JetBlue founder reveals advice he would give to his 25-year-old self

JetBlue founder David
Neeleman.
David Slotnick/Business
Insider

• David
  Neeleman is one of the most successful
  airline entrepreneurs in the world.
• He’s the founder of JetBlue and Azul as
  well as a co-founder of Morris Air
  and WestJet. 
• He’s also a co-owner of TAP Air Portugal.
• Neeleman co-founded Morris Air in 1984 at the age of
  25. 
• The airline boss shared with the Business Insider the advice
  he would give his 25-year-old self at the beginning of his
  career.

David Neeleman is one of the most experienced and successful
entrepreneurs in the history of the airline industry. The affable
Brazilian-born, Utah-raised has had a hand in the founding of
four successful airlines over the 35 years.

He’s the founder of JetBlue and Azul Brazilian Airlines as
well as a co-founder of Morris Air and WestJet.

He’s also one of the co-owner of Portuguese national
airline TAP Air Portugal.

Earlier this year, Neeleman, 58, announced plans to launch his
fifth airline, an American low-cost carrier
called Moxy.

Neeleman’s career as an airline entrepreneur started early when
he co-founded Morris Air in 1984 at the age of 25. 

He served as Morris Air’s president from 1988 until it was sold
to Southwest Airlines in 1994 for a reported $129 million. 

“I sold Morris Air to Southwest because (the airline) was
really vulnerable,” he told Business Insider in an interview
earlier this year. “I’m sitting in Delta Air Lines’s hub in (Salt
Lake City, Utah), I didn’t have a lot of capital at the time and
one of my guys told me ‘you know if Delta just matched all your
fares they’d be revenue positive’ and take so much of our market
share.”

AP

“We were pretty vulnerable and Southwest wants us plus when
someone hands you $15 million at 33 years old you’re like ‘Yeah!
I’ll take it,'” Neeleman added.

After working for Southwest Airlines for a while after the
merger, he left and helped co-found WestJet, now Canada’s second
largest airline. In 1998, Neeleman founded JetBlue, a New
York-bast boutique airline that melded premium service and
amenities with low-cost. 

He followed that up with the founding of Azul Brazilian
Airlines in 2008. A venture that has now become one of the
largest carriers in South America. 

So what advice would the David Neeleman of today give to
his 25-year-old self?

REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

Have personal control of the business and know the industry in
which you are working, Neeleman said. 

“Everything I’ve ever been involved in that I didn’t
control or run and was outside of my area of expertise I’ve lost
money in,” he said. “It’s almost unanimous.”

From there, the goal is to differentiate yourself from the pack.

“Be passionate. Be the best and create something that no one else
has,” Neeleman told us. “Build a better mousetrap.”

“If you build a better mousetrap, people will beat a path to your
door,” the airline boss said. “I really believe that.”