Most people have no concept of how an automatic transmission works, yet they know how to drive a car. You don't have to study physics to understand the laws of motion to drive a car. You don't have to understand any of this stuff to use Macintosh.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

Many companies forget what it means to make great products. After initial success, sales and marketing people take over and the product people eventually make their way out.

When we started off we didn't know how to spell software.

You'll see more and more perfection of that - computer as servant. But the next thing is going to be computer as a guide or agent.

I think we're having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we're always trying to do better.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.