It's OK to run a risky business

Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric, talked about the three jobs he had growing up in Salem, Massachusetts: caddying, punching holes in a piece of cork and selling shoes. He loved being out on the golf course because he'd hear about the big deals being made by affluent businessmen, according to a story on the Reader's Digest website.

"It was like being a fly on the wall at a meeting," he recounts.

As for the second job, punching holes into a piece of cork for a Parker Brothers game called "Dig" was his first glimpse into monotony. "It lasted about a month," he says, "and I concluded that I never wanted to do anything like that again — ever." And he kept his promise; he never returned to anything remotely similar.