Thirty-six years ago this month, Apple Computer was founded in Silicon Valley. Three people started it: two are household names–Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak–and the third is somebody few people know–Ronald Wayne.
Wayne, who was nearly two decades older than the young whiz kids, was instrumental in writing up the contract formally launching Apple. In the legal document he scripted, both Jobs and Wozniak would receive 45% of the company, and Wayne would receive 10%, or approximately $800 at the time.
Fearing financial risk, however, Wayne walked away after just twelve days.
How much would his 10% be worth today?
$56 BILLION.
I worked at Wang Laboratories (a crtopraoe name that belied its size at its height) in the early 1980s, and besides what were lovingly called minicomputers in those days, Wang also made a PC with proprietary software and a several features that appeared LATER on Macintoshes: imaging processors and retrievable sound files (not compressed to the extent they were with MP3 technology). If only Steve Jobs had been born in New England and had been a hire by Wang, things might have been different.