I realized that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me, as it allowed me to start over and pursue what I loved. Being a beginner again can free you to enter a highly creative period in your life.

None of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple; it was a painful experience, but it was necessary for my growth.

The CEO of a startup needs to be in a learning mindset, as I learned during my time at Apple, where I worked on software but realized I wanted to focus on hardware.

In ten years, Apple grew from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees, but then I got fired.

I feel good about being recognized as a key figure in building Microsoft's enterprise business, but I also regret that we lost our consumer focus along the way.

I had monomaniacal focus on Microsoft, giving up weekends and vacations wasn't a sacrifice; I loved it.

Looking back on my relationships and experiences has been both challenging and rewarding, including my fantastic early collaboration with Steve Jobs on projects like the Apple II and Macintosh software.

I moved to Silicon Valley right after graduate school, not knowing anyone, and faced terrible market timing as the internet bubble was collapsing.

I fell into entrepreneurship accidentally; I went to college to be a computer programmer, but after the dot-com bubble burst, startups weren't on anyone's mind.