Knight-
Thanks for sharing. This is a great read.
I'm still a few decades and at least one mega-business away from being able to weigh in with the same experience as Andrew Carnegie has here, so I'll let his words stand for themselves. Carnegie's one of my favorite business magnates - he pulled himself up from his bootstraps, and did a lot with a little.
The only thing I'll add is that I started out sweeping floors too, even though I didn't have to; and that attitude was the main reason why I leapfrogged a much more experienced guy with a far longer tenure at my workplace for a sales and management role. That fellow always resented me, but I was grateful to him; if not for his frequent coffee breaks and his "that's not my job" way of seeing things, the sales job would've been his, and I never would have had the chance to learn how to sell.
Chase
