I loved every minute of my time at Microsoft, but I had always envisioned having another phase of life just because I thought that would be interesting. It had never been my plan to work until I literally didn't want to do anything and then hang it up.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire for change and new experiences, emphasizing that life should be about exploration and not solely about work.
In this quote, Steve Ballmer reflects on his time at Microsoft with fondness while highlighting his belief in the importance of evolving beyond one's current circumstances. He suggests that a fulfilling life involves imagining new phases and opportunities, rather than being confined to continuous work until exhaustion. This mindset encourages individuals to seek out novel experiences and phases in life, illustrating that life is more than just a career.
In practice
During a motivational speech about life choices.
The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential.
I think the biggest mistake most people make when they pick their first job is they don't worry enough about whether they'll love the work, and they worry more about whether it's good experience
That's the way cultural change works in America: the rest of us discard a prejudice that the Right still clings to; in the fullness of time, the Right comes around, too, deploying clever rationalizations to forget they ever bore the prejudice in the first place.
Think what a great world revolution will take place when ... [there are] millions of guys all over the world with rucksacks on their backs tramping around the back country.
If you change the environment, you change the people.
The wind of change is blowing through the continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.
We can look forward to the day when the free flow of trade, from the southern reaches of Tierra del Fuego to the northern outposts of the Arctic Circle, unites the people of the Western Hemisphere in a bond of mutually beneficial exchange, when all borders become what the U.S.-Canadian border so long has been: a meeting place, rather than a dividing line.
If you're not upsetting anyone, you're not changing the status quo.
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