Woz is Happy
Everyone these days seems to aspire to generational wealth.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is a notable exception.
It’s long been known Wozniak wasn’t a billionaire. He sold his Apple shares after the 1980 IPO and he’s open about his lack of interest in money.
But last week Woz estimated his net worth at just $10 million, plus a couple of houses. Previous media estimates had put his fortune as high as $140 million.
And it’s kind of great how it came out.
The tech website Slashdot had written an online article recapping Woz’s career which was timed to coincide with his 75th birthday.
In the comments someone trolled him for not being richer because he sold his Apple shares “too soon.”
Woz dropped into the comments and responded in epic fashion, writing that he lives for happiness which he defined as “smiles minus frowns.”
He also points out that he happily pays all his taxes at a rate he estimated at 55%.
Here is his response in its entirety:
“I gave all my Apple wealth away because wealth and power are not what I live for. I have a lot of fun and happiness. I funded a lot of important museums and arts groups in San Jose, the city of my birth, and they named a street after me for being good. I now speak publicly and have risen to the top. I have no idea how much I have but after speaking for 20 years it might be $10M plus a couple of homes. I never look for any type of tax dodge. I earn money from my labor and pay something like 55% combined tax on it. I am the happiest person ever. Life to me was never about accomplishment, but about Happiness, which is Smiles minus Frowns. I developed these philosophies when I was 18-20 years old and I never sold out.”
The response reminds me of a story Kurt Vonnegut wrote in the New Yorker in 2005.
He recounted being at a party held by a billionaire on Shelter Island and asking his friend Joseph Heller how it felt that their host earned more in a day than Heller’s novel Catch-22 had in its entire history.
“I’ve got something he can never have,” Heller replied. “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
America is a country defined to a large degree by restless ambition. It’s a place people cannot help but to be driven to do more. Satisfied is not a word you hear often.
One lesson we can take away from Woz, however, is that money isn’t the only goal of that drive nor the only measure of success.
Woz sought happiness from becoming a top public speaker, doing philanthropy and enjoying the time he spent with friends and family.
Not to mention getting a street in his hometown named after him.
h/t to Trung Phan for first writing about the Woz post.
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