
Ronald Wayne, the third co-founder of Apple - wpietri
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ronald-wayne-apples-third-co-founder-where-is-he-now/
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onion2k
For every founder who left a company early and lost out on millions there are
_thousands_ of other founders who left a company early that went on to fail.
Ronald Wayne's story is interesting but it's not advice. If you take anything
from it that should be the lesson that he is an outlier, and in practically
any other startup doing what he did would have been a very good idea.

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newscracker
Just looking at the title and having known about the initial years of Apple is
enough to know what this article may be about. Taking a quote that would be
relevant here — Steve Jobs said in his famous Stanford commencement address of
2005 [1]:

“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking
backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your
future.”

Looks like the trust wasn't there at that time. Without a time machine, such
regrets are unproductive.

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc)

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chuckdries
Rumor has it his brother, Bruce, was fairly successful as well, though nobody
seems to know what he actually does...

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qume
My god how dare you come here with your 'sense of humor'.

Please be more sensitive to those around you less abled.

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khazhoux
It's not his fault. He looked at a blue LED after 8pm and now he can't fall
asleep.

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ay8s
He got his first Apple product (an iPad) given to him at a conference in 2011.

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ChristianGeek
Sorry, but who cares? A guy makes a bad financial call VERY early on in a
company’s lifetime because he has different priorities. Does anyone reading
this not have their own story to tell about bad decisions that only hindsight
could have prevented? Sure, in this case there’s a lot more money at stake,
but who’s to say that if he had stayed, the company’s history wouldn’t have
been written differently? Apple is where it is today because of Woz and Jobs
initially, and then Jobs in the later years.

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defen
> A guy makes a bad financial call VERY early on in a company’s lifetime
> because he has different priorities.

It wasn't necessarily even a bad call at the time. Apple was originally
founded as a partnership, and Mr. Wayne was worried that he would personally
be on the hook for foolish debts incurred by Steve Jobs.

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mikeash
It seems to be really difficult for people to understand that a bad outcome
doesn’t necessarily imply a bad decision, nor does a good outcome imply a good
decision.

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hnzix
_" It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a
weakness. That is life."_

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TomMarius
One of my favorite Picard quotes.

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nodesocket
Wayne held the original Apple company agreement, but sold it for $500. What
was he thinking?

It is funny that this news article has the WRONG auction price. It was sold
for $1.6 million, not $1.3 million.

[1] [http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2011/fine-
boo...](http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2011/fine-books-
manuscripts-n08811/lot.241.html)

~~~
computator
Regarding the wrong auction price, I wonder if the $300K discrepancy was
Sotheby's fee, so the article is trying to say that Wayne might have pocketed
$1.3 million? (Or it could be sloppy journalism.)

I thought I noticed another error in the article where it said that Wayne
"gave up his 10 percent of Apple for just $2,300", but Sotheby's scan of the
amendment to the contract (the 4th page) says "Wozniak and Jobs agree to pay
and deliver to Wayne, the sum of eight hundred dollars ($800)".

That part wasn't an error. The Sotheby's Catalogue Note at the same site says
that Wayne "received another $1,500 when Apple found the funding they needed
shortly thereafter", which would bring the total he received to $2,300.

