Six years ago, Tim Cook, who took the reins at Apple after the death of its founder, Steve Jobs, called renowned CNN anchor Anderson Cooper to set up a meeting with him. Cook was about to make a decision that would reverberate around the world and he wanted Cooper’s advice. “My style is when I’m doing something complex that I’ve never done before, I always try to make a list of those people who have come before and approach this point,” he shares. What he was doing was much more complex. Cook, 59, had decided to publish a column where he would share with the world that he was gay, making him the first, and until then only, leader of a Fortune 500 company to come out of the closet. Five years later, speaking slowly and with a slight smile, he says: “I have not regretted it for one minute. Not at all.”

What he was doing was much more complex. Cook, 59, had decided to publish a column where he would share with the world that he was gay, making him the first, and until then only, leader of a Fortune 500 company to come out of the closet. Five years later, speaking slowly and with a slight smile, he says: “I have not regretted it for one minute. Not at all.”

I have a lot of respect for Tim, as the CEO of Apple, and as a person.