Before Steve Jobs was the poster boy for turtleneck fashion and corporate seriousness, he was just a young dude making mischief and enjoying concerts with his friends. Yes, believe it or not, he wasn’t born perfectly encapsulated in a black turtleneck with a MacBook in hand.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak had a front-row seat to this transformation. He reminisced on the podcast hosted by Guy Kawasaki—who, let’s face it, seems to have made a career out of hanging out with tech legends—about how Jobs evolved once he stepped into the world of “big money.” Spoiler alert: he became a tad more serious.
Back in the ’70s, Wozniak and Jobs formed a friendship built on pranks and electronics. Think of them as the original techies with a mischievous streak—driving around in pursuit of concert paraphernalia like teenage groupies, pulling pranks, and engaging in the “blue box” antics that would put modern-day pranksters to shame. However, after they founded Apple in 1976, those fun-filled days took a sharp nosedive.
It all changed after a colossal $250,000 loan from Mike Markkula in 1977—the equivalent of $1.1 million today. Suddenly, Jobs started disdaining heaping spoonfuls of fun for business jargon and magazine covers. Wozniak noted that, “He didn’t want to talk about jokes or kid things, only business suits,” which we can safely assume didn’t include fun socks.
Thus commenced Jobs’ transformation into a “serious” business mogul with a flair for branding. Wozniak pointed out that Jobs had grand aspirations of being among those monumental figures in history. You know, the likes of Shakespeare. Because, obviously, nothing says “future icon” like the ability to write sonnets while revolutionizing personal computers.
Meanwhile, Wozniak was happily fiddling with circuits and components, blissfully unconcerned with the spotlight. He professed to want nothing more than to design calculator chips at Hewlett-Packard for the rest of his life. Not only did he escape the clutches of fame, but he also had the audacity to say he was driven by passion rather than profit. (And here we thought everyone secretly wanted a $100 million net worth!)
Jobs, on the other hand, was less of an engineer and more of a design and marketing guru. While Wozniak tinkered with the hardware, Jobs was busy doodling ideas on napkins and discussing how to make computers “revolutionary” while wearing his signature outfit—a decision that probably saved him so much time in the morning he could have invented a few more gadgets.
Fast forward to today, and we see Apple has reached a staggering market cap of $1.4 trillion. Yes, trillion with a “T.” And while Wozniak still finds himself on the Apple payroll as a token of loyalty—earning a whopping $50 per week—he remains adamant that his motivation isn’t money or fame. “I just want to know interesting people, like Steve Jobs,” he quipped. Because, why not hang out with historical tech figures? It’s like networking, but with fewer business cards and more existential musings.
