What Initiative, The Ability to Learn, and Timing Have in Common

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Clearly, there are many factors for business success. What are some of these factors and how did William Keeney Bixby implement them into his work ethic? What factors made the greatest impact in his career and why were they so important? When using a distant relative’s biography of W.K., Passionate Pursuits: William Keeney Bixby by Sally Bixby Defty, I was able to identify and analyze a few elements of W.K.’s business success.

Q: How did W.K. Bixby demonstrate initiative in his career and what role did it play in his economic success?

A: Bixby had been quoted saying, “There is no quality more valuable than initiative...When you think you can see a better method of doing the work committed to you, suggest it, but do it modestly and be sure you are right.” We see him put this into practice in 1888, when, only a year after joining the Missouri Car and Foundry Company, it became clear that his employers had made a disastrous contract for the purchase of pig iron. Bixby called the head of the pig iron company and acknowledged that the contract was binding, but that if it was followed through the Missouri Car and Foundry Company would be ruined. The pig iron company’s leader admired Bixby’s honesty and agreed to renegotiate the contract. This initial demonstration of initiative lead to the acquisition of respect from his boss, William McMillan, who eventually turned his company over to Bixby. Once Bixby obtained control of this company his entrepreneurial, and therefore economic, success snowballed off of that.

Q: What is the importance of mentors in one’s business success?

A: Mentors allow for those learning from them to pick up new skills and methods for becoming successful in one’s expertise. W.K. Bixby was greatly influenced by three men specifically. His first mentor was a man named, Herbert Hoxie, who was similar to Bixby in the fact that he had began working at the early age of seventeen. Hoxie brought Bixby to St. Louis with him when he was transitioning from managing the International and Great Northern railroad in Texas to also managing all the Gould railroads in Texas. Hoxie’s entrepreneurial skills of climbing the ladder of the business world clearly rubbed off on Bixby, who later followed this work structure. Bixby’s next mentor was William P. McMillan, who greatly advanced Bixby’s career. McMillan owned the Missouri Car and Foundry which made the rail cars urgently needed at the time of huge expansion of the railroads in the U.S. The year after Hoxie died, McMillan hired W.K. as a lumber buyer for the company, this job being important because at this time all cars were at the time made of wood. Two years after the initial hiring of Bixby, McMillan turned over the company to him. McMillan had taught Bixby the importance of being decisive and active in the business world and how that can lead to the development of one’s career. Bixby’s last mentor, Charles Lang Freer, educated Bixby post-career, advising him in investments in cultural projects, especially ones related to artwork. Freer advised Bixby, gave him letters of introduction to the leading scholars and dealers of art in the Far East and became a close friend. Freer shows the function of the mentor that allows mentees to expand their interests and their ability to provide a comforting relationship, which leads to a more enlightened and confident individual.

Q: How does timing influence the progression of an entrepreneur?

A: I believe that timing plays a crucial role in how an entrepreneur develops his or her career. In W.K.’s case, being so involved in the railroad industry in a time when that industry was booming allowed him to be as influential as he was in the business world. By having connections, another important component in business success, with railroad companies and by being educated in a field that was flourishing at that time he was able to capitalize on those advantages to generate more status. This is part of  how Bixby was able to in 1899 create a merger that initially involved thirteen railroad car building companies which would later swell to nearly twenty companies. In a few years its annual business amounted to $75 million, and shipped railroad cars all over the world. This all indeed was facilitated by the newfound manufacturing and use of commercial railroads and of course the other skills involved in human capital from William himself.

FUTURE QUESTIONS:

1. Is it necessary to have multiple factors of business success such as having initiative, connections, good timing, or can you be just as successful with one component?
2. After becoming so successful in the railroad industry what else did W.K. Bixby become involved in?