Steve Wozniak, the computer engineer and programmer who, along with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne, founded the technology giant that became Apple, was the star of the last few years. Zurich Talks Future Innovationwhere he talks, of course, about entrepreneurship and innovation, subjects in which he is an expert.
The inventor of the personal computer as we know it today offers his sage advice that can be used to succeed in almost any field.
"For me, it's the engineering, not the glory, that's really important. When you have your own ideas and you want to build something for yourself, your personal idea, maybe it's just for fun in your own life, it's not even for the world, not necessarily for a company, that's how you educate yourself. Motivation is worth much more than knowledge," he says.
Woz suggests that entrepreneurs start with small projects that are not worth a lot of money, because that is how they will develop their brains and learn.
"Every project you work on in your life, I just look at my own life as an example, is the project before and a little bit better and a little bit more. And every technique you come up with to make things better you keep forever in your head," he maintains.
Independent thinking
Steve Wozniak expounds that if a person reads the same things and says the same things as others they are perceived as intelligent, but intelligence is the ability to think about issues on your own and ask a lot of skeptical questions to get to the real truth, not just what you are told it is, he believes.
"I think randomness and even a little bit of misbehavior are really essential for creative people," he adds.
The Apple co-founder recalls that as a young man they were encouraged to be part of a revolution, because the way people lived and communicated was going to be changed by them and would change forever, more than anyone could have predicted.
"This much I know for sure: I was destined to be an engineer who designs computers, an engineer who writes software, an engineer who tells jokes, and an engineer who teaches other people things," he points out.
"I was sure, even at 22, that I never wanted to change from engineering to management. I didn't want to go into management and fight political battles and take sides and step on people's toes and all that."
Thinking outside the box
Most people only think in black and white and believe that if they are right, everyone else is wrong, so a new idea, a revolutionary new product or product feature will not be understandable to them, he says.
"Maybe they don't understand because they can't imagine it. Don't let these people get you down."
"As an inventor, you have to see things in grayscale. You have to be open. You can't follow the crowd. Forget the crowd. And you need the kind of objectivity that makes you forget everything you've ever heard, clear the table and make a factual study like a scientist would. The only way to create something new, something world-changing, is to think outside the constraints that others have," he advises.
Woz refers that most inventors and engineers are shy and live in their heads, as he does, and work better in that freedom than within a corporate environment, because they can control the design of an invention without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other committee.
"I don't think anything revolutionary was ever invented by committee-because the committee would never agree to that!" he assures.
"The world needs inventors, great ones. You can be one. If you love what you do and are willing to do whatever it takes, it's within your reach. And it will be worth every minute you spend alone at night, thinking about what it is you want to design or build. It will be worth it, I promise," finishes Woz.
Source: Zurich.com
