Bloomberg Businessweek’s list of “The 85 Most Disruptive Ideas in Our History” came out this week, and as a part of highlighting Apple’s #10 ranking in the list, the magazine had a short talk with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak about Apple’s early days, the garage myth, and Steve Jobs’ mindset in the early days of the company.
He had always spoken about wanting to be a person that moves the world forward, but he couldn’t really create things and design them like I could. Steve wanted a company real badly. His thinking was not necessarily about what computers would do for the average Joe in the average home. Steve found the words that explained what these computers would do for people and how important it was a little later in life.
Asked if he ever foresaw Apple becoming the industry giant it is today, Wozniak replied: “When we started the company, I knew that the computer was so far ahead of anything the rest of the world had ever seen. We knew we had a revolution. Everyone who joined Apple, this was the greatest thing in their life.”
On the whole “worked in a garage” legend:
“The work was being done—soldering things together, putting the chips together, designing them, drawing them on drafting tables—at my cubicle at Hewlett-Packard […] The garage is a bit of a myth. We did no designs there, no breadboarding, no prototyping, no planning of products. We did no manufacturing there. The garage didn’t serve much purpose, except it was something for us to feel was our home. We had no money. You have to work out of your home when you have no money.”
Wozniak is about to embark on a new phase of his career, that of reality show host. Wozniak is set to appear with former Mythbuster Kari Byron in The Woz, a reality show focused on the future of technology.
