I routinely failed to understand that 'simple and straightforward' would have been a much better product strategy for Lotus.

I woke up nights, worrying that Lotus was out of control - that no one would know what to do.

The culmination of all of that was the decision to start a company, which became Lotus, to do a product, which became 1-2-3. By the time I reached that point it had been four years, and it felt like a lifetime, but really it was kind of evolutionary.

Lotus's efforts around the Mac were pathetically unsuccessful, which is sad.

Often, the disconnect between the marketing hype around a new product and what the product actually does is astounding.

I'm like George Lucas, bringing together a creative team that will come up with a unique, well-crafted product.