of it. Although some things Rockefeller did are completely different from the teachings of Jesus, at least, it seems that Mr. Rockefeller has always been a devout believer, especially after he made a fortune, and through constant charity activities, the majority of people were finally I forgot how he used to use deception and violence to deal with his colleagues and annex their properties; also let them forget how he raised the private army and shot directly at the striking workers. Even after a hundred years, he actually became a representative of a great good man, and was portrayed by countless media as a pious and generous good man. Who would have thought that he was nothing more than taking out a small amount of money robbed from other people’s pockets. Part of it is just a little “packaging”. This really reminds Scrooge of a famous saying in Balzac’s “Old Man Go” that “ghosts are fooled” by Vautrin: “Everyone is born like this. It smells like a kitchen. If you want to get oil, you can’t be afraid of getting your hands dirty.” , As long as it is cleaned afterwards, all the morality of our time is nothing more!”

However, at that time, Mr. Vautrin did not really see through this society. Although the demon-like figure that Mr. Balzac portrayed was very close to the reality of the world, he was so powerful, so shrewd and cold, and single-minded. Ability, determination, courage, he has to far surpass those of his disciplines such as Rastignac, but he is still failing, and his students are soaring one by one, but he is always constantly It failed and didn’t climb to the position of a secret police chief until very late. Why is this?

In his previous life, Scrooge had discussed this issue with his friends. In the end, they discussed the result: Vautrin was so proud that he was too proud to pay tribute to good on behalf of evil. hesitate. Or to put it more clearly, he is unwilling to be too hypocritical, he is unwilling to hide his own evil. He thought he could wash his hands after he had caught enough oil and water, but he didn’t understand that in the big kitchen of the world, people who want to climb up not only have to constantly “do dirty work” and “dirty their hands”, they also need to constantly Washing his own hands makes it look so white and so fragrant at all times.In contrast, Rockefeller is much smarter. From the time he decided to fight the world, he might have understood how important hypocrisy is.

“Okay, let’s go together.” Scrooge replied, “I should do something for the church to express my gratitude to God.”

The “Baptist Church” is a kind of Protestantism that is closer to the bottom. Compared with other church organizations at that time, its believers were more devout and fanatical, and its clergy was more honest. Of course, it has more rules, such as not smoking, not drinking, not messing with women or anything. In general, at least for now, this sect has a good reputation. Joining in is a good way to wash your hands at any time.

The next day was Sunday. Scrooge and John Rockefeller spent almost a whole day in the church. They helped the pastors clean the church. Scrooge also told every believer how he survived the catastrophe. , And his gratitude to God. When the pastor is preaching, listen to the pastor’s preaching attentively and carefully observe their language, intonation, facial expressions, and body movements. When it was not over, they all stayed on their own initiative to help the pastors tidy up the church, and humbly consulted the pastors on some “soul” issues.

When everything is over, it is already evening. After that, almost every week, Scrooge and John Rockefeller would come to the church and repeat this set of actions. Gradually, the believers in this area got to know these two young people. Many times, they would greet them with a smile and praise their piety.

John Rockefeller has already started learning in business school. He studied knowledge every day, and then came back to teach Scrooge what he learned while it was dark. And Scrooge’s performance while learning this knowledge once again shocked John Rockefeller. Relying on a solid mathematical foundation, Scrooge can always quickly grasp the accounting skills and accounting processing that John Rockefeller thinks are very complicated. Many things that John Rockefeller studied hard to understand for a long time, but Scrooge could figure it out almost in the blink of an eye, and even some things that John Rockefeller himself did not fully understand. Scrooge looked at his textbook. Then I looked at his notes and I immediately understood it, and even taught John Rockefeller the other way around. This surprised John Rockefeller and was quite ashamed, which naturally prompted him to make up his mind to work harder.

In fact, some of John Rockefeller’s performance also made Scrooge amazed. Among other things, the details of the notes made by John Rockefeller made Scrooge feel ashamed. John Rockefeller recorded almost every word the teacher in the business school said in class. Looking at his notes, it was almost equivalent to going to a class with him.