Steve Wozniak CNN

In the wake of the death of Steve Jobs, many pundits are already becoming accustomed to calling him "the Edison of our era." But Jobs couldn't have done it without the early work of co-founder Steve Wozniak, who this morning appeared on CNN to offer his heartfelt thoughts on the passing of his partner in innovation and technology history.

Speaking from a remote feed, Wozniak said, "I'm very sorry to be here alone… It's a little bit like you're stunned the day really big tragedies happen in your life and you remember right where you were sitting. And I'll remember that forever. Now it's hard to recover."

The co-founder of Apple was there when the notion of starting a technology company in a Silicon Valley garage was just becoming the stuff of legend. Speaking on the current brand of high-speed tech startup culture, Wozniak was more upbeat: "Steve Jobs would talk about connecting the dots. That means he was thinking back to those early days of 'what were you like then'… I try to convey a lot of those ideas. I travel a lot and I really like speaking to young people in high school and college. They're trying to come up with ideas to start their own technical companies and do things that make a difference. I try to tell them what we were like and how we interacted and what our roles were and give them a lot of that inspiration. Yes you can do it, but you've got to really believe in it no matter what other people say."

Pressed on the private side of Jobs, Wozniak confirmed that his partner was indeed intent on maintaining his privacy, but was just like many of us in his search for meaning in life. "[Steve] was fun," said Wozniak. "He was interested in music. He was interested in words and what they meant, like poetry as guides for life… He was knowledgeable about technology and really believed in that as his big future and that that was the thing he was meant to do. And he was always trying to think ahead of somebody else and look at the newest little building parts and what could you make with those, and thinking in terms of how they'd affect society."

One aspect of Jobs' biography that is constantly examined with much interest is his decision to drop out of college to pursue his dreams. Wozniak, who also dropped out, but later returned to earn his bachelor's degree, is nevertheless a defender of Jobs' early strategy, calling him, "A great, great, great visionary and leader." But Wozniak admits that, "It was hard to recognize when he was young. [Steve] was like a lot of young people. A lot of them are great visionaries and don't really go that far. Companies have ways of hiring that they wouldn't even hire somebody without a college degree in a lot of cases, and here was Steve Jobs without a college degree. And look at what he accomplished. You have to start looking at people and not just at numbers."

Famously humble and self-effacing, Wozniak put an exclamation mark on Jobs' life story by reaffirming the history the two shared. "I'm really glad that Steve stayed [at Apple], and that he stayed in the game that he was meant to be in and kept working to find the newer, better ways, and the next product, and the next achievement." Finally, Woz (the nickname most Apple followers know him by) signed off with a personal moment that likely reflects the sentiments of many in the past 24 hours. Wozniak said, "I'm sorry to be here, and I'm glad I didn't get into tears, yet." You can see the full video of the interview below.
