“Winning” by Jack Welch – Book Review
The book, “Winning”, by former GE CEO Jack Welch excites me, because I’ve always been quietly obsessed with business. I’ve had varying degrees of success in my jobs in the private sector and in entrepreneurship. But if I’m being completely honest, I’d like to absolutely hit some home runs out of the park as a businessperson. Soon.
Maybe you can relate.
I have to work. So I might as well love business, and develop and exercise my skills in my full-time medical sales job and my future book publishing business. I have many other business ideas too. So does my husband. Stock investing more appeals to me. I’d also like to continue to handle things really well on the personal finance side. Business, the economy, and capitalism fascinate me. After all, I’ve been a businessperson since I started selling candy in kindergarten.
Right now, and in the future, I’d like to experience increasingly big, solid, lasting success in business.
I think that my success as a businessperson has the potential to benefit myself, my family, my friends, my colleagues, and many other people. Possibly the entire world and beyond. If I am increasingly successful as a businessperson, in an ethical and legal way, it would create many more positive ripples in the world than my failure would. I believe in giving, and helping, and making the world a brighter place. I’m interested in outcomes where everyone wins. It’s possible. It’s worth the risk. My business efforts could reap huge rewards. So I might as well swing for the bleachers and plan to achieve business results that are sizable, sturdy, and successful in an evergreen-type-of-way. Might as well.
That’s the type of thinking and obsession with business and achievement that makes me like the 2005 book “Winning” written by Jack Welch, former General Electric CEO, with the help of his wife, Suzy Welch. Even with GE’s post-Welch recent turn in fortune, I highly recommend the book. I originally found the book at a family member’s house, was intrigued, and borrowed it. I like it so much I read it for fun at night. Welch and I seem to like business for the same reasons. Business is exciting, effective, and rewarding when done right. It makes the world work.
My favorite chapter in Welch’s book, “Winning”, is about hiring the right people. He describes a formula of personality characteristics that help people win. I mainly think this is interesting for personal development purposes, but also for smartly choosing people to work with. According to Jack, in brief, here’s “what winners are made of”:
The 3 Acid Tests:
- Integrity
- Intelligence
- Maturity
The 4-E and 1-P Framework:
- Positive Energy
- Ability to Energize Others
- Edge: Make Yes or No Decisions
- Execute: Get the Job Done
- Passion
Leadership Characteristics:
- Authenticity
- Ability to see around corners – Futurist
- Strong penchant to surround themselves with people better and smarter than they are – Confident Humility
- Heavy-Duty Resilience
Welch elaborates, in entertaining detail, on this formula for what winners are made of in “Winning”. As I previously mentioned, it’s a fantastic list to consider for personal development.
In the book, Welch also has chapters on Strategy, Change, The Right Job, Getting Promoted, Work-Life Balance, People Management, Six Sigma, and Candor, among others. Every chapter is straight-to-the-point and rings true. “Winning” is a great read on what it takes to create business success. I’ll be flipping through the book again tonight just because I love it.
