GoKawiilKey Takeaways Wozniak shared the reason he was motivated to co-found Apple in a recent commencement speech.
After Hewlett-Packard rejected his PC idea five times, Wozniak finally agreed to Steve Jobs’ plan to launch Apple independently.
His message to Gen Z college graduates was that careers can follow unconventional, nonlinear paths.
In 1976, Steve Wozniak teamed up with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne to launch Apple, setting in motion a tech giant that would go on to reshape modern technology.
Yet despite Apple’s evolution into a $4.5 trillion powerhouse behind products like the iPhone and iPad, Wozniak says the idea of building a global tech giant was never a part of the original vision.
“When you try things, they don’t have to be for obvious money,” Wozniak said earlier this month in a commencement address at Grand Valley State University. “When we started Apple, did I want to make money? Start a company? Start an industry? No.”
Wozniak said his motivation was far simpler: He wanted to design and build his own personal computer and impress other engineers in the industry. What he wanted more than money was recognition.
“I wanted other engineers or other computer people to look at my designs and say, ‘Whoa’ and appreciate me and my brilliance,” Wozniak said. “‘How did he come up with these things?’”
Steve Wozniak. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
How he got to Apple
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