Update: Steve Wozniak stresses the power of the idea in innovation
6:23 P. M.
A noted philanthropist, Steve Wozniak made a commitment to help schools, but simply donating money was not as good as becoming involved personally. "You have to give yourself. You have to make a sacrifice. I had always wanted to teach, so I started teaching." His subject was how to use a computer to improve study skills and apply it in all the other subjects. He taught for eight years, volunteering the whole time.
"I made it really fun. That helped," he said. "I felt like I was really giving so much of myself."
The Power Forward series brings noted business speakers to Tallahassee during Entrepreneurship Month to tell their success stories. Half the net proceeds from the event support the College of Business.
Tickets cost $45 in advance for general admission and $65 for priority seating. Limited seating is available. To purchase them, visit www.Ticketmaster.com or any Ticketmaster Box Office.
4:15 P. M.
Never overlook the importance of an idea in the birth of an innovation, engineering and computing icon Steve Wozniak says.
In a phone interview this afternoon, the co-founder of Apple Computer Inc. talked about his upcoming visit Nov. 5 to Tallahassee to speak as part of the Power Forward series sponsored by First Commerce Credit Union and the FSU College of Business.
Wozniak says he's encouraged by the spirit of entrepreneurship he sees and how students are developing ideas that could form the basis for new products.
Anyone could have the concept for the next big innovation, he added.
"If you have some time, work on some of your own ideas. Try to build them out into things. Meet people that could help you. If you have business skills, you need to run into engineers that have building skills," said Wozniak, who is chief scientist at technology company Fusion-io.
While business innovation is itself a huge industry involving countless companies from Silicon Valley to the Research Triangle, Wozniak noted that the formal corporate route is not the only one. He and the late Steve Jobs found that out.
"Young people just have an idea out of the blue. It doesn't go along with how things are being done or what's being done now. It's just an idea occurs to them," Wozniak said.
He and Jobs were students themselves when Wozniak, an electronics engineer, produced the Apple I personal computer. They quickly joined forces with some experienced business people.
"They got us into professional modes," Wozniak said. "We hired the right people that were already professionals in certain departments. We set things up. This was largely done by our funder, who had as much of Apple stock as we had."
Though Apple Computer's engineering and technical expertise was a big advantage when the company started in 1976, business skills were something that had to be acquired. Jobs wasn't an executive, but tried to cover as many bases as he could at the time. "It was very different than your image of him is from his later years when he came back to Apple as a very sophisticated, mature, CEO-type person," Wozniak said of his colleague.
Check back at Tallahassee.com for an update of this story and look for more coverage tomorrow in the Tallahassee Democrat.