Here's something you don't hear often: a tech founder admitting their biggest flaw isn't missing a product cycle or picking the wrong technology, but getting too cocky after winning. Yet that's exactly what Apple Inc. (AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs said his greatest vulnerability was.

Success Opens the Door to Something Dangerous

In a 2003 interview with 60 Minutes, Jobs put it plainly: "I think all of us need to be on guard against arrogance, which knocks at the door whenever you're successful."

He wasn't speaking theoretically. Jobs was reflecting on what happened after Apple's board showed him the exit in 1985, when he was just 30 years old. "I was basically fired from Apple when I was 30 and invited to come back 12 years later. That was difficult when it happened but maybe the best thing that ever happened to me," he said.

Those 12 years in exile running NeXT and building Pixar weren't just a career detour. They forced Jobs to reckon with how his early success at Apple had fed exactly the kind of overconfidence and internal conflict that eventually got him pushed out.

The Middle Years That Mattered Most

Brent Schlender, who co-wrote the biography "Becoming Steve Jobs," argues this "middle period" was actually the most transformative stretch of Jobs' life. While Jobs settled down, started a family, and juggled both NeXT and Pixar, he evolved into the kind of leader who could orchestrate Apple's legendary comeback after 1997.

What made arrogance so dangerous in Jobs' view? It piggybacks on real achievement. He understood that pride gets misplaced when success depends as much on timing, teams, and luck as it does on individual genius.

Building a Culture That Says No

This philosophy wasn't just personal reflection. It shaped how Jobs rebuilt Apple's culture. He championed small teams packed with top talent, ruthless focus, and the discipline to reject thousands of ideas to nail one great product. His famous advice to Stanford graduates captured it: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." It was a refusal to coast on past wins, a commitment to curiosity and risk-taking over comfort.

In his later years, Jobs framed his own journey as proof that setbacks, when handled with humility rather than ego, sharpen your judgment and create second acts that eclipse the first flush of success. The guy who got fired from the company he founded came back to build the iPhone. Not a bad argument for staying humble.