Learning From the Relationship Between Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak

I watched the movie “Jobs” a couple of weeks ago where Ashton Kutcher does a good job of portraying Apple genius Steve Jobs. What struck me was the relationship between him and his computer engineer friend Steve Wozniak. If you either know the history of Apple or you’ve watched the movie, you would be quick to note that Wozniak was the one with a particularly uncanny talent to create computer hardware and software. Steve Jobs had some technical ability, but Wozniak’s talent was clearly superior to most others in the industry. Steve Jobs had the gift of seeing what the consumer wanted, Wozniak was the one who sat down and created such an experience.

The two talents together created remarkable machines. Jobs’ vision and Wozniak’s technical talent were a powerful combination.

Steve Jobs would then sell these products he and Wozniak created, and generate an interest in their product. Jobs then realised the need for expansion, and so hired other computer engineers to ease the workload. Steve Jobs then continued in his ruthless, never-say-die attitude, and cracked their first big deal with the release of the “Apple II”, and Apple as we know it was born.

Here’s the point: Without Steve Jobs, there is a very, very strong chance Steve Wozniak would be an unknown talent today. And certainly nowhere near as wealthy. You see, Wozniak was a worker. He wasn’t ambitious, he didn’t like people, and he wasn’t particularly interested in money. He just loved what he did; computer engineering. And if he was working on a computer, he was happy. Without Steve Jobs, he could quite possibly still be working for HP today.



Wozniak was happiest when he had a computer in front of him that he could fix up, enhance or create. Jobs had a gift of taking Wozniak’s passion and gifting and using it for a consumable product. Wozniak didn’t care all that much, as long as he was doing what he loved.

You must work to your strengths and talents. But you also need to partner with those who compliment those talents and strengths.

Always be open to working with others  who differ to you. Keep an open mind, and allow collaboration to enhance each other's work.

Working to your strengths and talents is the first step to great work. Collaborating with differing talents is the step that takes your work from great, to remarkable.