Business
Gulbenkian began as an unpaid worker for his father, who was as noted for his miserly tendencies as his son would be for his spending, but later sued his father for $10 million, bizarrely after a refusal by the company to allow him $4.50 for a lunch of chicken in tarragon jelly. Ultimately the incident contributed to Calouste Gulbenkian's decision to leave $420 million of his fortune to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Portugal.
Although he ultimately inherited $2.5 million from his father, as well as more in a settlement from the Foundation, Gulbenkian also became independently wealthy through his own oil dealings. He was initially the protégé of Henri Deterding at Royal Dutch Shell but later made an independent fortune which allowed him to live a highly extravagant lifestyle.
Read more about this topic: Nubar Gulbenkian
Famous quotes containing the word business:
“And what if my descendants lose the flower
Through natural declension of the soul,
Through too much business with the passing hour,
Through too much play, or marriage with a fool?”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“No wonder poets sometimes have to seem
So much more business-like than business men.
Their wares are so much harder to get rid of.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Faces, suddenly suspended above you;
faces that you think it’s your business to love
if only you could remember their names.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)