Tweet

The King of the Skies: Herb Kelleher Gets His Start

Article Overview: Almost 40 years ago, Herb Kelleher came up with a radical idea: He wanted to start a no-frills airline that not only ensured people got to where they wanted to go and at low prices, but that they had fun doing it. Today, the small Texas airline he founded in 1971 has become the second largest airline in the world by number of passengers carried. Southwest Airlines carries over 100 million passengers to 63 cities across the U.S. each year.

The King of the Skies: Herb Kelleher Gets His Start

Almost 40 years ago, Herb Kelleher came up with a radical idea: He wanted to start a no-frills airline that not only ensured people got to where they wanted to go and at low prices, but that they had fun doing it. Today, the small Texas airline he founded in 1971 has become the second largest airline in the world by number of passengers carried. Southwest Airlines carries over 100 million passengers to 63 cities across the U.S. each year.

Herbert David Kelleher was born on March 12, 1931, in Haddon Heights, New Jersey. He was the youngest child in a close-knit family. He attended Haddon Heights High School, where he was also class president and captain of the football team. He spent his free time working at the Campbell’s Soup factory where his father was the general manager. For six years, Kelleher rotated between the positions of soup chef, warehouse foreman, and analyst.

Over the next few years, Kelleher’s family got smaller. His brothers Harry and Richard enlisted in the Navy during World War II, with Richard later being killed in combat. Meanwhile, his sister left the family to go work in New York City, and in 1943, when Kelleher was just 12 years old, his father died.

Left alone at home with his mother, the two developed an exceptionally close bond. “She treated me as an adult, and her interests were wide ranging,” recalls Kelleher. “We would stay up till three, four, five in the morning, talking about business, politics, ethics. She was a splendid person, and she gave me a wonderful foundation.”

Ruth Kelleher was an Irishwoman who taught her son the importance of treating people with respect. “There was this very dignified gentleman in our neighborhood, the president of a local savings and loan, who used to stroll along in a very regal way up until he was indicted and convicted of embezzlement,” Kelleher recalls. “My mother said that positions and titles signify absolutely nothing. They're just adornments; they don't represent the substance of anybody.”

After graduating, Kelleher enrolled at Wesleyan University in Connecticut to study English and philosophy. Although he enjoyed his time there, Kelleher was not a model student, jokingly saying, “Just the other day, when they gave me the B boarding pass, I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to call my mother and tell her I finally got a B.’”

Although he originally planned to go into journalism, Kelleher soon decided to switch into law. He attended New York University Law School, all the while getting a taste for Greenwich Village. “I had a little apartment on Washington Square,” he recalls, “and you could just open your door and entertaining people would walk in and you’d have an instant party.”

In 1956, Kelleher graduated with his law degree and went to work as a law clerk for the New Jersey Supreme Court Justice. Three years later, he joined the firm of Lum, Biunno, and Tompkins. During that time, he also met and married a Texan by the name of Joan Negley. Attracted by the opportunities in her home state, the couple decided to relocate to San Antonio. There, Kelleher became a partner at Matthews, Nowlin, Macfarlane & Barrett. All the while, however, Kelleher was itching for a new career.

One night, Kelleher was having drinks with Rollin King, a law client of his who also happened to be a Texas businessman. Together, on a cocktail napkin, the two hatched out a plan for a new business.

Related Articles
  Lesson #5: You Have to Fight to Keep on Flying
  Flying High: How Kelleher Took Southwest to the Top
  Lesson #3: Personality is Power
  Reaching New Horizons: Southwest Airlines Takes Off
  Lesson #4: Learning by Doing is the Better Way

Article Tags: 100 million, business politics, campbells soup, chef warehouse, class president, david kelleher, embezzlement, football team, free time, gentleman, haddon heights high school, haddon heights new jersey, herb kelleher, king of the skies, radical idea, ruth kelleher, savings and loan, southwest airlines, warehouse foreman, world war ii



Related Forum Posts
Ron Popeil Interview - Evan, a recommendation for a Profile interview - Ron Popeil the TV infomercial product and upsell King. Thanks!
Re: Quote of the Day - "You get in life what you have the courag - My favourite scripture in the Bible is Matthew 7:7. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:" King James 2000 Version
Re: Should you hire ambitious workers or employees with no goals - According to Guy Kawasaki, he says "you should only hire and keep people that you'd hustle over to and engage in a conversation...Life is too short to work with people you don't naturally like-especially in a young, small organization" ("The Art of the Start" pg 112). I think the reverse is also true and I wouldn't want to work for anyone I didn't like or want to talk to if I saw him/her outside of the office. In addition, Kawasaki also says "Steve Jobs has a saying that A players hire A players; B players hire C players; and C players hire D players...This trickle-down effect causes bozo explosions in companies. If there is one thing a CEO must do, it's hire a management team that is better than he is" ("The Art of the Start" pg 101). Kawasaki's quote is definitely in favor of hiring the ambitious worker, but do most CEO's even have the humility to admit that someone is better than them?
Re: How can I promote my site? - To promote website online you need to hire professional SEO expert because you have to perform the below activities for your website promotion:- Start On page optimization which includes the following task:- 1. Meta tag optimization 2. Header Tag Optimization 3. Alt tag Optimization 4. Content Optimization 5. Anchor Text Optimization 6. URL Optimization 7. Navigation Optimization After On page optimization, Start off Page Optimization which includes the following task:- 1. Link building 2. Directory submission 3. Classified Ads submission 4. Article submission 5. Press Release submission 6. Social Bookmarking 7. Business Listing 8. Local Listing 9. Blog Optimization 10. PPT Creation & Optimization
Re: What would you do if you knew you could not fail? - Start a search engine that would beat out Google! I don't really know, I will have to do some thinking on this. But that was the very first thing that popped into my head.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Building a Business From 30,000 Feet

20 MORE Must-Have Search Engine Marketing Tools

Designing Employee-Enhancing Training Programs

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.