How Steve Wozniak is giving back to the next generation of entrepreneurs

Steve “The Woz” Wozniak is known for many things, and being a prolific entrepreneur is only one of them. Whether it’s his claim to fame as the co-founder of Apple Computer Inc., his brief stint on Dancing With the Stars or his philanthropic ventures, Wozniak has no shortage of interests. But he maintains that no matter what you want to do, you have to have passion. “If I can say one thing it’s that for what you’re doing you have to have the internal passion,” he says. He also says budding entrepreneurs need to have the right reasons for starting a business. “Maybe it goes back to your childhood, something you have a reason for doing, and the reason isn’t to make a company. The reason is because you want this particular product in your own life, or you want this particular product or service in the world.”

Though he now works at Fusion-io, Wozniak was an entrepreneur for years and wouldn’t have considered working for someone else. “My whole life was about computer architecture from the time I was very young, and I would not have joined a company,” he says. It was in 1976 that he founded Apple Computer Inc. with Steve Jobs, now just as prolific a figure. But in the early days it was a struggle, even for these technology innovators. “We were in our young twenties, we had no money, no savings accounts, no things like a car we could sell to get money, and we had no experience in business,” he says. “We had never worked for a company in business or never taken a business class in college, so we were just basically just using our heads, spotting where the opportunities were, and going that way.” He says he learned how to be flexible, how to sense the exact “rightness” of a product, and to understand where people really want it to be. Wozniak developed the Apple I and Apple II computers before moving on from the company in 1985, and he’s credited with single-handedly designing the first personal computer – an impressive claim to fame.

While Wozniak certainly has relevant experience to draw upon, he warns entrepreneurs against taking advice at face value. “You have in your own head the ideas that you’re really going to work by,” he says. “So when you hear people like me talk about it first of all don’t believe them, because in the end you’re going to know what’s important to you in starting your company. They might have ideas that don’t apply to you.” But he also says you have to know when to admit defeat at a startup. “How many good ideas are you going to have in your life? You’re going to have more than one. Give it a while and a try, and if it doesn’t seem to be THE great one that’s just driving you, have a time limit and go on to something new. Try one of your other ideas.” He says if you and your team aren’t completely passionate about the idea you should go back to the drawing board and try something new. As for whether he’s had to stop and start again over the course of his career? “I’ve had the luxury of not having to deal with that or think about that too much, I’ve always been doing what I want to do,” he says.

It’s those early days working with Steve Jobs that drives Wozniak to help the next generation of entrepreneurs. “I’ve been involved with a lot of more normal entrepreneurs. Young people, good ideas, trying to start a company, get a group of people together, and I give them advice. I’ll meet with them anytime I can, at restaurants or their little offices in their homes, because I care so much about them because it’s more like what Steve and I did.” He also likes watching entrepreneurs better their product or service until it’s nothing short of excellent. “I always admire that kind of excellence. Not just having an idea and building it, but having an idea, building it, and making it the best.”

Even Wozniak himself admits that it was an unlikely move to take the position as Chief Scientist at Fusion-io, a leading provider of data-centric computing solutions. He met with company representatives in a restaurant and they offered him a job, though he said it was the last thing he needed in the world. And while he accepted the offer because of the company’s technology, it had more to do with the people. But even someone as seasoned in the technology world as Wozniak still has a learning curve at a new company. “I’m going through a lot of education. I’m going to conferences, I’m talking to the engineers in the company learning about their product, I’m thinking up ideas when I go to sleep at night of how to make it better and faster.”

While he still keeps a busy schedule with speaking gigs, guest stints on The Big Bang Theory and of course his day job, Wozniak muses about the advantage of being a young, energetic entrepreneur. ”If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re starting a company, and you’re doing it the right way, you’re working so hard. When you’re young you have a lot of energy, and that’s not going to be true for your whole life.” If Wozniak isn’t as energetic now as he was when he was spearheading the personal computer revolution, he’s doing a pretty good job of faking it – and we’ll wait to see what he comes up with next.

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