Jack Welch Quotes

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others."

"Change before you have to."

"Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be."

"Number one, cash is king... number two, communicate... number three, buy or bury the competition."

"An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage."

"The biggest cowards are managers who don't let people know where they stand."

"You got to be rigorous in your appraisal system. The biggest cowards are managers who don't let people know where they stand."

"There's no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences."

"Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion."

"The team with the best players wins."

"Control your own destiny or someone else will."

"I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that's a big deal. And if you're going to be a leader - if you're a leader and you're the smartest guy in the world - in the room, you've got real problems."

"I was afraid of the internet... because I couldn't type."

"Culture drives great results."

"If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete."

"If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don't have to manage them."

"Globalization has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to source, but to find intellectual capital - the world's best talents and greatest ideas."

"I don't feel under-taxed in any way at all."

"Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act."

"Be candid with everyone."

"My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too."

"The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important - and then get out of their way while they do it."

"Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobs provide the only true job security in today's world. Weak managers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs."

"I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success."

"CEOs can talk and blab each day about culture, but the employees all know who the jerks are. They could name the jerks for you. It's just cultural. People just don't want to do it."

"In my lifetime, Mitt Romney is the most qualified leader I've ever seen run for the presidency of the United States."

"Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while."

"I actually think that the economy has got some positives. It's got the market. It's got consumer confidence and it's got banks throwing - I mean central bankers throwing money at it around the world."

"Give me a highly successful unionized industry."

"Don't manage - lead change before you have to."