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Suzy Welch Dishes
Lisa Berg / NBC NewsWire
Suzy Welch, journalist, author and wife of ex-GE powerhouse Jack, talks about her new book 10-10-10—the formula she invented for solving life's hardest decisions—how she left her first marriage and the day she and Jack fell in love. Read part two of Tina Brown’s interview with Suzy Welch.
Suzy Welch, fortysomething Oprah columnist, former Harvard Business Review editor and co-author with her husband, former GE CEO Jack Welch, of Winning, has just come out with 10-10-10, a book that purports to be a life-transforming idea. The title refers to her strangely contagious problem-solving device: Look at your current life dilemmas and ask how you will feel about your choice of decisions in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years. Sound simple? Not really. Because Welch's point is that the technique is only the beginning of a psychic workout that helps you dig deep and define your own values. You can apply 10-10-10 as much to whether you should take that business trip when the kids don't want you to or whether it's time to take the buyout and jump ship. In a sense, America is in the middle of a giant 10-10-10 moment of its own, forcing itself to look beyond the next 10 minutes.
"On my third question he says, 'Turn that tape recorder off.' I dutifully turned it off and he said, 'Do you have a guy?' That was the end."
On Tuesday afternoon, shortly before her book party, I had lunch with Suzy and we got into it all.
10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea. By Suzy Welch. 240 pages. Scribner. $24.
Tina: How'd you get the 10-10-10 idea?
Suzy: It was 14 years ago, I was a working mother trying to crack the code—the uncrackable code—of being a loving, present parent and a successful, promotable employee. And got invited to give a speech to a bunch of insurance executives in Hawaii. This was a gigantic deal.
I was senior editor at The Harvard Business Review. I was one of probably 15 or 20 of us. This was this gigantic career achievement. Someone actually wanted to know what I had to say. They were going to pay me 1,500 bucks to go to Hawaii to tell people what I knew. I had arrived—in my own mind. But the problem was these four little children all under the age of seven at that time. I couldn't leave all four of them with my husband and feel good about it. So I thought the perfect solution was to take two of them with me to Hawaii. I mean, completely deranged, of course, in retrospect. The daughter gets sick on the plane. The son gets sun poisoning the first day. But it comes to the absolute pinnacle of disaster when I am delivering the speech to the insurance executives they had paid me to give, and I had put the two children in a hula-dancing class to warehouse them during the speech. And as I am giving the speech, I see these little bodies pressed up against the windows in the back of the room and I'm thinking to myself, "Oh my God, this can't be happening." And then they burst through the door and come running into the room as I'm delivering the speech, in their hula skirts. I finished the speech, I came right off the stage, and they went and clutched onto my legs. Buried their faces in my waist. And the insurance executives were staring at me and I was staring at them and I thought, "Something has got to change."
It's such a great story. We have so all been there. I actually have always found that mixing the kids with the business does not work in any shape or form. And the whole idea—when I read about politicians that bring their kids to work I think, "Who are they kidding?" That is what obsessed me about Sarah Palin. It couldn't possibly have been happening the way she described it.
One thing that kills me when people bring their kids to work is the assumption that other people in the office enjoy it. They want your kids in the office? Who is actually enjoying that? That is a decision you have to make. You have to separate lives. Are you going to blend them at someone else's expense?
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Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
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This story is not unusual or very interesting. Remove Jack Welsh's fame and money and what do you have? There are a million stories out there in the naked city. Ho hum.
I disagree. Jack really has nothing to do with this process and she was using it before she met him. I think the 101010 concept is brilliant and plan to start using it immediately. I guess if you have a perfect life you don't need it, but some of find it brilliant! I've already bought the book and love it! Thank you Suzy!!!
She is what us executives call a gold digger.
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This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
And... the phrase that is rendered "strum and drawn" should be the German, sturm und drang... which is common expression for storm and stress...
Tina...Very disappointed in you...Puff piece if ever there was one...You should be embarassed...And Suzy Welch's LIFE Lessons?..#1 Naked amibition at all costs (and 'use' your 4 children to disguise same) #2 Find someone as unbearably self absorbed, egotistical and self promoting as yourself #3 Think as if somebody cares...Please go away and take Jack with you...boring...
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This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
I'm surprised with the reactions to this story...I found it to be actually very enjoyable and interesting. Welch is candid, funny, and charismatic as usual. I got my hands on the book yesterday and so far is is a wonderful read.
Have any of you actually read this book? I just got it after seeing Suzy talk about 10-10-10 on the Today Show -- I finished it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down.
Suzy's scandal is such old news -- she is happily married to Jack Welch and the 10-10-10 book is as much a great love story as a self-help book. Suzy's writes very openly about her own life and struggles -- it's riveting. 10-10-10 itself is also incredibly useful -- I wish I had had it as a working mother wracked with guilt. Tina, great article!
I chose to use 10-10-10 to resolve why anyone needs to feel obligated to leave such horrible hatred...in 10 minutes no one will care what the above had to say, in 10 months no one will remember, in 10 years..Suzy and 10-10-10 will have reached new and greater heights than any of these naysayers. I say, live and let live, turn the page, and get a life people.
So what did you find out? That Suzy "discovered" chapter 2 of Stephen Cover' s book with 10-10-10?
Wow- Great interview! I am going through a heartbreaking divorce right now, and it is so reassuring to hear a story from someone on the other side, living the happy life that they prayed would be there for them when the dust had settled. Thanks for sharing your story- I'm going to go out and get the book!
