The 2 hardest things you'll have to do when running a company are recruiting and talking people out of leaving.

The transformation of Apple is probably the biggest tech story of the last 15 years.

An awful lot of successful technology companies ended up being in a slightly different market than they started out in. Microsoft started with programming tools, but came out with an operating system. Oracle started doing contracts for the CIA. AOL started out as an online video gaming network.

Start-ups should be based on radical ideas. There should be a high failure rate for start-ups, because if there isn't their ideas aren't bold enough.

In short, software is eating the world

Over the next 10 years, I expect many more industries to be disrupted by software, with new world-beating Silicon Valley companies doing the disruption in more cases than not.

There is the opportunity to do more and better if you're smaller and more nimble.