I had such failure for the first ten years in Silicon Valley. General Magic — over a billion dollars invested in 1990 dollars! Could you imagine what that is today? The best team in the world. We were told we were gonna topple Microsoft and all these companies.

I didn’t fear failure. I expected failure. I think I’ve always been somebody, since the deaths of my father and brother, who was afraid to hope. So, I was more prepared for failure and for rejection than success. The success took me by surprise and it frightened me.

One setback after another, we shook it off and skated to the next opportunity. Each time, we gain skills and strengthen our character. No setback that comes our way doesn't look like an opportunity these days.

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.

Oh yeah. In finishing this book, the last thing that I did, I read every story aloud and made some changes in every one of them.

To completely muscle up for that writing I spent most of a year noting down and rigging around all I knew and could casually learn about real estate

At 3am, worry seems to be my default mode.

It brings the freedom of having seen a lot of things and survived them.

I used to tell Kristina, “I choose to be married to you every day.”

People just were the mysterious sum of their actions.