5 THINGS TO LEARN FROM STEVE WOZNIAK — APPLE’S COFOUNDER

Many only know Steve Jobs to be the founder of Apple Inc., maybe because Steve Wozniak left the company earlier and didn’t come back like Jobs did. In actual sense, Steve Wozniak manufactures and programmes Apple while Steve Jobs sell the product through branding.

It’s no doubt both founders are visionaries as they did change the computer industry but they are other elements that played their success. With these five lessons, we can learn something from his attitude to succeed as an entrepreneur.

1. He knows his Onions: Steve Wozniak is a computer programmer both hardware and software. Trying to disrupt the almighty IBM of the 20th Century was not a child’s play yet Apple did. With almost everybody condemning a PC future, this genius was able to utilize the availability of chips and other material to make a ready-made computer with detached keyboard and detached monitor. The product mightn’t have done that much if not for the close call marketing and risk taking of Jobs.
2. Picking the Right people and the wrong: Wozniak had influential friends back in the 1970’s when he was working at Hewlett-Packard (HP) but he do hang out with younger Steve Jobs of 21 although he was 26. Jobs was a dropout from University of California (some biographer said he never gained admission at all) while Wozniak should be a graduate by the time they were together, yet they didn’t see that as a difference. Also Jobs doesn’t know anything about a computer but he sure knows how to sell the company. Many people never knew Apple had a third co-founder, Ronald Wayne, 40, who also worked at Atari games with Jobs. Wayne however sold his 10% shares for a token of $800 dollars just 12 days after the company started.
3. The Apple brand started in a Garage and Dorm room: Though Steve Wozniak could afford a space, he chose to try out his family garage and Jobs room for the prototype of the Apple 1 in 1976. When they got their first order, they had to manufacture on an advance payment and collect the rest on delivery. This they did on a loan of $15,000 without a manufacturing plant.
4. Wozniak Made his Company Public too early: selling to stores one on one will take a very long curve to success, and manufacturing cost will only go down if there is more to buy. Though the Apple 1 sold like hot cakes, Apple II needs more investment as Apple 1 just sold for $ 666 each. 7 years after start up, Apple raised an all high $985 million and became the leading PC manufacturer in the world. Although this time, neither Steve Jobs nor Steve Wozniak was CEO because their company was already public which they thought will be a blessing, yes there was money, but no breathing space.
5. He Left Apple 9 years after Start up: Wozniak didn’t last in Apple, although his mode of termination was not known but the reason was. It was because the company was facing a financial debacle due to some executive policies. Wozniak also suffered a fatal plane accident during that period and had to recover between the span of 2 years making him loose control over his company. Before he left, Jobs had already left when he felt he never really had a say in the company any more.