The richest man in the world, slept in meetings

John D. Rockefeller was an American oil tycoon and the richest man in the world.
He built Standard Oil into the biggest monopoly. So big that monopoly prevention laws had to be created.

Rockefeller had a strange habit.

He would not speak much in meetings. Instead he would lie down and close his eyes. People thought he was not paying attention.

When asked why, he told a peom:

A wise old owl lived in an oak,
The more he saw the less he spoke,
The less he spoke, the more he heard,
Why aren’t we all like that wise old bird?

Rockefeller knew his job was not to drill wells, load trains, or move barrels.
It was to think and make good decisions.

Rockefeller’s value wasn’t what he did with his hands, or even his words. It was what he figured out inside his head.

Closing his eyes and deeply listening let him see things that only he could see.

Rockefeller did not speak less because he was rich. Be became rich because he listened and connected more dots.

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