Shadowing Practice: Letter 2 The 38 letters from J.D Rockefeller to his son - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hello, my name is Gary, and I was raised in the Western United States, so I'm a native English speaker.

I hope that you will enjoy this YouTube channel.

Thank you for joining us.

The 38 letters from J .D.

Rockefeller to his son by J .D.

Rockefeller, 1839 to 1937, Luck depends on planning.

January 20, 1900.

Dear John, some people are destined to be dazzling kings or great men because of their extraordinary talents, such as old Mr. McCormick,

who had a brain that made luck and knew how to turn a reaper into a site for money.

In my eyes, McCormick Sr. will always be an ambitious

and commercially gifted industrial tycoon who freed American farmers with the harvester and put himself among the richest men in America.

The French seemed to like him more, hailing him as the man who had contributed most to the world.

Oh, what an unexpected bonus.

This business wizard, who could only be an ordinary farm implement dealer, said an esoteric saying, luck is the remnant of design.

This sentence does sound quite confusing.

Does it mean that luck is the result of planning and strategy, or is luck just what's left over after planning my experience tells me

that both meanings exist in other words we create our own luck

and it is impossible for us to completely eliminate luck with any action luck is the gospel

that is difficult to get rid of in the planning process McCormick understood the true meaning of luck

and open the door to luck so it's no surprise to me

that McCormick Harvester can be marketed around the world as a product that never sets.

However, in our world, it is difficult to find someone who is as good at planning luck as Mr. McCormick,

and it is also difficult to find someone who does not believe in luck and who does not misunderstand luck.

In the eyes of ordinary people, luck is always innate, and as long as they find someone who has been promoted in the position,

has a great success in the business world or succeeded in a certain field, they will say casually, even in a contemptuous tone.

This man is so lucky that luck helped him.

Such a man can never glimpse a great truth that makes him successful.

Every man is the designer and architect of his own destiny.

I admit that just like people can't live without money, people can't live without luck.

But you can't wait for luck to make a difference.

My creed is, I don't live by God -given luck, but I thrive by planning.

I believe that good planning can influence luck, and in any case, can successfully influence luck.

My plan to turn competition into cooperation in the oil world is a testament to this.

Before that plan began, the refiners fought their own way, greed for profit, and the result was a devastating competition.

This competition is certainly a boon for consumers, but falling oil prices are disasters for the refiners.

At that time, the vast majority of refiners were doing business at a loss and were sliding into bankruptcy one by one.

I know very well that in order to be profitable again and make money forever,

we must tame the industry and let everyone act rationally i see it as a responsibility

but it's hard to do

and it requires a plan a plan to put all the

refining operations under my umbrella john to be a good hunter on the hunting ground for profit

you need to think hard do things carefully be able to see all possible dangers

and opportunities and things at the same time study like a chess player everything that may jeopardize your dominance.

I thoroughly studied the situation and assessed my strength

and decided to make my base camp Cleveland as my first battleground in the war to rule the oil industry.

Just as a commander on the battlefield chooses what kind of target to attack, he must first know what kind of firearm to choose is

most effective to successfully implement the plan to unify the oil industry under my command.

A means of thoroughly solving the problem is required.

That's money, and I need a lot of money to buy those refineries that make overproduction.

But the little money I had on hand was not enough to realize my plan,

so I decided to form a joint stock company and bring in investors from outside the industry.

Soon we incorporated the Standard Oil in Ohio with millions of assets, and the capital expanded substantially three and a half times the following year.

But when to do it is a matter of knowledge.

Visionary businessmen are always good at finding opportunities in every disaster, and that's what I did.

Before we set out on our journey of conquest, the oil industry was in disarray.

Ninety of Cleveland's refiners were already overwhelmed by increasing competition, and if they didn't sell their plants, they would only watch themselves die.

This is the best time to acquire a rival it may seem unethical to take an acquisition at this time

but it really has nothing to do with conscience enterprises are like battlefields

and the significant of strategic goals is to create the most

favorable state for oneself out of strategic considerations the first target

i chose to conquer was not the vulnerable small company but the most formidable rival clark pain

This company is well -known in Cleveland and ambitious to eat my star refinery.

But before the opponent decides, I always have to strike first.

I took the initiative to meet with Clark Payne's largest shareholder, my old high school friend,

Mr. Oliver Payne, and I told him that the chaotic downturn in the oil industry was over.

