In all the difficult decisions that I made through the course of running Loudcloud and Opsware, I never once felt brave. In fact, I often felt scared to death. I never lost those feelings, but after much practice, I learned to ignore them. That learning process might also be called the courage development process.

In my experience as CEO, I found that the most important decisions tested my courage far more than my intelligence.

Big companies have trouble with innovation. Innovation is about bad ideas, or ideas that look like bad ideas. That's the fundamental thing.

Leadership is hard to train on.

My dad discouraged me and my older sister watching too much TV. I don't want to portray them as crazy hippies, but I definitely feel like I was influenced by their creativity. But did I want to have an acting career myself? I didn't think so. I think my goal really was to direct. I really wanted to make stories in that capacity.

My role was to bring about fairness in the workplace. All I did was implement the laws that were currently on the books.

I'm most proud of my career as a touring comedian and musician. I love doing television, I love selling records, but when I'm at these venues with hundreds of people, and they're all sitting listening to my music and my jokes, I feel like I could die that day, and I would be happy.

I'm not a celebrity, I've kind of been under the radar, has kept it easier for me to maintain a career.