Steve Jobs on Apple's Early Story: from garage to growth

Sorry, I'm late. Hello, I was driving at a great speed and, honestly, I arrived on time. However, I couldn't find a parking space for about 20 minutes. You must have taken all the spaces. A photographer from a magazine, he asked me to take some photos a few days ago. He suggested going to any school to take a photo of an Apple representative at a school with computers in the background. I just randomly chose a school that used Apple computers. We met, several 6th graders came up to me, we talked to the kids, they are only 11 years old. It seemed to me that they knew as much about computers as I did, and maybe even more. They used them completely freely and certainly played games much better than me. This was my first experience when I saw people using our computers not in theory, but in practice, in real life. I involuntarily remembered myself when we were also sitting in the classroom, but we didn't even have anything like this then. I can't even imagine what these kids will grow up to be. I had three Germans visiting me at my house yesterday.

They flew in from Germany, they wanted, they made a deal. They will buy 20-30 Apple computers from us every month. It's amazing. People from another continent flew in to buy what I came up with. They were so impatient. They flew in at 12 o'clock at night and immediately called me. They said, we are ready. We want to buy, but we want to see you. One company uses Apple computers to analyze soil samples. You see, there is an endless list of things people use our computers for, both at school and to analyze something there, and even abroad. Isn't that it? Excuse me, there is something wrong with your microphone. What is it? Question mark. Please take this microphone. Yes, thank you. We had no idea what people would do with our Apple computers when we founded the company. And there were only two people working on the first computer back then, W.H.O. Yeah, we didn't have the money to pay someone for help. We took apart the HT Steam and looked at what was in it.

We spent about six months racking our brains trying to figure out how everything was soldered together. Then we realized we could build our own computer, and we did it for weeks. We slept, probably, about three hours a day, and, you know, we did it. We showed it to some people, and everyone immediately wanted a computer like ours. Not like theirs, but like ours. We figured we'd need about 40 hours to build another one. We had a lot of different companies where we could borrow some design parts. We had a garage full of spare parts. We just needed to cobble together something cool from it, preferably, something that would still work. One day I realized we'd run out of money. Vose was selling his beloved calculator, and I was selling my minivan. We had $1,300 on hand. Friends who brought us pieces of our future computer. We paid from this amount, calculated, realized that we could sell this computer for twice the cost. We could only hope that someone would buy this computer and our sold calculator and the machine would pay for themselves.

We decided to offer our computer to a hardware store. We go into the store. The owner says he wants to buy 50 of these computers. I already had dollar signs in my eyes, but there was a small problem. He wanted all the computers assembled, tested and working at 100%. We came with a single sample, which glitched every other time. We hardly slept for the next five days. We called everyone we could, looking for the necessary spare parts for five computers. We simply asked for components for $10,000. We simply had nothing. We simply said, thank you very much for giving us $10,000. And we did it. We didn't assemble 50, we assembled 100 computers in one month, sold 50 to this store, paid off debts of $10,000. That's how it all started. But again there was a problem. We still had 50 computers hanging around, we needed to put them somewhere. So we started thinking about marketing, about advertising.

We realized that we had managed to find the right direction. However, dreaming about something and doing it are two different things. Now, when people ask me, were you sure that you would succeed? I answer, yes, of course, I calculated everything and wrote it down on a piece of paper. No, that doesn't happen. I couldn't foresee everything, that soon my company would employ as many as 500 people, and that children at school would understand computers in the way that I once thought up in my head as well as I do. That's what a person is capable of by nature. Research was conducted recently. They took a cat, a dog, a goat, and someone else, and a person. They sent them running to see who would be the first to reach the finish line. The person ran about in the middle of this menagerie, but when the person was put on a bicycle, he arrived first. This shows that the advantage of a person is that he can create devices with which he can expand his capabilities.

