March 1, 1982: Take this Job and Shove It
In the first quarter of 1979, Mike Markkula asked Jef Raskin what kind of machine he could build for $500. Raskin retorted that there wasn't anything worthwhile he could build at that price point but for a $1,000 he could create something very impressive.
The machine Jef was referring to would become, of course, the Macintosh computer. Jef did much more than just start the project. He kept the project going when Steve Jobs wanted to kill it and he made key additions to the staff through the early years of the Mac birthing. The project was coming along nicely (although it didn't really resemble the Macintosh) when Steve Jobs decided he not only didn’t want to kill the project, he wanted to be a part of it.
This is where things went south. Jef Raskin refused to bow to Steve's will and criticized Jobs's leadership. When Jobs relegated Jef to documentation of the Mac, Raskin took a leave of absence. The month spent away from Apple didn't help, and the progenitor of the Mac officially resigned on March 1, 1982.
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In hindsight, was Raskin more the visionary in the case of the Mac? Rather than making it a high-end Porsche, truly make it a “computer for the rest of us” starting out of the gate at a VERY competitive price point? This could have slowed down Microsoft’s growth significantly, as Windows would have had nothing of value to offer, other than price. Price parity at the very outset would have killed it.