drop out after six months. Sleeping on the floors of friends’
dorm rooms, he stayed on campus and continued to audit a
few classes, including a calligraphy course, which he later
credited for influencing the beautiful typography used in the
first Mac.
Later, Jobs became friends with Steve Wozniak, who,
before they founded Apple together, helped him get a job at
Atari. “Woz” had redesigned an earlier version of the game
Pong, which Jobs passed off as his own work to get hired as
a technician.
While working at Atari, Jobs, who was hard to get along
with, learned important lessons about design, software
development, and creating technology for consumers. With
every opportunity, he gained guidance, knowledge, and
experience—each from a different source—all of which he
was able to use later in life with Apple and Pixar.^10 Rarely
do you find all the elements of an apprenticeship in one
place. But if you look in the right places and are careful to
pay attention, you will find them. Apprenticeship, then, isn’t
a class you take or a mentor you meet—it’s a choice you
make. And in that case, an accidental apprenticeship isn’t
much of an accident at all; it’s the intentional process of
choosing the opportunities you need to create your life’s
work.
Unlike a formal education, this option is available to
anyone. Instead of waiting for a teacher to come choose you
or an academic institution to accept you, this apprenticeship
is ready to begin when you are.