11/02/2026
Imagine this: 1975. You work at HP. You're loyal. At night, you build something revolutionary: a personal computer. You show it to your bosses. Once. Twice. Three times. Four. Five.
They reject it. All 5 times.
Today? That rejected idea is worth $3.5 trillion. HP? $28 billion.
This is Steve Wozniak. The engineer HP said "no" to - who built Apple.
The Loyal Engineer:
Spring 1975: Wozniak attended the Homebrew Computer Club. Inspired, he went home and started working on what would become the Apple I
At the time, Wozniak was an HP employee designing scientific calculators. Because of his dedication to HP, he felt it important to share his prototype with the company
His loyalty? Absolute. "Never leave Hewlett Packard, I love my company, I'm loyal"
The 5 Rejections:
By March 1, 1976, Wozniak completed the basic design of the Apple I computer. He alone designed the hardware, circuit board designs, and operating system
Wozniak originally offered the design to HP while working there, but was denied by the company on five occasions
HP's reasoning? The company didn't see why an ordinary person would need to use a computer
It was inconceivable that a computer could be so small
The Garage Gamble:
Jobs advised Wozniak to start a business of their own to build and sell bare printed circuit boards. Wozniak, at first skeptical, was later convinced by Jobs that even if they were not successful they could at least say to their grandchildren they had their own company
To raise money for the first batch of circuit boards, Wozniak sold his HP-65 scientific calculator while Jobs sold his Volkswagen van
April 1, 1976: Jobs and Wozniak formed Apple Computer Company
The Apple I went on sale July 1976 at $666.66. Wozniak later said he had no idea about the relation to the mark of the beast - he came up with the price because he liked "repeating digits"
The Revolution:
After the success of Apple I, Wozniak designed the Apple II - the first personal computer with ability to display color graphics and BASIC programming language built in
Jobs and Wozniak introduced the Apple II at April 1977 West Coast Computer Faire
HP's Mistake:
"Even if they had agreed, I see now that HP would've done it wrong anyway. When they finally did it in 1979, they did it wrong. That machine went nowhere" - Wozniak
"HP couldn't see the product the way we'd envisioned it... And it was probably good they rejected us - I think I wanted them to turn us down. It inspired us even more"
The cost of that rejection:
- Apple today: $3.5 trillion market cap
- HP today: $28 billion market cap
HP rejected what became 125X bigger than themselves.
