Striding through his office complex in Brazil, David Neeleman, an active Mormon, recounts the various lessons he's learned in 18 years of starting businesses. When he was 23, he started a travel agency. He chose as his main supplier a startup airline that hurtled into bankruptcy, and he lost everything. From that ordeal Neeleman learned a hard lesson: Always bolster your business with plenty of capital.
When Neeleman was 34, he sold his second startup, Morris Air, to Southwest Airlines (LUV, Fortune 500), where he soon became a candidate to succeed CEO Herb Kelleher — until Kelleher fired him. From that setback, Neeleman learned another lesson: Always be your own boss.
Then, at age 39, Neeleman founded JetBlue.
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