It’s December 1875. Thirty-one-year-old Henry John “HJ” Heinz is bedridden the entire month with deep depression. On some days, he cannot even get out of bed. His world has collapsed around him. For the last six years, he and his friends and financial backers, the...
These days the news and chatter on the Internet are filled with stories of Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. In this environment, it can be easy to forget or take for granted the other great enterprises that make the world go ’round. On August 28, 1907,...
Conrad Nicholson Hilton was born to wealth. His father, “Colonel” A. H. “Gus” Hilton, was the leading merchant and trader in the tiny sun-baked mining village of San Antonio, New Mexico. Young Connie wanted to become a banker, and at age thirty-one he went to Texas to...
Today, the Estée Lauder Companies have become among the most important cosmetics companies in the world—against huge odds and well-established competitors. Estée Lauder was a very real person, born to an immigrant hardware store owner and his wife in Queens, New York....
The technologies of today are built upon those of the past, and the superstars of our era would be nothing without the great leaders of the past. We often discuss our favorite “tech” entrepreneurs. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and many other names arise. Too...