It is always, I presume, a question in every business just how fast it
is wise to go, and we went pretty rapidly in those days, building and
expanding in all directions. We were being confronted with fresh
emergencies constantly. A new oil field would be discovered, tanks for
storage had to be built almost over night, and this was going on when
old fields were being exhausted, so we were therefore often under the
double strain of losing the facilities in one place where we were
fully equipped, and having to build up a plant for storing and
transporting in a new field where we were totally unprepared. These
are some of the things which make the whole oil trade a perilous one,
but we had with us a group of courageous men who recognized the great
principle that a business cannot be a great success that does not
fully and efficiently accept and take advantage of its opportunities.

How often we discussed those trying questions! Some of us wanted to
jump at once into big expenditures, and others to keep to more
moderate ones. It was usually a compromise, but one at a time we took
these matters up and settled them, never going as fast as the most
progressive ones wished, nor quite so carefully as the conservatives
desired, but always made the vote unanimous in the end.


THE JOY OF ACHIEVEMENT

The part played by one of my earliest partners, Mr. H.M. Flagler, was
always an inspiration to me. He invariably wanted to go ahead and
accomplish great projects of all kinds, he was always on the active
side of every question, and to his wonderful energy is due much of the
rapid progress of the company in the early days.