How did captains of industry like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie explain their enormous wealth and success?

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Rockefeller, Carnegie, and other captains of industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries often justified their wealth and success through the lens of Social Darwinism. This ideology applied Charles Darwin's theories of natural selection and survival of the fittest to human society, economics, and business. They believed their success was a result of their superior adaptability, intelligence, and hard work, which made them "naturally" fit to rise to the top of the economic and social hierarchy. This perspective allowed them to rationalize their wealth and the vast inequalities of the Gilded Age as a natural and beneficial outcome of the competitive capitalist system.

How Did Captains of Industry Like John D