Agree- very moving and powerful interview Tina! I too have had my share of relationship problems with my marriage and there's always going to be people who have no business making statements about your world...that have to put their 2 cents in..if I've learned anything in my life, it is important to make decisions about your life that work for you-and not for what other people think (or who leave idiotic comments like the ones here). I used Welch's 10-10-10 to justify and resolve my own personal life issues and found that by giving reason to the decisions-it not only gave clarity to my children, but justification to myself for why I dissolved my marriage. I own the new book and highly recommend it to everyone-including everyone who has commented here today-by reading the book you'll realize that 10-10-10 is all about adding purpose, values and reason to your lives. Suzy Welch totally "gets it"...kudos!
Are Caroline and Barbara friends of Jack's second wife? Honestly, I have never seen such a grounded "famous" couple as Suzy and Jack! Kudos to them both for finding true happiness!
Sahasthra is righter by a mile than some of the uptight commentators. I thought it a fascinating and indeed moving interview because Suzy comes over as a real human giving honest answers that have insight, wit and charm. Green-eyed Barbara7 must have a very unhappy life.
How embarrassing for you, Tina. But even more so for Suzy:
Unless I am mistaken, In the first article Suzy wrote for Oprah magazine (sorry I cannot recall which issue), she attributed the 10-10-10 lesson to a 'kindly old gentleman' she was seated next to at a dinner party.
I am sure I am not the only one who has recognized this...
Wondering if you will even post this comment b/c it is too embarrassing....
I must strongly agree with those that thought this was a great article and that Tina didn't mince words and is far from a 'puff piece'. Congrats on another insightful piece Tina, and to Suzy and Jack-keep up the great work and love your BW column.
From this reader's viewpoint, I found Suzy Welch's story and comments to be courageous, spirited, and full of honesty if not anything else...I would challenge anyone else to do the same on a global website. Sure, there may be some that will continue to beat the 'dead horse', but a person's net worth and value are their contributions to society and to their family and both Jack and Suzy have a long track record of helping others and supporting and getting involved in many worthy projects and charities. They both believe in empowering employees, men AND women worthy of their talent and productivity. Our country could use more strong executives like them who LEAD by example, not merely via their checkbooks. They 'walk the walk' better than anyone I know. Thanks for another great post Tina!
A cynic might think:
- 10 seconds to figure out this old man is loaded?
- 10 months to make the move and have an affair?
- 10 years for the inheritance to kick in?
Sorry for being cynical.
Maybe the woman is sincere,
perhaps she's an aberration to the cliche . . .
Younger woman "FALLS IN LOVE"
has affair . . .
with much older . . . FILTHY RICH MAN.
Good interview- a real story about real people-the fact that someone in the story is wealthy is irrelevant-10 10 10 is an idea that happened to a real person who has the passion and honesty to share her life and ideas
Interesting that on one hand Tina Brown is railing against the lack of character in Bernie Madoff and his ability to exploit others without apology, and here she is celebrating it with her friend Suzi.
This 10-10-10 trick is not Suzi Welch's, or hers alone. This is something my dad taught me along with other business tricks decades ago. He didn't take credit for it and read voraciously so I'm assuming some poor author of a book or their heirs are fuming right about now (has it gone into the public domain?). It is a helpful self-help trick, no doubt.
"My marriage is dead". The character of people who say that to someone they're trying to seduce instead of their spouse is dangerous to those close to them. Someone who'd take that as permission to participate in the destruction of another commitment is cut from the same cloth. Hang out with people like that at your own peril because for them people are objects for self-gratification, as charming and giving as they are when they perceive you have something they need. As Jack Welch noted without apology in one of his own books, his first wife raised his kids and he barely knew them. This he noted was the price of corporate success where you were allowed to focus on your work.
Suzi, I'd like to return the favor of advice: read a self-help book about the value of character and the golden rule over self-gratification. And if that makes you chuckle as overly parochial -- old age will probably have some interesting lessons for you at the hands of your children.
Career, marriage, kids... or maybe it should be marriage, kids, career? Or kids, career, single parenthood? No amount of self-help blather is going to clear these questions up. Suzy Welch has managed to gain some leverage on the career-juggling juggernaut. Most of us don't have that luxury and are deeply resentful of corporate employers who aggressively pressured us to give career top priority. The people who need self-help the most are the C-level execs who foster the culture of family neglect out of resentment toward those employees who actually have a personal life. All in the name of "Winning" and savoring the fruits of victory- moral and financial bankruptcy.
Veronicaxy, sophia5 and others...I fully agree with wendy2. The fact that this book is written by a woman who is married to someone wealthy really has nothing to do with the overall idea. The scandal is behind these two and has been that way for some time. The book is fantastic, and frankly, who are we to judge whether their marriage is a "real love story" or not?
@jowilliams: I didn't bother to judge whether their marriage is real -- I'm sure those two birds of a feather are happy together.
My point is the character both Welches demonstrate is exploitative. And really that America celebrates success at just about any cost.
We can't wonder why we are where we are financially, including Tina's wrath at Bernie (my assumption is he took hers as well, she sure has a radar fixed on that one man), if this is what ane who we value and admire.
Oh Tina, you disappoint me. The woman is a gold digger. She fell for his money. He was a married man and clearly she had no qualms about this. Such an old story, but always with a sad ending for one player--the wife. Why glorify this sort of thing?
Thank you.
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