In the early days, we were always scared of not getting it right and being out-executed by competitors, which drove us to focus hard on our early customers and their needs.

Building a great product is the most effective way to create a competitive advantage, rather than relying on patents, which are rarely successful for startups.

We engaged with hardware vendors like IBM and HP, trying to convince them to partner with us, despite initial resistance.

Paul Allen emphasized that we should never become a hardware company and pushed for building software for all microprocessor-based computers. I took over system software in '84, which marked the beginning of our enterprise focus at Microsoft.

Filing provisional patents within 12 months of announcing a product is crucial to protect intellectual property. This step is often overlooked but can save significant legal trouble later.

For the first five years, we ignored customer feedback to focus on making our graphics processors better, believing that 3D graphics were insatiable.

In the early days, we struggled to raise money, which taught us to focus on solving real problems and to build an efficient, profitable business from day one.

After launching our first product, we received positive feedback from investors, but I was unaware that we were about to face a long period of struggle.

Despite the initial excitement around our technology, major handset manufacturers were reluctant to integrate it due to cost concerns, which hindered our progress.