Winning - Jack Welch [126]
But when you can’t play, you can’t play—and amazingly, the world doesn’t even end.
And finally, this question was posed by an audience member at a management conference in Frankfurt attended by about twenty-five hundred people:
Do you think you will go to heaven?
After a few seconds of stunned silence, my first answer to this one was, “Well, I sure hope that’s long-range planning!”
But after the audience stopped laughing—they were as surprised by the question as I was—the man who asked this question made it clear that he wanted to understand what I considered my legacy.
First off, I hate the word legacy. It just sounds so arrogant. Presidents and prime ministers have legacies. I ran a company and wrote a book or two.
But here we are at the end of this book, and the question did get asked, so I’ll attempt an answer.
If there is anything I would like to be remembered for it is that I helped people understand that leadership is helping other people grow and succeed. To repeat myself, leadership is not just about you. It’s about them.
I would also like to be remembered as a huge advocate of candor and meritocracy, and believing everyone deserves a chance. And I’d like to be remembered for trying to make the case that you can never let yourself be a victim.
Now, it is no secret that I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my career. I’ve made some bad acquisitions, hired some wrong people, and moved too slowly on some opportunities. And that is just a fraction of the list.
As for my personal life, I have four great children and nine terrific grandchildren. My love and admiration for them cannot be expressed with words, and their happy, fulfilling lives today give me no end of pleasure. I had two marriages, however, that did not work out. Life goes on and usually for the better, but no one lives through two divorces and feels proud that they happened.
So, as for heaven, who knows? I’m sure not perfect, but if there are any points given out for caring about people with every fiber of your being and giving life all you’ve got every day, then I suppose I have a shot.
Given the choice, of course, I’d rather not find out anytime soon!
There’s so much more to do.
Acknowledgments
* * *
BUSINESS IS ABOUT PEOPLE. In fact, life is only people—family, friends, colleagues, bosses, teachers, coaches, neighbors. At the end of the day, it is only people that matter.
People made this book. First, there were the thousands of men and women around the world who, as my dedication says, cared about business enough to raise their hands and ask the questions that fill these pages. I thank them for candidly sharing their stories, talking openly about the ever-changing challenges of work, and for helping me codify my thinking about how to get it right.
I am also deeply grateful to the people who took an hour or two (and often more) to talk with me about their experiences so that the ideas in this book could be filled with life: Bill Harrison and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase; Steve Klimkowski of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare; George Tamke, a partner at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice; David Novak, who runs Yum! Brands; Bob Nardelli of The Home Depot; Robert Bagby of A.G. Edwards; Perry Ruddick, the retired vice-chairman of Smith Barney; Maxine McKew of the Australian Broadcasting Company; Kevin Sharer of Amgen; Jimmy Dunne of Sandler O’Neill & Partners; my old friend Paolo Fresco, former vice-chairman of GE and retired CEO of Fiat; Gerry Roche of Heidrick & Struggles; Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City public schools; Jim McNerney of 3M; Paolo Monferino of Case New Holland; Dara Khosrowshahi of Expedia; and Chris Navetta of U.S. Steel; and from GE, Bill Conaty, Gary Reiner, Susan Peters, Dennis Dammerman, Mark Little, John Krenicki, and Charlene Begley. Bob Nelson, my financial analyst at GE for many years, was a helpful reader along the way.
Several people don’t appear by name in this book, but their ideas were critical in shaping its content. Linda Gosden Robinson, president of Robinson