The complete podcast (and transcript!) of TSMC’s history and business strategy.

What strikes me most about reading Chang’s story is that, despite his immense talent, how often he ends up failing (or at least ends up in situations where he can’t succeed). Much has been made about how foolish Texas Instruments was to pass over Chang, and how if they hadn’t maybe TSMC could have been founded in America, but the reality is more complex and more interesting. Chang not only gets passed over for leadership at Texas Instruments (due to his perceived failures in the consumer products group and his ongoing tensions with executive leadership), but he fails at his next two jobs as well. He’s asked to leave by the CEO of General Instruments, and he’s effectively forced to resign as the head of ITRI after mostly failing to reform it and angering everyone in the process. After he leaves ITRI (his third resignation in five years) Chang wonders if, per the Peter principle, he’s risen to the level of his incompetence.

And it seems like his one big accomplishment at ITRI, founding TSMC, wasn’t exactly a sure thing. Almost no existing semiconductor companies thought Chang’s plan was worth funding; the one that does, Philips, is more interested in currying favor with the Taiwanese government than it is with the merits of the business. It’s very easy to imagine TSMC not getting off the ground at all if things go slightly differently.

Chang’s immense success with TSMC looks obvious only in hindsight; nobody at the time, including the Taiwanese government, other semiconductor manufacturers, and Chang himself, saw it that way.