Good morning, friends!

Jeff Immelt's first day as CEO at General Electric was on Sept. 10, 2001. The next day, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon shook the world, the financial markets, and GE's business. The airplanes, one of them powered by GE engines, crashed into the WTC towers, which were insured by GE Capital.

At the time, GE was heavily invested in commercial aviation, insurance, and media — all three of which were rocked by Sept. 11.

"It was the first terrorist event I had ever seen — that most Americans of my generation had ever seen," Immelt told The Profile. "I think what you learn in a crisis is that good leaders absorb fear. They're not accelerators of fear — they know how to manage a sense of calm while still being really clear about the challenges ahead."

And unbeknownst to Immelt at the time, the challenges ahead were many. The terrorist attacks would be the first of a number crises that Immelt had to grapple with in his time as CEO. He was at the helm of the company through the bursting of the dot com bubble, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the fall of Enron, and the 2008-09 financial crisis.

"You learn to hold two truths," Immelt says. "You learn to say, 'Things can always get worse, but here's a dream that I have for the future, and I'm not going to give up on that.' You learn how to make decisions even when you don't know all the facts. In a crisis, you just got to make decisions."

Unfortunately, many of the decisions that Immelt made in his 16 years at the helm of GE did not pan out in his favor nor were they particularly popular. At one point during his tenure, he characterized his role as CEO in this way: "I feel like I want to vomit all the time."

"I never felt sorry for myself, but it was just the pressure and the consequences of all the decisions, how little was known," he says. "That period of time — it was just relentless."

Immelt succeeded Jack Welch, who was largely considered to be one of the best CEOs in the history of business. He had led GE through two decades of extraordinary corporate prosperity, so when he named Immelt as his successor, the pressure to perform was immense.

Even though Welch was no longer CEO, his legacy loomed. He was regarded by many as the greatest leader of his era by people both inside and outside the company.

During the summer of 2001, Immelt went on a golf trip with his friends before it was publicly announced he was CEO. In the locker room, a member asked him what he did for work, and he simply said, "I work at GE." The man looked at him and said, "GE, huh? I feel sorry for the poor son of a bitch who's taking Jack Welch's place."

Shareholders blamed Immelt for his inability to turn the company around and for allowing GE to lose $150 billion of market value under his watch. In his new book, Hot Seat: What I Learned Leading a Great American Company, Immelt doesn't make excuses: He takes responsibility for his missteps and lists the thorniest mistakes he regrets making in his time as CEO. They include failing to generate more shareholder value from GE Capital, missing an opportunity to reset the company in the early 2000s, and not developing a deep enough bench of rising leaders.

"It's a complicated story, and I didn't want to seem defensive, so I wanted to let the reader be the judge," he says. "I thought it was important for people to see the totality. That's why I decided to write the book."

In this conversation, Immelt shares what he's learned about leading in crisis, how he's taken responsibility for the consequences of his decisions, and why he believes the next generation of founders and CEOs need to be masters of chaos.

(Below is an excerpt of the interview, but I encourage you to listen and watch to the full interview here)

🎧 LISTEN:

Ex-GE CEO Jeff Immelt on Leading Through Crisis, Taking Personal Responsibility, and Becoming a Master of ChaosBy Polina Marinova PomplianoPodcast episode

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Just to paint the picture here: Your predecessor Jack Welch was largely considered to be the best CEO in history.

IMMELT: Fortune magazine had named him the best manager of the previous century in the year 2000. That's a pretty tough act to follow, but he was just very well known. He was a celebrity CEO — kind of like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos all wrapped up into one. He had done a good job, and he'd done it for a long time. He was very charismatic, and so that was a pretty daunting task. That was the person whose shoes I was stepping into. That was my task in 2001.

The 2008 financial crisis shook GE to the core. You had missed your earning numbers 3 weeks after you promised to hit them. And then Welch went on CNBC, where he said that if you missed earnings again, he would "be shocked beyond belief, and get a gun out and shoot you." What was your reaction in that moment and how did you handle that?

Yeah, I was really hurt because in 2008, I had very carefully never looked backwards or pointed a finger at him. It doesn't matter who you are or what you're doing, there's like five moments in your life when you just need a friend. You screwed up, you know you screwed up, and you need somebody to give you their hand and not smack your butt. And he chose to smack my butt, not give me his hand — and you remember that.

I never thought it would be a good thing for the company to see us bickering in public, so I never did that, but we had a very direct, private conversation. It was a line of demarcation in our relationship for sure. Even after that, when I had a really tough decision to make, I always called him — even when we weren't friends. I thought he had a good perspective that I could learn from and listen to.

Let's be clear — I knew I goofed up. I knew that, but I was trying to recover, and I needed a friend. I just needed a hand. And what he did was just the opposite of that. He made a two- to three-day story become a one-month story. It was unnecessary roughness.

Shares plunged nearly 30% since you took over the company. How do you respond to the people and the shareholders who feel genuinely angry at you for the decisions you made as CEO?

Look, the share price is important. It was $38 when I started as CEO, and it was $30 when I left. I understand that. I completely understand that, and I don't run from that.

What I try to point out is that we generated almost $300 billion of cash and earnings over those 16 years. We had great businesses. We generated good leaders. In other words, the team really worked hard through different crises and did their best. That's the best I can offer — a more complete story of what happened.

Read the full story here

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PROFILES.

— The quiet VC who had a monster year
— The Dogecoin millionaire
— The teens grappling with despair
— The rap star on a journey of self-discovery
— The gossip queen of daytime TV
— America's longest juvenile lifer
— The company that came back from the brink of death [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The quiet VC who had a monster year: Investor Alfred Lin and storied VC firm Sequoia Capital have had a hell of a year, one of full of exciting highs and complicated lows. Seven of Sequoia’s portfolio companies IPOed in 2020. Two of those, Airbnb and DoorDash, were the biggest IPOs of the year, whose boards Lin sits on and considers his "babies." But in the midst of all the hype, Lin suffered a personal loss that hit close to home. His college classmate, former business partner, and close friend Tony Hsieh died last November. This is Lin's very first in-depth profile, and it's a must-read. (Fortune)

“You learn a lot about people in a crisis. Alfred was everything I hoped he would be. He was optimistic and steady."

The Dogecoin millionaire: Last February, Glauber Contessoto decided to invest his life savings into Dogecoin, a digital currency that was created as a joke in 2013. Contessoto maxed out his credit cards, borrowed money using Robinhood’s margin trading feature and spent everything he had on the digital currency — investing about $250,000 in all. Unbeknownst to him at the time, Dogecoin would become an internet phenomenon that would turn his $250,000 into roughly $2 million. (The New York Times)

“Memes are the language of the millennials. Now we’re going to have a meme matched with a currency.”

The teens grappling with despair: The pandemic has affected everyone in different ways, but the suffering has been universal. One group that's often left out of the conversation are young people — teens who are trying to make their way through high school in a time of isolation. Psychologists know that one episode of major depression puts young people at higher risk for another. But they can’t predict what lasting difference the pandemic will make for the adolescents who suffered mental-health struggles during this time, many of whom were already vulnerable at the outset. This is a heartbreaking and insightful profile of the high schoolers trying to keep it all together. (The New York Times)

“It felt never-ending and like a blink at the same time — it was a vortex that sucked a year of our lives.”

The rap star on a journey of self-discovery: In 2019, rapper A$AP Rocky found himself in a bizarre situation. He was sitting in a jail cell in Sweden on an assault charge stemming from a street fight when the sound on the TV jolted him awake. “Even though it was in Swedish, I heard ‘President Donald Trump’ and ‘A$AP Rocky,’ and I woke up out of my sleep,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh, fuck!’" Trump had tweeted that he would be calling the Swedish prime minister about Rocky's imprisonment. The following day, the president tweeted that he would personally vouch for Rocky's bail. Here's what he's been up to since he was inadvertently thrust into the center of an international diplomatic incident. (GQ)

“Honestly, I never thought that things that I imagined while I was in jail would come true. And everything that I envisioned in prison came to fruition.”

