Talking about somethings are not meant to be, this adage must have been contrived with this Octogenarian in mind. Wayne was one of the original founders of Apple and in 1976, he sold his 10% stake for $800. Today, his stake would have been worth more than $90 billion to him as Apple is currently valued at more than $2 trillion.
Wayne, who gave in to the pressure of worrying about not having the time and energy to carry on with his Apple investment, would have been the third richest man in the world today.
His current $400,000 net worth pales in comparison to what his wealth status would look like had he held on a few years longer.
When Apple was incorporated on April 2, 1976, Wayne was named alongside Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as one of three founders. Wayne owned a 10 percent stake in the company.
However, just 12 days after Apple started up — feeling out of his depth because he “was standing in the shadow of intellectual giants” — Wayne threw in the towel and sold his shares for just $800.
“I was 40 and these kids were in their 20s,” Wayne told Cult of Mac. “They were whirlwinds — it was like having a tiger by the tail. If I had stayed with Apple I probably would have wound up the richest man in the cemetery.
It gets worse.
Ron’s mishap did not end with the loss of his stake at Apple.
The only part of the Apple experience Wayne says he truly regrets is what happened to the original Apple contract he created.
Not long after his lunch with Jobs and Woz, he was scouring a newspaper and ran across an ad placed by an autograph dealer. “I had this Apple contract sitting in my filing cabinet, covered in dust and cobwebs, and I thought, ‘What do I need to hold onto that for?’” he says. Wayne sold the contract to the autograph collector for $500. In 2011, the contract sold at auction for $1.6 million.
“In that, you have the story of my life,” Wayne says.
Read article courtesy: Luke Dormehl here