New Delhi, April 6 -- John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839 in Richford, New York, and he moved with his family to Ohio, where he worked first as a bookkeeper, and entered the oil business in the early 1860s as petroleum refining took off around Cleveland. He built Standard Oil into the dominant force in the US oil industry, helped create one of the first major American trusts, and became the central figure behind one of the largest fortunes in modern history. After stepping back from active business leadership in the 1890s, he focused increasingly on organized philanthropy, helping found or endow institutions such as the University of Chicago, the Rockefeller Institute, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

"If you want to become really wealth...