The long -forgotten third co -founder of Apple scored the worst financial decision of all time 49 years ago

On April 1, 1976, a small computer society called Apple Inc. was founded in Cupertino, California. Most of us know that the company had two co -founders named Steve. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. But did you know that there was a third co -founder named Ronald Wayne?

This little-known third party founder is actually the type that made the entire money and early business know-how available that Apple could get under control in 1976. In return for an opportunity for two unproven nerds, Ronald received one 10% equity in apple.

Why have you almost certainly heard of Ronald Wayne? Sure he is one of the 100 richest people in the world? Has he been too busy over his last decades to entertain Mai-Tais and a harem of models on his billion dollar privat island? Well, not exactly. Unfortunately, Ronald G. Wayne not only has the third founder of the world's most valuable company, but also the person who has made the worst financial decision in history.

Let's go back to 1976

At the beginning of 1976 Steve solved Jobs as a low technician in Atari, while Steve Wozniak worked as an engineer for Hewlett-Packard. Wozniak and jobs have been friends since the meeting at Homestead High School in Cupertino, California. At some point this year Wozniak built the hardware, operating system and circuit boards for a very simple computer, which he would finally call the apple. It was jobs that had actually proposed the name after returning from a fruit farm in which he had run into nothing but apples for more than 10 days. In his eyes, the name “Apple” “was funny, spirited and not intimidating”, perfect for a piece of unknown technology. It was also jobs that suggested that Wozniak could produce its Apple 1 as a commercial product that could buy other computer enthusiasts – Hozniak planned to give away everything for free. To do this, they would have to collect some money and form a company.

One of the work colleagues of jobs in Atari was a man who was for 20 years Ronald Wayne. The jobs were particularly in love with Wayne after learning that he had experience starting and running from companies. Before Wayne became the chief product engineer of Atari, he had managed a handful of easily successful companies in the slot machine industry. When it was time to start Apple, Wayne was the perfect professional addition to the unpired Wozniak and the jobs.

A company was born

On April 1, 1976, the Apple Computer Company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. In return for 10% of the company, Ronald Wayne should create the partnership documents, write the very first Apple 1 manual and offer the young start a general level of “supervision of adults”. In the end, he also designed the very first Apple Corporate logo that Isaac Newton put under a tree:

Four months later, the very first Apple 1 computer for $ 666.66 (approximately 3,800 US dollars in today's dollars) were offered for sale.

Apple 1 was an immediate hit that opened the door for the Apple 2, which was an even greater success. In 1976 Apple's income was 175,000 US dollars. In 1977, income rose to 2.7 million US dollars. Apple went to the stock exchange in 1980. The public offer made over 300 employees in Apple Instant Millionaires. This year it achieved sales of 117 million US dollars. Here is a copy of Apple's original partnership contract, which was signed on April 1, 1976. Note the third signature:

Ronald actually recorded the original founding partnership document, which is shown above. In 1994 he sold the documents to a private collector for $ 500. In December 2011, this private collector strengthened the partnership document to the highest bidder. It was expected to be sold for $ 150,000. It sold for … 1.59 million US dollars.

Abandon

Surprisingly, Apple deserved over $ 1 billion in 1982, just six years after the company started. Until then, both jobs and WOZ were worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

What happened to Ronald Wayne? He must also have made millions, right? Incorrect. Unfortunately, Ronald Wayne didn't stay long enough to see how Apple is so big. In fact, Ronald decided to sell his entire share of its co -founders for the measurement sum of … just 12 days after the company was founded in 1976.

$ 800

Fairness received an additional $ 1,500 A few months later, which all of his future claims against Apple made fully. $ 800 + $ 1,500 = $ 2,300.

Why did he do it for everything in the world?

When jobs, Wayne and Wozniak Apple started, the type of partnership that he formed was personally liable for debts that were created by the company or one of its members. In other words, Wayne could personally have been personally on the hook for all debts. These crazy 20-year-old hippie-computer nerds ran up. This could have been a valid problem at this point. Ronald Wayne not only had several other companies and assets that he did not want to risk losing, but he was also not confident that two children with no business experience that had a new fanned Gadget that nobody had ever heard of was successful in hell.

How much money did Ronald Wayne give up?

It is impossible to know how much of his shares Ronald would finally have sold in various places during Apple's existence as a stock corporation. Maybe he would have sold some stocks on the IPO, maybe he would have sold some when Steve Jobs was released in 1985. Steve sold his entire participation famous until after a share after being released from the company's board due to the poor company performance. There are endless scenarios.

On the other hand, we pretend that Ronald has captured its 10% proportion with a slight application for fate. While I type this article, the market capitalization of Apple is 3.2 trillion dollars. At this level a share of 10% would be worth …

320 billion US dollars

In the real world, Elon Musk, as I guess this article, is the richest person in the world with a net assets of around 333 billion US dollars. But a few weeks ago, Elons was a closer to the world's leading assets to $ 280 billion. But we are nit. The fact is, Ronald would have captured his 10% share of Apple, today he would clearly be one of the richest people on the planet. Even if he only recorded a share of 1%, he would still be one of the 50 richest people in the world.

What happened to Ronald Wayne?

After Ronald was bought from Apple, he made himself a work for Atari. He left Atari in 1978 to work in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He worked for a small electronics company for some time. Later he had a stamp shop. Over the years, Steve Jobs attempted to bring Ronald back to Apple, but he resisted every time.

He wrote a book about the constitution. He is a collector of devices and souvenirs, but he famous to a single Apple product for his whole life until 2011 when a fan gave him an iPad 2 at a tech conference.

In recent decades he has retired and lived in a mobile home in rural Nevada. He is not a billionaire. He is not a millionaire.

When Ronald was asked what some would consider as the worst decision in financial history, he does not regret it:

“Do I regret having sold my share of Apple? No, this has been my answer since the first day and will be my answer until I die. There were several reasons why I separated from Apple. At first my passion was not computers, they were slot machines. I had a passion for her all my life and wanted to design it.“

“I was in my 40s [Wozniak and Jobs] In the 20s it was like catching a tiger on your tail. If I had stayed with Apple, I would have injured the richest man in the cemetery.“

Busch Light Commercial

In April 2025, Ronald parodyed his famous mistake in a commercial for Busch Light. In the advertising spot that is embedded below, Ronald tells the audience of a new “Apple-related opportunity” that “they do not want to miss”. The opportunity is the new version of Apple Flaired version of Busch Light 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh6dtz-jada

How would you feel if you know that you have given up a fortune of 300 billion US dollars? Could you live with yourself? Or do you sympathize with Ronald's decision in 1976 to move away from Apple before it exploded?

If Ronald Wayne still feels a sting of regret, at least he can now calm his pain with a few ice-cold bush-light apples.