Cars were George's focus, so naturally they were Mitt's as well. Mitt was quite close with his mother, and he inherited her tact and even temper — qualities that were often absent in her blunt, intense husband. Still, Mitt idolized his force-of-nature father, and their relationship would form the central axis in his life.

Other kids wanted to grow up to be a professional athlete or even president, but Mitt aspired to run a car company. On weekends in the summer, when George would join the rest of the family at their cottage on Lake Huron in Ontario, Mitt and his best friend, Tom McCaffrey, would sneak into his father's briefcase for a first look at photos of the cars planned for the new model year.

On the paddle tennis court in front of the cottage, George would compete with his children in matches played to the death. Mitt's older brother, Scott, was the fiercest challenger, sharing their father's competitive streak and athletic ability.

Mitt was never much of an athlete, but even that seemed to work in his favor. Although Scott went through the common adolescent phase of occasionally competing with his father, Mitt always maintained an easy rapport. Scott would marvel at his little brother's confidence in talking with their father almost as a peer. When George would hold "family councils" to discuss big decisions he was contemplating, Scott and his sisters would say, "Gee that sounds fabulous," while Mitt would pipe up with, "Well, have you thought about this?"

Face in crowd

In the seventh grade, Mitt enrolled at Cranbrook School, an elite boys school with world-class sculptures sprinkled across its Bloomfield Hills campus. Surrounded by other sons of privilege, many of whom came from greater wealth and more established families, Mitt wasn't a standout.

"He was in many ways the antithesis of what he's portrayed as today," says classmate Jim Bailey. "He was tall, skinny, gawky, had a bad complexion." His report cards tell the story of a bright boy who had yet to feel the urge to apply himself fully. ("He can do a lot better.... He wastes much time in class.") In six years at Cranbrook, he never showed himself to be a leader — Bailey went on to be president of their class, not Mitt. Instead, Mitt was known as a kinetic kid who loved to laugh and pull off pranks, once staging an elaborate formal dinner in the median strip of a busy thoroughfare.