David Neeleman

About David

• When he was nine years old, he'd work at his grandfather's store; learned how to talk to people, learned about pricing and stocking.
• Has a learning disability that made high school tough for him; put off college to go on a church mission to Brazil, where he was born.
• He worked with "the poorest of the poor," learned Portuguese, learned how to "serve others"; says that "really set him up for life."
• When he came back, he went to college with a new focus, was finally getting A's.
• Three years into college, he got the opportunity to start an airline on the East Coast, so he dropped out of school.
• Was fired from Southwest Airlines, which was the company he'd always wanted to work for.
• Took everything he learned at Southwest and decided that instead of hanging his head, he'd start his own airline.
• His definition of success is "mattering"; loves that many of his employees say jetBlue is the best company they've ever worked for.