December 23, 1976: Woz Leaves HP

Steve Wozniak loved Hewlett Packard. He not only enjoyed working for the company, he loved the products.

Hence, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that when Apple was first bankrolled by the efforts of Mike Markkula, Steve Wozniak didn't want to leave his $24,000 a year job at HP. Woz felt that there was a better-than-even chance that his trusting nature and lack of political acumen would be abused, leaving him without a job while he watched the engineering he was responsible for enjoy success without him.

Woz was finally persuaded by a friend at Hewlett Packard; Woz tells the story best:

Letters-General Questions Answered
“Then my friend Allen Baum called. Allen was my only computer friend in high school and college. He had introduced me to HP in the first place. He also worked at HP …Allen said that I could start Apple and go into management and get rich. Or that I could start Apple and stay an engineer and get rich. This was the first time I'd heard anyone suggest that you COULD start a company and stay an engineer and keep designing in a lab. That was what I needed, and I left HP that day or the next."

Woz left HP for Apple this month in 1976.