This is exactly what we are doing. No, we are not creating a more advanced bicycle. This is not my area. Someone else will definitely improve it one day. My story is electronic products from Apple. They will also change the life of every person. But it is very difficult to predict how this will work. With a bicycle, everything is clear. A person will move faster and faster. Here, everything is more complicated. Where new gadgets will lead, I myself do not yet know. Before, we had calculators, typewriters, televisions. All this technology could be placed in one large room. This is all our common man's wealth. Now one computer is enough. It's standing there in the corner and that's it, everything's fine. And you know what I thought? I want to make it even more compact. For example, put it in your pocket. I want to create such a job. It already exists. There are a lot of people working in my company. I want to monitor everyone, what they do and how they do it. I can't stand next to each of them all the time, checking. That's why I watch everything they do in the tables on my computer. I can't cover everything. There are many things I don't notice after visiting that school. Here's what I realized. Those kids, they're already growing up with the technologies that came to us in our 30 to 50 years. For us, this is progress. Something new, something, something wow. This hasn't happened before. For them, it's routine. It already exists. They want more. They will do it. Now they are 11. At 21, they will come up with something that will shock them. For their children, it will be the same routine.

Do you understand? This process will improve faster and faster. We will barely have time to adapt to the changing era, and it will improve faster and faster. I want an Apple computer to be easy to use, because a person buys it to solve his problems. And then another problem arises to learn how to use this computer. One of my tasks is to simplify the complexity of the user's first encounter with an Apple computer as much as possible. I strive for one person to be able to work with one computer, and not like others. Ten people work with one computer. We want everyone to be able to buy an Apple computer for their needs. You need to make animated films. You can buy our computer for a few thousand dollars. If you just want to type text, mail, play games, this one is cheaper. And for each user, we must make an offer, and then it is their choice what to buy. We wanted to create a computer that would instantly exchange information with other computers so that they would work as a single whole. The best device in the world today costs only $2-3000. Anyone can buy it for several salaries. Even the cleaners at Apple can buy our computer. Computers have advanced so much in the last three years that people ask me, Steve, what's next? Where can we make them even more powerful? They're already fast enough. I think we'll be presenting something new every year. Updating the previous generation of computers so that people can see how fast technology is changing, that they deserve the most advanced technology in their home. Mr. Steve, Mr. Steve, Apple is not the most appropriate name for an electronics

company. Why is that? I expected that sooner or later I would be asked this question. The first thing that needed to be done when creating a company was to come up with a name, enter it into the documents, and changing it would be quite difficult. Many companies are named after their first or last names to put it all down in history. However, you know, this is not the best idea, because it will be difficult for an ordinary user to not only write, but even pronounce, say, a German surname. But the first thing an entrepreneur should think about is convenience for the user, the buyer, if you like. We thought for a long time, there were two or three words in the company name. There is an apple in front of my eyes. I take it, bite into it and say, em, a delicious apple. Let's call our company Apple. Everyone laughed. You see, it's laughter, it's joy, it's simple, but in fact, we always present our product with simplicity for the consumer. But inside is hidden a voice.

very complex mechanism. Inside this apple is a small seed, this is the processor of our computer, the seed is capable of giving life to an entire tree. New apples will grow on the tree. These are new inventions of the Apple company, which have yet to be born in the heads of our company, in my head. And believe me, the moment will come when each of you will pick an apple from this huge tree and enjoy its unique taste. You say that you want to create something. It will remove the barrier between new complex technologies and the most ordinary user, something that everyone will be able to use professionally right in the store without the slightest experience. And so what is it? You are forcing me to tell you about something that you will not see soon. This is a secret. I can't tell you. At the level of ideas, when we started in the garage, we didn't even know what language was. Programming, what all this means, how to spell even words correctly, we didn't know that. Gradually, we learned more and more about software. We imagined the future of computers. We sat for weeks, months, studying how to implement it. A few years later, I'm standing in front of you, you saw what we came up with back then in the garage. And now I have a lot of ideas in my head. These are things that you use every day. You don't see how you can use it differently, but you still use these same things, but for the same purpose, but a little differently. Do you understand? I see all this, it's hard to explain without telling you what we're talking about. Well, believe me, the time will come, we will implement this in material form. Then

I will show you. Rest assured, you will want to buy it.