Steve Wozniak

Job's closed system only worked because Wozniak's open system funded them.

The Apple II kept the company alive for years.

its profits bankrolled everything that came after.

Those eight expansion slots Wozniak fought for became the financial engine that allowed Jobs to eventually build his vision.

Steve Jobs once said, I could never have built Apple without Woz, and I think Woz could have built Apple without me, but it would have been a very different Apple.

Two philosophies, two Steves, and somehow they both ended up being right.

That's what made Wozniak an outlier.

It wasn't his genius, though that was real.

Not his generosity, though that was extraordinary.

What made him an outlier was his refusal to compromise on what he believed a computer should be, what a company should be, and what a person should be.

He stayed true to himself, even when it cost him everything.

Instead of my usual reflections and rules at the end, I want to read you some excerpts at the end of the book that I think are the most valuable part of this book.

At the very back of IWAS, Wozniak spells out his rules to live by, and these are incredible.

First, believe in yourself.

Here's what Woz writes.

You need to believe in yourself.

Don't waver.

There will be people, and I'm talking about the vast majority of people, practically everybody you'll ever meet, who just think in black and white terms.

Most people see things the way the media sees them or the way their friends see them, and they think that if they're right, everyone else is wrong.

So a new idea, a revolutionary new product or product feature won't be understandable to most people because they see things so black and white.