In order to protect the industry, on which countless families depend, I want to build a large, high -performing oil company and welcome him.

Payne was so impressed with my plan that they agreed to sell the company for $400 ,000.

I knew Clark Payne was not worth the price, but I didn't turn them down.

Eating Clark Payne would mean that I would gain the status of the world's largest oil refinery.

To act as a powerful vanguard, this trick really worked.

In less than two months, 22 competitors came under the umbrella of Standard Oil,

making me the big winner of that takeover battle and thus give me an unstoppable motivation.

In the following three years, I successfully conquered the refiners in Philadelphia,

Pittsburgh, and Baltimore and became the only master of the oil refining industry in the United States.

Thinking about it today, I'm really lucky if I only said that my luck was bad and I followed the trend,

I might have been conquered long ago, but I plotted my luck.

Anything can happen in the world, but nothing will happen for nothing.

John, if we want to keep our luck, we must carefully plan luck, and planning luck requires a good plan.

A good plan must be a good design, and a good design must be able to play a role.

You need to know that there are two basic prerequisites to consider when conceding a good design.

The first is knowing your goals, such as what you want to do and even who you want to be.

The second is knowing your goals.

It is to know what resources you have, such as status, money, relationships, and even abilities.

The order of these two basic conditions is not absolutely irreversible.

You may have an idea and a goal before you start looking for goals suitable for these resources.

You can also mix them together to form the third and fourth methods.

To achieve the goal, you have to selectively create some resources and maybe have some resources and a certain goal.

You must raise or lower your goals based on these resources.

After you adjust the goals according to the resources

or adjust the resources according to the goals you have a foundation a structure

that can be conceived and designed the rest is to fill with means and time

and wait for luck to come you need to remember my son to design luck is to design life

so while you wait for luck you need to know how to channel it give it a try love your father

Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Letter 2 The 38 letters from J.D Rockefeller to his son”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: luck, oil, goal, planning, industry. This video has 94 sentences and 1406 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:00. The speaker talks at a natural 156 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
resource noun	/ɹɪˈzɔːs/	Something that one uses to achieve an objective, e.g. raw materials or personnel.
clerk noun	/klɝk/	One who occupationally provides assistance by working with records, accounts, letters, etc.; an office worker.
successfully adverb	/səkˈsɛs.fə.li/	In a successful manner; with success; without failing.
conquer verb	/ˈkɑŋkɚ/	To defeat in combat; to subjugate.
carefully adverb	/ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/	With care; attentively, circumspectly.
strategic adjective	/stɹəˈti.dʒɪk/	Of or pertaining to strategy.
ordinary adjective	/ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/	Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases.
disaster noun	/dɪˈzɑːs.təː/	An unexpected natural or man-made catastrophe of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life or sometimes permanent…
depend verb	/dɪˈpɛnd/	To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition
implement verb	/ˈɪmpləmənt/	To bring about; to put into practice; to carry out.
rival noun	/ˈɹaɪvəl/	A competitor (person, team, company, etc.) with the same goal as another, or striving to attain the same thing. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary…
thoroughly adverb	/ˈθʌɹ.ə.li/	In a thorough or complete manner.
adjust verb	/əˈd͡ʒʌst/	To modify.
ambitious adjective	/æmˈbɪʃ.əs/	Having or showing ambition; wanting a lot of power, honor, respect, superiority, or other distinction.
battlefield noun	/ˈbætəlˌfiːld/	The area where a land battle is fought, which may not necessarily be a field.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
come under verb	To come underneath (something).

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was raised · are destined · can be marketed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	man who had · someone who is · someone who does

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 8 contractions and reduced forms, such as can't, didn't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thoroughly /ˈθʌɹ.ə.li/, thrive /θɹajv/, unethical /ʌnˈɛθɪkəl/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: ambitious /æmˈbɪʃ.əs/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, cooperation /koʊˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, consideration /kənˌsɪd.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, acquisition /ˌæk.wɪˈzɪʃ.ən/
Long words — get the stress right: successfully /səkˈsɛs.fə.li/, ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, extraordinary /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, cooperation /koʊˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like resource, clerk, successfully.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Letter 2 The 38 letters from J.D Rockefeller to his son - Learn English Speaking with Video

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