Episode 71: Michael Dunn: This Is Not The Story: Prototypes, Failure, and Faith is Where Ambiguity Is

What if the lost years of your career became the blueprint for a better way to lead, parent, and live? We sit down with Michael Dunn, a veteran of Apple, Netscape, and Joby, to unpack the IPO-era rush, the “sleep at the office” mythology, and the long tail of burnout that followed. This candid conversation about buying the wrong house in Texas, chasing stock spikes, and missing family dinners—became enlightening about rebuilding around people, patience, and a different kind of ambition.

Michael’s leadership philosophy was forged in the hardest classrooms: global teams that never slept, deadline death marches, and the sobering realization that pressure doesn’t make minds think faster. He explains how empathetic, equity-based management outperforms authority, why the Golden Rule can fail at work, and how to keep a team solving new problems instead of the same ones eighteen months later. Along the way, he shares how employees he empowered now lead at Fortune 100 companies—and still call to say thanks.

There’s a deeper current here too. Born with cerebral palsy, Michael chose resilience early, deciding to use his weaker left arm after watching another boy play baseball with deformed arms at a summer camp. Aging has equalized what disability began; humility and accommodation now live alongside agency. In faith, he moved from dogmatic certainty to a Christianity that embraces ambiguity and resists culture-war binaries. He’s liberal, hopeful, and relentlessly practical about where impact still lives: small circles, lasting relationships, and adding “a little spin” to each interaction.

We talk Santa Cruz gentrification, Highway 17 commutes, return-to-office tactics, and why a handful of gifted engineers can make or break a company. We also get a playbook for overwhelmed times: prototype your life, try small experiments, accept the failures, and keep hope on purpose. If you care about humane leadership, meaningful work, resilient parenting, and faith that breathes, this conversation will stay with you.

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