The New Machine Discussion paper

Josh Duncan
EEE-2083
8 November 2022
The New Machine
This series from the history channel is truly a great series and found it very interesting. It really shows how the first true big-time entrepreneurs started up and how they got through there struggles and problems. What happened in this show is it showed how to main entrepreneurs became successful and many others. Rockefeller was one of the main two entrepreneurs that had to go through a lot to become what he became. He owned Standard Oil, which was a monopoly in the oil field and didn’t allow any of the small competitors to have a chance and the government did not like that so after many court cases and running from the government, they finally come to the decision day, and he ends up splitting up the business to many of smaller ones keeping shares in all of them and gaining more money than ever. During the court case something that was very interesting to me and very entrepreneurial and I loved it was when Rockefeller says “you call it monopoly, I call it enterprise. This showed how as a entrepreneur he thought about everything and really stunned the judges. The next main entrepreneur they talked about was henry ford. Henry ford really fought for his rights as an entrepreneur and paved the way for many new ones wanting to create something with a patent. Henry ford created many prototypes of automobiles but after creating one that would work ALAM started coming after him because they had a patent on the automobile. Henry therefore challenged the world’s best driver to race in their car and him in his and he ended up winning doing this, therefore proved that his car was the future and more advanced. Doing this made ALAM mad and they therefore attempt to sue ford but after many court battles, miraculously henry ford wins the upset of the century against them and is given the rights to produce his car. These two stories of entrepreneurs were very interesting because without them fighting for their rights we wouldn’t have the path pathed nor be as advanced in the entrepreneurial world.
The New Machine is entrepreneurial because it tells us how they all became a successful entrepreneur with society on their back. It also shows how they all gave new entrepreneurs a chance against the monopolies in the big world and showed it can be done. All of it also related all back to what we have learned so far in book and class discussions. The main takeaway from this movie that related the most to me from the book is the seen and the unseen. It is because many of entrepreneurs don’t know the stories behind the guys who started it all and this movie explains it because without them doing this then the world would be in a different place today and not as advanced in this degree and that is “the unseen. Then “the seen” is how they went face to face with society not backing down to obtain their rights to their business and allow other to also pursue this same field and not be monopolized by the big guys. Another point is that how much of an impact the government and society had on entrepreneurs back then and how restricted they were due to all the rules and regulations in places making it very difficult. However ford and Rockefeller found ways to make entrepreneurs become more common and giving people many more chances in surviving the fight against society.