Hammer's information

Amon Hamer is the chairman of Occidental Petroleum Company and a legendary figure. In the West, he is an almighty rich man who has the Midas touch to gold, but in the Soviet Union and China, he is a well-known "red capitalist" because he was the first Western entrepreneur to cooperate with the Soviet Union after the October Revolution and was affectionately called Lenin. Known as "Comrade Hammer"; he was also the first Western entrepreneur to visit China by private plane. He was hailed as a "brave man" by Deng Xiaoping. "The Autobiography of Hammer" has become a very popular book in China. Bestseller. Hamer is a descendant of Russian immigrants and was born in New York City, USA on May 21, 1898. His great-grandfather, Vladimir, was a Russian Jew who became extremely wealthy by building ships during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I. By the time Hamer's grandfather, Jacob, was married and had children, a tsunami caused by a typhoon wiped away all the family wealth. In 1875, Jacob immigrated to the United States with his wife and son Julius. When Julius was 15 years old, he gave up his studies and worked as a foundry in a steel factory to support his family. He was young and strong and became a very important figure among the workers. He joined the Socialist Labor Party, organized a trade union, and became an active socialist. When Julius was 19 years old, he applied for a job as a pharmacist. A few years later, he used his saved wages to buy his boss's pharmacy, and later opened two more branches and a pharmaceutical factory. In this way, the young socialist became a young capitalist. However, Julius did not give up his beliefs and remained a loyal follower of the American socialist movement. During a socialist outing in 1897, Julius fell in love at first sight with a young widow, Rose, and soon married. A year later, they had their first child, whom Julius named Armon Hammer, allegedly after the Arm and Hammer, the flag emblem of the Socialist Labor Party of the United States. . Only 4 months after Hamer was born, his father Julius was admitted to Columbia Medical School. In the next four years, Julius had to run a pharmacy and a pharmaceutical factory as well as study for his medical courses. However, he was indeed a tough man and managed to balance his studies and career, and finally graduated in 1902. The achievement of this achievement had a great influence on Hamer's subsequent growth. Julius believed that treating diseases and saving people was more noble than making money from business, so he resolutely sold the pharmacy and pharmaceutical factory, opened a clinic in the Bronx area of ??New York City, and became a doctor. During his lifetime of practicing medicine, he saved the lives of more than 5,000 babies. Under the guidance of their father's words and deeds, the children grew up. Hammer is the least obedient of the three brothers, but also the most creative. He skipped school, but after his father's education, he changed. He rose to the top of his class without slipping away. After school, he also learned to play with radios, build airplane models, and won a gold medal in the high school graduation speech contest. In addition, he was fascinated by the biographies of famous American entrepreneurs such as Rockefeller and Carnegie who started from scratch, and began to look for ways to make money. At the age of 16, when he was in high school, he successfully made his first "big deal." One day, he saw an old two-seater convertible being auctioned on Broadway and decided to buy it. He borrowed money from his half-brother Harry, who sold goods in a drugstore, and confidently promised to repay him soon. It turned out that he had found a job from a newspaper advertisement, that is, using a car to deliver goods to a confectioner, and he could get a reward of US$20 a day. Sure enough, two weeks later, not only did he repay his brother's money in full and get the car, but he also had coins jingling in his pocket. Three years later, in 1917, after completing the two-year pre-medical course, Hamer came to the prestigious Columbia Medical College with great ambition and submitted an application for admission. The staff member in charge of registration looked him up and down and said, "Are you Dr. Julius's son? I processed your father's application for admission in 1898, the year you were born, and I'm here to welcome you again today." That's it, ha. Mo is proud to be a student at Columbia Medical School, and the boat of destiny seems to be carrying him in the direction of inheriting his father's legacy. However, one day, his father came to the campus to find Hammer and told his son bad news: the pharmaceutical company he invested his savings in was on the verge of bankruptcy. Moreover, due to his poor health, especially because he wanted to continue practicing medicine, he had no energy to take care of the management of the company. Therefore, he asked his son to become the general manager of the company, but he was not allowed to drop out of school. He emphasized: "Son, this is what I did in the past, and you can do the same." In fact, his father's worries were completely unnecessary. Hammer has long been eager to try. He took on the challenge with great excitement. In order not to miss his studies, Hamer invited a classmate from a poor family but who excelled in studies to live with him and provide him with free room and board. The condition was that the classmate would go to class every day, take a lot of notes, and bring them back to him in the evening for him to cope with the exam. and writing papers. With this learning "stand-in", Hammer can concentrate on the management of the company. He reformed the company's business policies and sales methods, organized a strong team of salesmen, and changed the company's name to the resounding "United Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company." Hammer finally rescued the endangered company from the brink of bankruptcy. The number of employees grew from a dozen to 1,500. The products were sold well all over the country. The company began to join the ranks of large companies in the pharmaceutical industry. Soon after, Hamer became the only millionaire studying in college among Columbia Medical College and even among colleges and universities across the country.

