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My Life and Fortunes
The autobiography of one of the world's wealthiest men -- this is the life story of one of the most extraordinary men of our times. J. Paul Getty was relatively unknown outside the pages of the Oil and Gas Journal until 1957, when Fortune published a list of the wealthiest men in America. His name led all the rest.
300 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1963
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 19, 2020
Who negotiates his grandson's kidnapping ransom payment? J. Paul Getty did, in 1973 . That story piqued my interest, and I was elated to find Getty had written several books! I arbitrarily chose this one.
This book is a personal account of Getty's fascinating life and the profound impact of oil during the 1900s. It feels like what The Pale King would have been in the 1950s (substituting IRS tax offices for oil companies). Getty describes 12-16 hour days, poring over financial transactions, share purchases, controlling interests, lease interests, and business plans, interspersed with details from his personal life (married & divorced 5 times) and art collecting endeavors.
Getty made a small fortune in his 20s through exploratory drilling in Oklahoma in the early 1900s, then expanded to southern California, and eventually Saudi Arabia. He had worked as a blacksmith, derrick supervisor, head of an aircraft parts maker during the war among other jobs, and spoke conversational Arabic.
By the 50s his greatest business aspiration was realized - building an oil company that could extract (upstream), ship (midstream), and refine (downstream) oil. He accumulated tremendous amounts of old masters paintings, rare carpets woven in the 15 and 1600s, 18th c. french furniture, donating them to LACMA. His villa's became open to the public after his death in 1976.
I'm looking forward to visiting the Getty Villa museum someday.
This book is a personal account of Getty's fascinating life and the profound impact of oil during the 1900s. It feels like what The Pale King would have been in the 1950s (substituting IRS tax offices for oil companies). Getty describes 12-16 hour days, poring over financial transactions, share purchases, controlling interests, lease interests, and business plans, interspersed with details from his personal life (married & divorced 5 times) and art collecting endeavors.
Getty made a small fortune in his 20s through exploratory drilling in Oklahoma in the early 1900s, then expanded to southern California, and eventually Saudi Arabia. He had worked as a blacksmith, derrick supervisor, head of an aircraft parts maker during the war among other jobs, and spoke conversational Arabic.
By the 50s his greatest business aspiration was realized - building an oil company that could extract (upstream), ship (midstream), and refine (downstream) oil. He accumulated tremendous amounts of old masters paintings, rare carpets woven in the 15 and 1600s, 18th c. french furniture, donating them to LACMA. His villa's became open to the public after his death in 1976.
I'm looking forward to visiting the Getty Villa museum someday.
The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.
— dictum attributed to Jean Paul Getty
September 16, 2018
"Overnight successes in business are rare enough to be considered unique. Any recipe for success must contain generous amounts of imagination, determination, patience, tenacity, and above all-hard work. Sooner or later in his business career, every businessman encounters large and promising opportunities. He must be able to recognize them when they present themselves and possess the tenacity and capacity for hard work to make the most of them.
I do not believe that these are necessarily innate traits or abilities. I think that in the great majority of instances, they are formed and developed by a man's experience in his business career. Having seen his opportunity and set his goal, a businessman can hope for success if he lays his plans with care, is fortunate enough to have loyal and enthusiastic associates and then gives all his efforts and energies to the tasks he has set himself.
By doing so, he has the battle three-quarters won. The remaining quarter is the variable and unpredictable factor, the unknown quantity that puts the zest and excitement into business." (J. Paul Getty, My Life and Fortunes, Page 186-187)
Once labelled the richest man in the world by Fortune Magazine, J. Paul Getty writes his life story in this his autobiography. There is another book he had written after this that is also autobiographical called As I See It. I took a look at both books contents and they are not the same books. I believe that J. Paul Getty updated his autobiography years later. I believe this is an early autobiography and it goes up to the years 1956-1960. He died June 6, 1976.
