"Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be." --
Jack Welch
The only child of his parents, Jack came from a working-class background in Salem, Massachusetts. His father was a railroad conductor. As a child, Jack suffered from a stuttering problem which bothered him. But his mother told him that it was because he is very clever.
It was his mother who inculcated in him leadership qualities and confidence to take on the world. "If I have any leadership style, a way of getting the best out of people," says Welch, "I owe it to my mother. She was the most influential person in my life. Grace Welch taught me the value of competition, just as she taught me the pleasure of winning and the need to take defeat in stride," Jack Welch says in his autobiography.
Jack Welch's autobiography, an international best seller -- Jack: Straight from the Gut -- gives an insight into the man who made GE one of top ranking companies in the world.
Image: Jack Welch and his wife Editor Suzy Wetlaufer photographed after their wedding at the Park Street Church in Boston, April 24, 2004. | Photograph: Jodi Hilton/Getty Images
Also read: World's 6 fastest motorbikes
Advertisement
