I'm coming from the perspective of having read Apple's annual SEC filings back in the day and noted what a huge amount of cash they had stockpiled even in their doldrums.

Apple would never have survived if they had not been run so conservatively, which speaks to the efforts of people other than Jobs and Gates.

At the end of 1997 their 10-K says they had around $1.4B dollars in cash, and around $900M in long term debt.

The 2000 10-K shows they had $4 billion in cash and short term investments compared to $300 million in long term debt.