Scott Stevenson thinks Apple’s Secret Ingredient is fearlessness:

“Fearlessness allows you set aside all ideas of what people might think and focus on what feels right instinctively. Without that sort of conviction, there wouldn’t be Mac OS X, the iPod, or even the Mac. Google is one of the few other large companies that really gets this. They have different priorities and techniques, but they have the same spirit as Apple. People drive themselves crazy trying to figure out why Google does the various things it does. While there’s always basic idea of what Google should be, I think the answer is that there’s not always a precise, calculated reason for each step they take. It just seems right, so they take a chance.”

Learfield is not Apple but I think it’s a great company because the guy that started it was/is fearless.