I first read Atlas Shrugged in 1959 when a substitute teacher recommended it. As a budding statist high school senior I was willing to read a hundred pages or so in order to be considered 'open minded'. I probably read it 20 times in my youth. I can tell you that Gertrude is Rearden's cook. I figured out who John Galt was when he was first introduced as Eddie Willers' dining companion.
I did not become a hugely successful industrialist. At least not yet.