Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone

by Satya Nadella

I told them that we spend far too much time at work for it not to have deep meaning.

If we can connect what we stand for as individuals with what this company is capable of, there is very little we can’t accomplish.

Ideas excite me. Empathy grounds and centers me.

they had tapped into a higher calling—to employ Microsoft in pursuit of their personal passions to empower others.

It’s about how people, organizations, and societies can and must transform—hit refresh—in their persistent quest for new energy, new ideas, relevance, and renewal.

She cared deeply about my being happy, confident, and living in the moment without regrets.

She always believed in doing your thing, and at your pace. Pace comes when you do your thing.

The first principle is to compete vigorously and with passion in the face of uncertainty and intimidation.

I decided not to bring my old team from Bing with me. It was important that the transformation come from within, from the core. It’s the only way to make change sustainable.

Interesting

Yes, PC sales were slowing, and so we needed to convert Nietzsche’s “courage in the face of reality” into “courage in the face of opportunity.”

We needed to win the billions of connected devices, not fret about a shrinking market.

And that was still what motivated all of our efforts: to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

I try hard not to bring needless history into the room, and I don’t let the limitations of the past dictate the contours of the future.

It’s a mistake to write off any relationship as a lost cause. Tomorrow always begins with a chance to create new opportunities.

Going back to my days as an engineer, I’ve used the following mental model to capture how I manage time: Employees. Customers. Products. Partners.

Employees and products command attention every day, as they are closest to us; customers provide the resources we need to do anything, so they also command energy. But partners provide the lift we need to soar.

(If medieval Norse tales about Vikings taught her anything, it’s that pillaging while searching for resources should not be part of discovering new things.)

Funny!

Our perception of AI seems trapped somewhere between the haunting voice of the murderous rogue computer HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the friendlier voices of today’s personal digital assistants—Cortana, Siri, and Alexa. We can daydream about how we will use our suddenly abundant spare time when machines drive us places, handle our most mundane chores, and help us make better decisions. Or we can fear a robot-induced massive economic dislocation. We can’t seem to get beyond this utopia/dystopia dichotomy.