About Belief, Passion and Determination

About Belief, Passion and Determination
(via Antrix)

Ron Avitzur was part of a project at Apple that was shelved. And like so many others who have been part of cancelled projects, Ron was frustrated with the decision. He intensely believed that the product he was working on stood a fair chance. So, inspite of not being on the official rolls anymore (read as "unemployed and unpaid by Apple"), he continued to work on the product on the sly till it saw the light of day. This is a must-read story.

Here is a teaser:
We were saved by the layoffs that began that month. Twenty percent of Apple's fifteen thousand workers lost their jobs, but Greg and I were safe because we weren't on the books in the first place and didn't officially exist. Afterwards, there were plenty of empty offices. We found two and started sneaking into the building every day, waiting out in front for real employees to arrive and casually tailgating them through the door. Lots of people knew us and no one asked questions, since we wore our old badges as decoys.

Story on Slashdot. I hope someone makes a movie out of this one (Light shades of "Catch me if you can").