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Apple's Co-founder, the "Other Steve," Speaks

Steve Wozniak, alternately known as the “Other Steve” and the “Wizard of Woz,” brought his rapid-fire speaking style to Lerner Hall as he told students about his life and how he invented the first Apple computer.

“I was technically-oriented at an early age,” he said, relating how he would work alone on projects such as creating a tic-tac-toe computer. At that time, it was impossible to buy parts since radios and televisions were still using vacuum tubes and transistors were sold almost exclusively for use by the military.

Wozniak took a job with Hewlett-Packard where he was hired as an engineer to develop scientific calculators during a leave of absence from college. “Engineers drove that company,” he said. If you thought like an engineer, he said, you did not have to have a degree in engineering to work there. Once Wozniak had perfected the Apple I, he approached H-P executives who told him they were not interested in his computer design, leaving him free to develop and sell it himself.

By 1976, he and Steve Jobs had become well acquainted and formed Apple Computers. Their first order was from a local store for 50 Apple I computers. The Apple I was designed to be intuitive, with a keyboard to input data that became immediately viewable on a screen. Within a short time, he developed the first color computer, Apple II.

He encouraged students to do as he did: know what you love to do, and make that passion your work. “Life is about how many times you laugh versus how many times you frown,” he said.