Forbes® Best Business Mistakes: How Today's Top Business Leaders Turned Missteps into Success

Chapter 1. JACK WELCH

CEO of General Electric Company (GE), 1981 to 2001

Named "Manager of the Century" by Fortune magazine

BS, MS, and PhD in chemical engineering

I worked for Jack Welch for four years. He was running GE when I was anchoring at CNBC. This may be hard to recall, but NBC was the number one broadcast network then. Must-see TV dominated the Thursday night lineup. The Tonight Show was number one in its time slot, with no host controversy. CNBC was the number one cable network and even then was making more than $300 million a year. And this was all in a division that was pretty much a sideline business for the conglomerate. But Jack was quoted as saying, "You don't sell beachfront property." Since Jack left, there has been erosion on that beach.

Being number one was not a coincidence. Jack always told us he made it a policy that every business endeavor in which GE was active would have to be number one or a strong number two in order for the corporation to stay committed to it.

Strong leadership was never in question when Jack Welch was at the helm. Everyone knew who was in charge. His business savvy and wise guidance of one of the largest companies measured by market capitalization on the New York Stock Exchange (if not the largest) was reflected in the stock price and the perception that people had of GE worldwide.

But on a smaller level, Jack was still a giant. Every time I saw Jack in person, I felt like a million bucks. He has the ability to turn his focus to you in a ...