Most people have encountered professional challenges of one kind or another. But as any successful entrepreneur will tell you, success comes after you master the art of making lemonade, so to speak. On today’s “Squawk Box," CNBC spoke with three high-profile business leaders who prevailed after suffering a serious setback.
In his new book, Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters,author Jeffrey Sonnefeld examines how to overcome a professional setback. As guest host on today’s "Squawk Box," he introduced the team to three business leaders profiled in his book.
JetBlue CEO David Neeleman
Low-cost carriers have single-handedly changed the airline industry, revolutionizing everything from the ways tickets are priced to the way labor contracts are negotiated. And JetBlue is at the center of the revolution, but the airline would not exist had its CEO not been fired from Southwest.
“I sold my company to [Herb Kelleher], and I had intended to go work with Southwest, and when I got down there I realized it wasn’t going to work,” said David Neeleman in an interview on CNBC. “It was the best thing to happen to me.”
Although Neeleman had plenty of money, he wanted something more. “I wanted to do it again, I felt like I had learned enough at Southwest.”
Neeleman recognized a need for a low-cost carrier in the Northeast and started JetBlue. Since its initial public offering on the NASDAQ in 2002, JetBlue has become one of the most popular airline stocks in history and currently has about $2 billion dollars in market capitalization.