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Full Email Interview with Steve Wozniak
1 - What was the incentive for you and Mr. Jobs to start Apple?
Why did you and Mr. Jobs want your own company?
We wanted people to be able to do more with computers, which were becoming affordable. Before, computers could only be owned by wealthy companies, but we found that they had great personal promise too.
I myself was driven at first by the social good. People could communicate faster and students could learn better by finding out if their answers were right or wrong instantly. Also, the person who knew computers, like myself, would be very important in solving problems, including work problems. We would be more important.
2 - When Apple was first formed, what was your role in the company, and what was Mr. Jobs' role in the company?
I had created the Apple I and Apple ][ computers on my own. I even gave the Apple I design away for free so that others could build it and help start the social revolution (better life). I had done all the hardware and software myself. This was before Steve Jobs even saw them. When he came into town I took him to my computer club where I was a hero for my designs. (don’t believe the movies). Steve Jobs had always wanted a chance to have a company and make lots of money.
There were 2 phases of Apple as a company. In the first phase, we worked in our homes and it’s called the garage, although we never developed any products or manufactured them or did business in the garage. This was a short phase to start selling the Apple I computer but before we ever sold one, we could demo the Apple ][ which was so advanced that we knew it would change the world and instigate the personal computer revolution.
My role was to continue engineering. I never wanted to run a company because I like to be nice to everyone and not take sides. Nobody could beat me at engineering. Steve Jobs did not have a real role. He had no experience. But he saw this as the opportunity to be a founder of a company with money and he portrayed himself as the businessman. His role was to hang around the other business people and learn how they worked. Our investor, Mike Markkula, owned as much of Apple as we did and he taught us how to set up a company and who to hire and what their roles would be. Steve learned marketing principles from Mike and ran with them. We hired an agency to portray us as 2 young kids coming from a garage but the real story is quite different.
Steve Jobs was good at turning an invention into a product.
Did your roles remain the same over time?
Over time I was excluded from the business dealings and even new product engineering. I pretty much went my own way but never really left Apple. Steve Jobs had failure after failure trying to invent new computers but eventually wound up in charge of the Macintosh, which was our largest failure.
3- What qualities do you think that Mr. Jobs had that made him a leader in the company?
Persistence and confidence that he was in a position of control. Keep in mind that for the first 7 years he was portrayed as a leader in the press but we still only had one product. The Apple ][ that existed before Jobs saw it was the only successful product we had for our first 10 years. Jobs left in embarrassment and frustration after the Macintosh failure and it was the rest of us who made it successful over the next 3-5 years. The publicity had set up Steve Jobs as the leader and he got the credit for the Macintosh but by the time he returned he certainly knew why it was so bad and not a real computer. But by now Jobs was mature enough to run a company and be a CEO. Only then. More than anything he had to have complete control. He also always went after only the best technologies and people for products. He spent immense time thinking of products the way he would like them. He designed them for himself, and not for others, and that was his great strength in creating excellent products. But he was so controlling that he wouldn’t allow the products to grow and become even better in many cases, something we are just now getting beyond.
Why did you and Mr. Jobs want your own company?
We wanted people to be able to do more with computers, which were becoming affordable. Before, computers could only be owned by wealthy companies, but we found that they had great personal promise too.
I myself was driven at first by the social good. People could communicate faster and students could learn better by finding out if their answers were right or wrong instantly. Also, the person who knew computers, like myself, would be very important in solving problems, including work problems. We would be more important.
2 - When Apple was first formed, what was your role in the company, and what was Mr. Jobs' role in the company?
I had created the Apple I and Apple ][ computers on my own. I even gave the Apple I design away for free so that others could build it and help start the social revolution (better life). I had done all the hardware and software myself. This was before Steve Jobs even saw them. When he came into town I took him to my computer club where I was a hero for my designs. (don’t believe the movies). Steve Jobs had always wanted a chance to have a company and make lots of money.
There were 2 phases of Apple as a company. In the first phase, we worked in our homes and it’s called the garage, although we never developed any products or manufactured them or did business in the garage. This was a short phase to start selling the Apple I computer but before we ever sold one, we could demo the Apple ][ which was so advanced that we knew it would change the world and instigate the personal computer revolution.
My role was to continue engineering. I never wanted to run a company because I like to be nice to everyone and not take sides. Nobody could beat me at engineering. Steve Jobs did not have a real role. He had no experience. But he saw this as the opportunity to be a founder of a company with money and he portrayed himself as the businessman. His role was to hang around the other business people and learn how they worked. Our investor, Mike Markkula, owned as much of Apple as we did and he taught us how to set up a company and who to hire and what their roles would be. Steve learned marketing principles from Mike and ran with them. We hired an agency to portray us as 2 young kids coming from a garage but the real story is quite different.
Steve Jobs was good at turning an invention into a product.
Did your roles remain the same over time?
Over time I was excluded from the business dealings and even new product engineering. I pretty much went my own way but never really left Apple. Steve Jobs had failure after failure trying to invent new computers but eventually wound up in charge of the Macintosh, which was our largest failure.
3- What qualities do you think that Mr. Jobs had that made him a leader in the company?
Persistence and confidence that he was in a position of control. Keep in mind that for the first 7 years he was portrayed as a leader in the press but we still only had one product. The Apple ][ that existed before Jobs saw it was the only successful product we had for our first 10 years. Jobs left in embarrassment and frustration after the Macintosh failure and it was the rest of us who made it successful over the next 3-5 years. The publicity had set up Steve Jobs as the leader and he got the credit for the Macintosh but by the time he returned he certainly knew why it was so bad and not a real computer. But by now Jobs was mature enough to run a company and be a CEO. Only then. More than anything he had to have complete control. He also always went after only the best technologies and people for products. He spent immense time thinking of products the way he would like them. He designed them for himself, and not for others, and that was his great strength in creating excellent products. But he was so controlling that he wouldn’t allow the products to grow and become even better in many cases, something we are just now getting beyond.