In the summer of 1908, Charles Schwab’s brand-new steel mill in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was finally rolling, and his company was running out of money. He asked the president of the Chase National Bank for one and a half million dollars. The answer came back in writing: no.
Seven years later, the same banker came back, this time asking whether Bethlehem Steel was for sale. What changed was a piece of steel shaped like the letter H, a beam American builders didn’t want, and a rule Schwab liked to repeat: “If we are going bust, we will go bust big.”
0:00 The banker who said no
1:32 The man who could sell anything
4:05 The money runs out
7:15 The payoff
8:41 Bust big
The bet turned a small Navy supplier into America’s second-biggest steel maker, and the wide-flange beam is still how steel buildings are made. But Schwab gambled his own fortune the same way, and the bank that once told him no ended up with his house. Our take: Boom, then Bust.
Was Schwab’s bet on the H-beam a genius bet, or a reckless gamble? Tell us your opinion in the comments.
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#BusinessHistory #BethlehemSteel #CharlesSchwab
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