Apple Co-Founder Shares Insights on Innovation and Coachability with HPU Students
HIGH POINT, N.C., Feb. 20, 2025 – Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak, who serves as High Point University’s Innovator in Residence, encouraged hundreds of students to follow their passion and seek out people to collaborate with during his visit to HPU’s campus on Feb. 14.
Wozniak sat down with Dr. Daniel Hall, dean of the Earl N. Phillips School of Business, for a Life Skills and Leadership Series seminar about how students can incorporate creativity, innovation and coachability into their professional lives. Students filled HPU’s Hayworth Fine Arts Center and listened as Wozniak shared lessons he learned while starting Apple with his best friend, Steve Jobs.
Wozniak’s nearly hour-long talk with Hall highlighted the opening day of HPU’s third and final Presidential Scholarship weekend this spring. The audience included current HPU students and accomplished high school students who are interested in attending HPU and were preparing to interview for potential scholarship increases at the university.
“By the time you graduate from a university, you want one thing — enough money for an apartment,” Wozniak said to laughter from the audience. “Take a job with anybody. It doesn’t have to be what your lifetime passion and goals are. You’re young. You have extra time, and if you don’t waste your time partying away and if you work on some of your own ideas, you can develop them to a great extent all on your own without having any money. That’s one of the advantages you have.”
Wozniak told students to look around them at things in their own lives that could be improved upon. He said some of the world’s best innovations were developed by people who initially wanted them for themselves, such as the iPhone or the Apple II computer that quickly revolutionized the technology world after he built it.
“Mr. Wozniak’s talk about innovation and coachability truly resonated with me,” said Mae Culbreth, a freshman double majoring in entrepreneurship and marketing from Waldorf, Maryland. “His emphasis on the importance of being open to feedback and constantly evolving your approach to challenges was inspiring. Innovation isn’t just about having new ideas but also about adapting and improving based on what you learn along the way. It was a reminder of how crucial it is to stay coachable, especially when pursuing ambitious goals. I’m excited to apply this mindset to my academic and professional journey.”
Growing up, Wozniak described himself as a shy kid who had a ham radio license at age 10 and enjoyed being known for his basic inventions that flashed lights and made sounds. He said he was lucky in that he knew what he wanted to be from a young age.
By the time he was 12 years old, Wozniak had told his father that he wanted to follow in his footsteps and be an electrical engineer. He also hoped to someday be an elementary-school teacher, which he eventually did for several years after leaving Apple.
Wozniak said he developed several principles for himself to live by along the way. The first principle was simply, “Don’t seek huge accomplishments.” By that, he meant he wanted to judge his life on if he is happy, not by how much power and money he accumulates.
“I didn’t want to be super high up in private planes, selling half-billion-dollar companies every day and buying another one the next day,” Wozniak said. “I didn’t want to be that guy. I just wanted to be happy and smiling.”
The Importance of Collaboration
Wozniak shared with students the importance of collaborating on projects with other people. He said he started collaborating with others — unbeknownst to them — when he was a kid reading about their innovations in different publications. He would then build off their work and incorporate their breakthroughs into his own inventions.
Wozniak later famously partnered with Jobs to start Apple in 1976. While Wozniak said Jobs didn’t know how to build computers, he understood Wozniak as a person and could relate to him.
“When you’re young, you collaborate and it’s usually with a friend. You might post some notices saying, ‘Are there any engineers who want to help me on this?’” Wozniak said. “I was lucky. I kind of created a computer all on my own. He didn’t really know about computers, and when he would suggest something simple, I’d be like ‘All right.’”
LeeAnn Bailey, a freshman majoring in computer science from Fork, Maryland, was among several HPU students in the audience who had questions for Wozniak. She asked how collaboration played a role in his success and what students can learn from his experiences.
“What I took away from his talk is to do things differently than what the norm is. Use creativity and innovation from within, and success will come from it,” Bailey said. “Another interesting take from his talk is to be good to everyone, even if they are bad to you. Mr. Wozniak stated that since following that rule, he has no enemies.”
