What’s the matter with CEOs? Why is it that they brutally fire so many loyal and productive workers, willfully pollute our air and water, cruelly yank away the pension and health benefits earned by their retirees… and generally behave like ruthless bullies?
Well, at last, the dark truth about CEOs is coming out: almost all of them were spanked when they were children.
Enjoying Hightower's work? Join us over at our new home on Substack:
USA Today and others have recently surveyed of some CEOs, and – yep – as kids, nearly all had felt the sting of the belt, the switch, the slap, or whatever. For example, GE’s infamous tough-guy CEO, Jack Welch, notes that his momma used to whap him with a shoe!
Some of these honchos assert that getting a regular whack has been good for them, making them disciplined, detailed, and driven. Of course, a less positive spin would describe these same attributes as authoritarian, obsessive, and relentless – all characteristics of those at the top of today’s powerhouse corporations.
Joe Moglia, for example, the top dog at TD Ameritrade, says that his parents’ frequent swattings taught him that “tough love is better than soft love” ¬- a lesson that he says he applies to Ameritrade employees. “You appreciate good-weather days when you get rain,” Joe barks. Yeah, Joe, we’ll remember that lovely little aphorism the next time our jobs get downsized or offshored.
On a brighter note, Sara Blakely is a CEO who converted her spanking experience into a successful business. She says she was spanked so often that she soon learned to wear five pairs of undies at the same time to cushion the blow. Now, Sara runs a women’s underwear company, giving it the memorable name of, Spanx.
This is Jim Hightower saying… Maybe I should be spanked for saying this, but I suspect that CEO ruthlessness has a whole lot more to do with corporate greed than with anything their parents did to them.
Sources:
“Hit with the question: Were you spanked? CEOs say yes,” USA Today, October 9, 2006.
Special rate for original Lowdown readers