In 1919, the average income in the United States was $625, and that year Hammer's personal net income exceeded $100 million. Academically, he received "A"s on most exams and was named the "most promising student" in his graduating class. In June 1921, he obtained the doctorate in medicine that he had dreamed of since childhood. From then on, people always called him doctor, although he never officially practiced medicine. At this time, Hammer decided to use the short half-year interval between the end of his studies and the beginning of his internship to do something shocking, that is, to visit the Soviet Union. After the October Revolution, Hamer's father, as one of the founders of the Communist Party of America, paid great attention to the Soviet Union and provided necessities to the blockaded Bolshevik regime. However, due to a medical accident, in June 1920, Hammer's father was tried and imprisoned. This sudden change made the young and energetic Hammer determined to fulfill his father's failed wish and go to the country where his father was born to help the Soviet Union defeat the famine and typhoid fever that was spreading there. As a result, Hammer sold the pharmaceutical company for US$2 million, spent hundreds of thousands of US dollars to buy a field hospital and its supporting medical supplies and medical equipment, and also spent US$15,000 to buy a field hospital. The ambulance has the words "American Medical Mission to Moscow" painted on the side. He wanted to give these to the Soviets as a meeting gift. The Soviet Union was isolated from most Western countries at the time, so to many people Hammer's trip was tantamount to an expedition to the moon. In this way, 23-year-old Hammer embarked on a path that would fundamentally change his life. The young millionaire went through many hardships along the way and finally arrived in the Soviet Union in the early summer of 1921. Exhausted from the journey, he fell ill. But he had no complaints, refused special treatment, and lived a miserable wartime life with the Soviet people. He insists on memorizing and learning to use 100 Russian words every day so that he can start working quickly. In early August 1921, Hammer accompanied a delegation to the Ural region for inspection. The situation here puzzled him: on the one hand, there were huge treasures and rich products, including platinum, gems, furs and other valuables; on the other hand, there was a severe famine, with people dying of hunger everywhere, and the most basic necessities of life were scarce. So, he asked the Soviets who led the team: "Why don't you export these things in exchange for food?" "That's impossible," they replied, "Europe has just lifted its blockade on us and wants to sell these things and import food. It will take too long. And to save the people in the Ural region from hunger, at least 1 million bushels of food are needed." At this time, a bold plan was formed in Hamer's mind. He thought of the bumper grain harvest in the United States at that time and the price of grain had dropped to US$1 per bushel, so he made a suggestion: "I have US$1 million in funds. I can urgently purchase 1 million bushels of wheat in the United States, ship it to Petrograd, and unload it." After loading the grain, furs and other goods worth $1 million will be shipped back to the United States." Hammer's suggestion quickly reached Moscow, and Lenin personally called back to express his approval of the deal and asked Hammer to return to Moscow as soon as possible. The day after arriving in Moscow, Hamer was summoned to Lenin's office. In order to allow the young Soviets to recuperate, Lenin was implementing the New Economic Policy at the time, so he paid special attention to Hamer's proposal. Lenin stood up from his desk to welcome Hammer and conversed cordially with him in English. When Lenin expressed his sincere gratitude to Hamer on behalf of the Soviet government, the great revolutionary actually shed tears with excitement. From then on, a sincere and deep friendship was formed between them. Lenin encouraged Hamer to invest in a factory and allowed him to mine asbestos mines in Siberia, making him the first foreigner to obtain mining rights in the Bolshevik Soviet Union. The barter trade between the United States and the Soviet Union began. Hamer organized the American United Corporation and communicated with more than 30 American companies. He seemed to have become the Soviet Union's agent for trade with the United States. Later, due to an accidental discovery, Hammer set up a pencil factory in the Soviet Union. One day, he stopped by a stationery store and wanted to buy pencils, but the only ones in the store were expensive German products. He had an idea and discovered that making pencils was a new and profitable business. He didn't know how to make pencils himself, but he knew how to use people who knew. He hired technicians from Germany and the United Kingdom with high salaries to set up a pencil factory, and used the American piece-rate wage system