Rockefeller once explained the secret of success. ’Get up early, work late - and strike oil.’

Joey Adams (1911–1999), an American comedian and aphorist known for one-liners about ambition and money, often recycled and reshaped popular “success” sayings for comic effect. This quip attributes to John D. Rockefeller a mock formula for achievement: the familiar self-help advice to rise early and work late, capped by the punchline “and strike oil,” a nod to Rockefeller’s fortune in petroleum. The line functions less as a documented Rockefeller remark than as Adams’s satirical commentary on how narratives of success frequently blend hard work with decisive luck and the advantages of being in the right industry at the right time.

The joke undercuts earnest work-ethic platitudes by adding the missing ingredient: luck (or a windfall) that dwarfs ordinary effort. “Get up early, work late” evokes the moralized American ideal of industriousness; “and strike oil” exposes how many celebrated success stories depend on contingency—resources, timing, opportunity, or a single breakthrough—rather than diligence alone. By invoking Rockefeller, the emblem of Gilded Age wealth, Adams also hints at the way later generations retrofit billionaires into inspirational parables, smoothing over structural advantages and historical circumstance. The humor comes from the abrupt shift from generic advice to an impossibly specific, jackpot-like outcome.