Competitiveness and Self-Confidence

Jack Welch grows up in a competitive environment. He is surrounded by competition. As a first-grader, Jack rushes home from school for lunch just for the chance to play gin rummy with his mother, who generally beats him, putting the winning cards on the table and shouting, "Gin!" Jack gets angry, but he can't wait to return home to get the chance to try again to beat her. That, Jack contends, is the start of his competitiveness, which flows over onto the baseball and football fields, hockey rink, golf course and business. When he is 9, his parents move to Salem. His friends are competitive, and they collectively form football, baseball and hockey teams and have intense neighborhood rivalries. Jack continued to compete in elementary and high school on football, baseball and hockey teams. He is his senior class treasurer. As an executive and CEO of GE...