Absent Fathers, Supportive Mothers

Some experts say the combination of a distant father and a nurturing mother is especially potent in awakening the leadership potential of their sons. "There is evidence that many successful male leaders had strong, supportive mothers and rather remote, absent fathers," Manfred Kets de Vries, a professor of leadership at France's INSEAD business school. He cited Jack Welch, Richard Branson, and Bill Clinton. And Andrew Davidson, a writer for Management Today who spent 10 years interviewing entrepreneurs, said in a 2001 article that he had "lost count of the times I have sat in a room with a successful man telling me how close he was to his mother.

From Brent Bowers' 8 Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs.