Apple co-founder made a big mistake that cost him $375 billion
Apple originally had three partners and one of them missed out on a multi-billion dollar fortune.
Apple co-founder made a dumb mistake costing him billions. | Image by Apple
It's the kind of mistake that would keep you up all night. Over and over again, in the quiet of a dark night, you ask yourself why you did what you did; you literally owned 10% of one of the greatest success stories in the history of Wall Street. When discussing the consumer electronics device that changed the world, your name would be mentioned next to global tech icons like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
Did you know that Apple was started by three people, not just the two Steves
Most people recognize Steve Jobs as one of the founders of Apple. Since you are reading this article on PhoneArena, there is a good chance that you know that Wozniak was also an Apple co-founder. "The Woz" built the Apple 1, which was a circuit board, and Jobs sold it. But there's a little more to the story. When the two Steves decided to form a compay and named it Apple Computer on April 1, 1976, there was a third co-founder involved that many do not know about. His name? Ronald Wayne.
Ronald Wayne missed out on the opportunity to be one of the richest men in the world. | Image by X
While Jobs and Wozniak each owned 45% of Apple, Wayne was given a 10% stake in the company. At the age of 41, his role was to act as the "adult in the room" as Jobs was 21, and Wozniak 25. He wrote the first formal partnership agreement that legally created Apple Computer Company. Wayne also created the original Apple logo that consisted of a pen and ink drawing of Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree.
Ronald Wayne left Apple after 12 days potentially missing out on $377 billion
Wayne was concerned because he was the only one who had any assets among the three who signed to create Apple. As a result, he was the only one at Apple who really had something to lose. He also had been involved in a previous business failure and was familiar with the risk he was taking. Also, Apple was a partnership at that point, not a corporation. That means that all three partners were personally responsible for any debt Apple had incurred.
So after 12 days with Apple, Wayne agreed to be removed as a partner for the sum of $800 to cover the work that he did. A year later, Mike Markkula, Apple's first CEO and an angel investor, decided to turn Apple into a corporation and decided to pay each partner, including Wayne, $1,770. Including the aforementioned $800 he received, Ronald got $2,570 to free himself from Apple. Had he not left Apple, his 10% stake would be worth $377 billion.
Wayne missed out on a second chance to be a millionaire
Wayne also missed out on getting a second shot at the prize. In the 1990s, he sold his original copy of the Apple partnership agreement for $500. In 2011, that same document sold at auction for $1.6 million. Earlier this year, at Christie's, the very same agreement changed hands for $2.5 million.
That has got to be tough for Ronald Wayne, who ended up missing out on the opportunity to become fabulously wealthy, but missed out a second time on a chance to be a millionaire. Wayne has been compared to Pete Best, the Beatles' drummer when they signed with their manager Brian Epstein. In August 1962, John, Paul, and George kicked Pete out of the band and Ringo joined just as one of the most incredible stories in music and pop culture history was about to begin. At least Pete Best ended up drumming on an album misleadingly titled "Best of the Beatles."
Apple yesterday celebrated the 50th anniversary of its creation and even in his wildest dreams there is no way that Ronald Wayne could ever have thought that Apple would become the tech giant it is today. So you can't really fault him for leaving the partnership after 12 days back in 1976. Even his decision to sell his copy of the original partnership arrangement too early can't be seriously challenged. Who would have thought that 20 years later the document would get an auction bid of over $1 million and get sold after another 15 years for more than $2 million.
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