to manage production. As a result, it miraculously went into production in just seven or eight months, and the revenue reached US$2.5 million in the first year. output value. A few years later, Hammer not only met the needs of the Soviet pencil and pen market, but also exported 20% of its products to more than a dozen countries including the United Kingdom. The factory soon became one of the largest pencil factories in the world, bringing Hammer millions of dollars in revenue. Hammer spent nearly 10 years in Moscow. The Soviet Union became the birthplace of this billionaire, and he also used his efforts to support the young Soviet regime. However, the most active period of Hamer's life began after returning to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1931. He cast his net in all directions, turned stones into gold, and achieved success no matter what industry he was engaged in. He is like an almighty magician who can conjure rabbits one after another from a top hat in public. His business scope is dazzling. In addition to art business, he is also involved in radio broadcasting, gold trading and philanthropy; but what best demonstrates his talents is the whiskey and cattle business. When Hammer returned to the United States, it was during the Great Depression of the United States in the 1930s, but he thought it was an opportunity to make money. Although his eyes were fixed on the art sales business, his ears were listening to information from all directions.

He captured a clear message: Roosevelt was on his way to the White House. If he were elected and implemented his New Deal, Prohibition, which was enacted in 1919, would be repealed. This would mean a surge in demand for beer and whiskey across the country, as well as an unprecedented demand for kegs, at a time when there were none on the market. Hammer made a prompt decision and immediately ordered several shiploads of high-quality lumber from the Soviet Union, set up a temporary barrel stave processing plant at the New York dock, and established a modern barrel factory in New Jersey. The day Prohibition was repealed was when the barrels of Hammer Barrage Company were rolling off the production line. His barrels were snapped up by various distilleries at high prices. Not content with being a barrel supplier, Hammer joined the winemaking industry and started a whiskey business. He purchased a number of breweries one after another and quickly defeated all his competitors by drastically cutting prices and advertising heavily. His Dante brand whiskey suddenly became the first-class liquor in the United States, with annual sales of up to 1 million cases. The barrels introduced Hammer to the whiskey industry, and his love of steak introduced him to another area, the cattle industry, with equal success. Hamer got into the cattle business by accident. Once he complained about the lack of high-quality steaks in the market, one of his employees suggested buying a cow and killing it. The cow was bought, but it was a cow with a calf. Hamer thought he was not greedy enough to kill the pregnant cow, so he let the cows roam around the manor. It happened that Hamer's neighbor was a cattle breeding expert who specialized in breeding Angus cattle. Not only did he successfully deliver the cow that Hamer bought back, he also gave birth to the cow with his bull soon after. After mating, a calf with the excellent qualities of Angus cattle was born. Hamer was moved by the cattle raising experts and also developed a strong interest in cattle raising. Because a new business brainwave flashed through his mind: raising breeding cattle with the by-products of winemaking was a way of turning residue into gold. As soon as he said it, Hammer quickly built a large ranch to breed breeding cattle, and spent $100,000 to buy the best bull of this century-"Prince Eric". Over the next 3 years, Prince Eric alone bred 1,000 calves, including 6 world champions, earning him $2 million. Hamer has since transformed from a layman who raised cattle into a recognized leader in the cattle breeding industry. In 1956, Hammer was 58 years old. The wealth he accumulated in his business wars was so much that even he himself could not count it. He did plan to retire from the business world, move his family to California with his third new wife, and prepare to enjoy his retirement in peace. However, by chance, the alluring oil industry conquered him, and he began to live a new life in which "life begins at sixty" and became a world-famous oil tycoon. At that time, there was an Occidental Petroleum Company in California that was on the verge of bankruptcy. Its actual assets were only US$34,000, three employees, and several oil wells that were about to be scrapped. The company's stock was selling for only 18 cents per share. A distant relative of Hammer, a well-known accountant in Los Angeles, suggested to Hammer that he invest in the oil company. Because according to the U.S. government’s tilt toward the oil industry, funds used for oil wells that have