He shares his younger days of working on the oil rig and learning wildcatting operations, his investments in leases, some leases that paid off and some that didn't and then expansion of his oil company. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a teacher. His father became ill and the control of the company went to his mother. Later on, J. Paul Getty took over the company called Getty Oil Company. He had some hostile take overs and litigation with some bigger companies including Standard Oil. He expanded his oil company all over the world including countries outside of the US: Canada, the Neutral Zone, Turkey...
He shares of his experiences in his 5 failed marriages and the children that came from those marriages. You can see why his marriages failed clearly in his autobiography. He always regrets his failed marraiges, but never changes his behaviour. The behaviour I saw that killed his marriages was his inability to spend time with his partners and children. He was always working on the next big deal. Although he always expresses regret, he never changes his ways. I was flabbergasted at this. I believe he was out of balance. He had business and financial goals, but not very clear relationship goals. It is a lesson to all of us, that having a successful business is great, but it needs to be balanced with having successful relationships.
At the end of his life he buys a large estate 1 hour from London, England and runs all his companies from this estate. At the end of this book he is starting to write, which was one of his lifelong passions, but because of business endeavors, had never been able to accomplish considerably. To see the continuation of his life, you have to read the book I mentioned above As I See It.
I do not believe that these are necessarily innate traits or abilities. I think that in the great majority of instances, they are formed and developed by a man's experience in his business career. Having seen his opportunity and set his goal, a businessman can hope for success if he lays his plans with care, is fortunate enough to have loyal and enthusiastic associates and then gives all his efforts and energies to the tasks he has set himself.
By doing so, he has the battle three-quarters won. The remaining quarter is the variable and unpredictable factor, the unknown quantity that puts the zest and excitement into business." (J. Paul Getty, My Life and Fortunes, Page 186-187)
Once labelled the richest man in the world by Fortune Magazine, J. Paul Getty writes his life story in this his autobiography. There is another book he had written after this that is also autobiographical called As I See It. I took a look at both books contents and they are not the same books. I believe that J. Paul Getty updated his autobiography years later. I believe this is an early autobiography and it goes up to the years 1956-1960. He died June 6, 1976.
He shares his younger days of working on the oil rig and learning wildcatting operations, his investments in leases, some leases that paid off and some that didn't and then expansion of his oil company. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a teacher. His father became ill and the control of the company went to his mother. Later on, J. Paul Getty took over the company called Getty Oil Company. He had some hostile take overs and litigation with some bigger companies including Standard Oil. He expanded his oil company all over the world including countries outside of the US: Canada, the Neutral Zone, Turkey...
He shares of his experiences in his 5 failed marriages and the children that came from those marriages. You can see why his marriages failed clearly in his autobiography. He always regrets his failed marraiges, but never changes his behaviour. The behaviour I saw that killed his marriages was his inability to spend time with his partners and children. He was always working on the next big deal. Although he always expresses regret, he never changes his ways. I was flabbergasted at this. I believe he was out of balance. He had business and financial goals, but not very clear relationship goals. It is a lesson to all of us, that having a successful business is great, but it needs to be balanced with having successful relationships.
At the end of his life he buys a large estate 1 hour from London, England and runs all his companies from this estate. At the end of this book he is starting to write, which was one of his lifelong passions, but because of business endeavors, had never been able to accomplish considerably. To see the continuation of his life, you have to read the book I mentioned above As I See It.
November 29, 2019
“I had a a voracious appetite for reading since boyhood. My favorite subjects were and have always been history and literature. My ambitions were to become a writer or enter the United States Diplomatic Service - or, ideally, to do both simultaneously.” 37
“Today, oil is big business, probably the biggest of all businesses. Without oil, there would be - there could be - no civilization as we know it. Only food, clothing, and shelter rank before oil among modern man’s essential needs, and the production of these is dependent to a very great degree in petroleum, its products, and by-products.” 15
“Today, oil is big business, probably the biggest of all businesses. Without oil, there would be - there could be - no civilization as we know it. Only food, clothing, and shelter rank before oil among modern man’s essential needs, and the production of these is dependent to a very great degree in petroleum, its products, and by-products.” 15
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