The gossip queen of daytime TV: Wendy Williams's eponymous show is in its twelfth season, an eternity in daytime years. It averages more than a million live viewers a day, with hundreds of thousands more catching up online. On her show, Williams riffs on celebrity divorces, pop-star feuds, and “Real Housewives” antics. But in this profile, we learn that her own private life can be as messy as the celebrity dramas she skewers.

“I think we’re all works in progress until we perish."

America's longest juvenile lifer: Joe Ligon was only 15 years old when he was sent to prison after being involved in a stabbing incident. He spent nearly seven decades behind bars on a murder charge, an accusation he has always denied although he has since accepted in an interview with US broadcaster CBS that he stabbed someone who survived and has expressed remorse. Now, at 83 years old, he is trying to adjust to what he has waited so long for — freedom. (BBC)

"It was like being born all over again. Because everything was new to me - just about everything [changed]."

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The company that came back from the brink of death: Airbnb was at a crossroads—financially and spiritually—when COVID-19 hit. In March 2020, its business dropped by 80%. "A company dropping by 80% in eight weeks is like a car driving 100 miles an hour, and then hitting the brakes," Chesky says. "There’s no safe way to do that. Things are going to break.” Today, it’s the world’s most valuable hospitality company, poised to remake travel once again. Here's how Airbnb plans to conquer a re-opened world. (Fast Company)

"Optimism is the most important criteria because the psychology of a leader often becomes the psychology of an organization."

This installment of The Profile is free for everyone. If you would like to get full access to all of the recommendations, including today’s audio and video sections, sign up below.

AUDIO TO HEAR.

Amazon's rise to a global empire: Almost 10 years ago, Bloomberg journalist Brad Stone captured the rise of Amazon in his bestseller The Everything Store. Since then, Amazon has expanded exponentially, inventing novel products like Alexa and disrupting countless industries, while its workforce has quintupled in size and its valuation has soared to well over a trillion dollars. Jeff Bezos’s empire, once housed in a garage, now spans the globe. In this interview, Stone gives us a deep inside look at his juicy new book Amazon Unbound. (Link available to premium members.)

Esther Wojcicki on teaching kids to develop confidence: How do you teach kids to be secure and confident? Start by trusting them with small acts of responsibility. "We have restricted the freedom of our kids," says author and educator Esther Wojcicki. "We don't let our kids go anywhere by themselves." Here's how Wojcicki recommends molding your child and helping them develop habits that will turn them into independent adults. (Link available to premium members.)

Alex Rodriguez on the importance of financial literacy: Unlike many of his peers, Alex Rodrigues was able to successfully transition from sports to business. "I'm very disappointed that in the U.S. school system, we don't teach financial literacy," he says, calling the phenomenon an "epidemic." He says personal finance is "probably the most important class a young person can take today." Rodriguez began his journey to business by surrounding himself with smart people, building long-term relationships, and finding an attorney who can help protect you from bad actors. (Link available to premium members.)

VIDEOS TO SEE.

Kat Cole on the secret to leadership: One of the biggest lessons Kat Cole learned after years of business experience is to put your ego aside and learn from criticism. She once received the following advice: “Anytime you’re criticized, assume first that it’s correct.” The act of simply considering that a fraction of the criticism may be accurate will keep you learning, unlearning, fixing, and ultimately, gaining respect. This episode is full of unforgettable insights. (Link available to premium members.)

Ernest Hemingway on wrestling with life: Ernest Hemingway's life mirrored his writing. Underneath his masculine image was a man touched by tragedy and haunted by death. In this documentary, we learn how he used his "awkwardness" in writing to revolutionize a modern style of writing, how his relationships frayed, and how he ultimately succumbed to depression. (Link available to premium members.)

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