Craftiness Pays Off
Jobs told Woz that Atari paid him $700 for the game, which was
a lie. He then paid Woz, half, or $350. It is unclear why he did
this. One theory is that since Jobs had set his mind on going to
India, he rationalized that he needed the money more than Woz
who had a day job with Hewlett Packard. “Steve paid me half
the seven hundred bucks he said they paid him for it,” Wozniak
explains,
Later I found out he got paid a bit more for it—like a few
thousand dollars—than he said at the time. . . . He wasn’t
honest with me, and I was hurt. But I didn’t make a big deal
about it or anything . . . I still don’t really understand why he
would’ve gotten paid one thing and told me he’d gotten paid
another. But you know people are different. And in no way
do I regret the experien ce at Atari with Steve Jobs. He was
my best friend and I still feel extremely linked with him . . .
Anyway, in the long run of money—Steve and I ended up
getting very comfortable money-wise from our work found-
ing Apple just a few years later—it certainly didn’t add up
to much. 29
One thing is clear, Jobs did not cheat Wozniak because he was
greedy. Indeed, he offered to pay Kottke’s way to India because
the other boy was poor and could not have afforded the trip
otherwise. At the same time, Jobs managed to get Atari to pick
up part of his own airfare. The company needed someone to go
to Germany to repair some of their video games there. Jobs con-
vinced Alcorn to send him. Jobs successfully did the repairs in
less than two hours, and then he proceeded on to India.
India and Back
Jobs and Kottke spent a month in India. When the boys arrived
there, they exchanged their western clothes for loincloths, gave
away their possessions, and shaved their heads. They traveled the
country on foot, begged for food, slept in abandoned buildings
36 Steve Jobs