A must-read for all those Apple fans out there!

There have been so many rumours out there about what actually happened with Apple over the years. How it started well, how it went downslope, how it got better, etc, etc. In his book, Steve Wozniak sets the record straight on all those stories and exposes the undeniable truth about the story of Apple : how it went from a couple of real smart guys building computers from their garage to a big corporation where money governs decisions on all aspects of the company.The book gives a very good overview of Steve’s personal parcour through life and the establishment of Apple Computers. It gives good insight on how Steve Jobs (current CEO of Apple) and himself decided to form the company, and what kind of help they got from friends and family during the process. It also describes very well Steve’s character, one of a unique man who combined talent, simplicity and humour with stubbornness and failure in some of his most important relationships.

Overall, discovering the fact that Steve Wozniak considers himself as any other person with ongoing dreams provides a reassuring feeling to the reader. In other words, using one’s talent bring great accomplishments in one’s life, include self-fulfillment and recognition from others.Steve displays himself as a quiet and shy person. He mentions a few times in the book how he was always the engineer behind the inventions he made (Apple I, Apple II, the Universal Remote Control, etc.) He shows that he had to take difficult choices (e.g. leaving Apple Computers) to follow his own path and fulfill his personal engineering career. He tries to give a lesson of life: one should not be governed by others but rather should follow his own dreams, even if it means missing out on other luxuries (fame, money, etc.) which really aren’t that important.

It is not until the end of the book that he finally talks about his current feelings of Apple and the success the company has had since 2000. Even if he does criticize some versions of the Ibook, he does confirm that he believes Apple has come back to being a company which provides products and services for the people, which was his initial vision as co-founder of Apple. He congratulates Steve Jobs for his success but doesn’t show any regrets to leaving Apple and experimenting other things.Overall, a very nicely written book which sometimes sounds as if Steve was telling you his story directly.

Some sections might be a bit too technical for some readers, but the vast majority is essential to one’s understanding of Apple’s successes and failures. An indispensable lesson of life for all IT professionals and anyone who wonders how the Personal Revolution was perceived from one of its major inventors.