not yet produced oil do not need to be taxed. For the unemployed Hammer, he had no intention of acquiring the company, but he was willing to lend Occidental Petroleum $50,000 to drill two more wells. If the oil can be produced, both parties will each get 50% of the profit. If the oil cannot be produced, the money invested by Hammer can be deducted from the tax payable as a loss. Unexpectedly, both wells produced oil. Occidental Petroleum's stock suddenly rose to $1 per share, and Hammer also tasted the sweetness and began to get involved in the oil industry. Soon, Hamer became the company's largest shareholder, and in July 1957 he was elected chairman and general manager of Occidental Petroleum. Hamer relied on his many years of experience and took huge risks to start building an oil kingdom. He recruited troops and found the best drilling engineers and the best geologists. In 1961, he finally drilled two huge natural gas fields in California. Occidental Petroleum's stock price jumped to $15 per share, and the company was strong enough to compete with the world's larger oil companies. At that time, most of the world's rich and large oil fields were already owned by the seven major Western oil companies known as the "Seven Sisters", and it was difficult for Hammer to get involved. Therefore, Hammer, who has an adventurous spirit, withstood the pressure from inside and outside the company and placed his bet on Libya. On two leased lands that other oil companies had given up with no hope of producing oil, Hammer persevered. At the end of 1966, he finally discovered a large vein of oil and opened two new oil fields rich in high-grade crude oil. Under Hamer's management, Occidental Petroleum's business is booming, profits are rising year by year, and the scope of oil exploration continues to expand, from domestic to foreign countries, from land to ocean, and has found oil in the Middle East, the North Sea, South America, Pakistan, the South China Sea and other places. Rich oil source. The achievements in the Beihai region are particularly obvious: his company was the last to enter, but the first to produce oil. In 1974, his Occidental Petroleum Company had annual revenues of $6 billion. By 1982, Occidental Petroleum Company had become the 12th largest industrial company in the United States and the 8th largest oil company in the world next to the "Seven Sisters". In order to better adapt to the ever-changing needs of the business world, one of the secrets of Hammer's management is never to hang on a tree and implement multi-faceted management. This is his long-lasting magic weapon.

At the end of 1966, shortly after Occidental Petroleum discovered oil in Libya, Hammer purchased Permian and MacWood Corporation and Garrett Research and Development Corporation for 88 million yuan in stock. In January 1968, Occidental Petroleum's stock rose to more than $100 per share. Hammer promptly changed each old share into three new shares. Later, the price of each new share rose to $55. Hammer took advantage of this favorable opportunity to use the company's stocks as currency to develop diversified operations such as coal and chemical products. In early 1968, Occidental Petroleum purchased the Island Creek Coal Mine Company, the third largest coal company in the United States, for $150 million. The company's annual sales are US$150 million and its raw coal reserves reach 3.5 billion tons. In 1974, Daoxi Coal Mining Company's net profit reached nearly US$100 million. In July 1968, Occidental Petroleum purchased Hooker Chemical and Plastic Products Company for US$800 million in preferred stock, which was the largest merger ever made in the United States. By the 1970s, Hammer's eyes turned to broader areas. In 1972, after many political twists and turns, Hamer concluded a 20-billion-dollar fertilizer business with the Soviet Union that lasted 20 years, pushing U.S.-Soviet trade to its peak. In May 1979, at the invitation of Comrade Deng Xiaoping, the 81-year-old Hamer became the first Western entrepreneur to visit China by private jet. Since then, Occidental Petroleum Corporation has signed a series of economic cooperation agreements with the Chinese government. Among them, the Antaibao open-pit coal mine in Pingshuo, Shanxi, with an annual output of 15.33 million tons of raw coal, was the largest cooperation project between Dr. Hamer and my country, and it was also the largest Sino-foreign joint venture in China at the time. In 1981, Occidental Petroleum Company merged with two major meat processing companies in the United States, making Occidental Petroleum Company the largest meat product manufacturer in the United States. In this way, Occidental Petroleum's business structure has developed from a single oil company to a comprehensive enterprise including coal, chemicals, fertilizers, metal processing, etc. So far, it has branches in more than 50 countries around the world, with sales of nearly US$20 billion, making it one of the most famous large companies in the United States.