Here, as a follow-up, I want to relate a few stories about Steve Ballmer and the lessons I learned from him. I worked at Microsoft for a dozen years, beginning in 1998, and the experience afforded me quite a few interactions with Steve.

Lest I be accused of name dropping, let me be clear upfront. I was present at perhaps a hundred or so meetings with Ballmer or Gates or both during my tenure at the company (averaging perhaps one a month) but I was by no means in touch with either of them on a regular basis. I don’t intend to glorify my own role nor do I wish to imply “inner circle” standing. What I learned, I learned by watching them do — as much or more so than through any words they said in private or public interactions.

Steve has gotten a bad rap recently and has been blamed for some of Microsoft’s missteps while he was at the helm. But I suspect most of his critics haven’t been in his shoes, responsible for running the world’s most valuable company or managing 100,000 employees. Few seem to give him credit for his many successes: almost quadrupling the company’s revenues (from $20B to $75B) even in the midst of an antitrust lawsuit, the construction of several multi-billion dollar businesses, not to mention delivery of 75% gross margins.

Ballmer was the peanut butter to Gates’ jelly, bringing business savvy to the technical battlefront. One without the other would never have been as successful as the combination of the two. For that, he deserves much credit.

I once participated in an executive offsite where, as one of our exercises, we were offered a chance to “Be SteveB for a day”. What would you do, given the opportunity, if you were in his shoes for a day, to move the needle, to increase revenues by even a tiny amount, say 1%, or to win 5% more market share in a given competitive arena?

What we all found out very quickly, even given our deep knowledge of Microsoft businesses and technologies, was that even the most outlandish proposals were unlikely to make a dent in the Microsoft P&L, given its gigantic size and market dominance, or to deliver substantial value to shareholders. So I give him a lot of credit for what he did accomplish and I refer his critics to my favorite Teddy Roosevelt quote:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs with the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” — Theodore Roosevelt. Citizenship in a Republic. April 23rd, 1910.

I, for one, prefer to dwell on the positives, on the lessons I learned from Steve. I found him to be sincere to the extreme, passionate in everything he did, and loyal — almost to a fault. Steve was famous for emotional and over-the-top speeches, one of the most cited examples being his “Developers! Developers! Developers!” chant at a company meeting. His enthusiasm knew no bounds and his passion was contagious.

Ballmer is a math whiz and had won math tournaments as a kid. He also seems to have photographic memory. One story I heard, from two people who were there, is about Steve at a company offsite with roughly 25 executives in attendance. He walks in and mingles for a few minutes, then heads to the stage for a “fireside chat”. During the interview, as part of a response to a question, he mentions that he knows what type of shoes each person in the room is wearing — and then proceeds to list them one by one!