At the time, Ronald Wayne was in his forties working at the electronics company Atari. As a close friend of Jobs, he agreed to help convince Wozniak to formalize Apple’s launch. As the sense-maker of the group, who even typed up the contract, Wayne was given a 10% share in the tech company, while Jobs and Wozniak each got a 45% stake.
But less than two weeks after the ink had dried, Wayne had removed himself from the contract—a decision that might be one of the biggest missed financial opportunities in history.
As new investors came on board and the company went public, the ownership stakes of Jobs and Wozniak were diluted over time—an outcome Ronald Wayne likely would have faced too.
Wayne’s decision to cash out may look foolish in hindsight, but in the moment, the then 41-year-old believed he was looking out for his own financial wellbeing.
“If we didn’t get paid, how are we going to pay back $15,000?” he said.
“Jobs and Woz didn’t have two nickels to rub together. I, on the other hand, had a house, and a car, and a bank account—which meant that I was on the hook if that thing blew up.”
Perhaps surprisingly, finances were not the only reason Wayne took his name off the contract. He also feared the experience would put the nails in the coffin of his career. After all, Jobs and Woz were bright young stars and nearly half his age at the time. Wayne thought that meant they’d be propelled forwards, while he’d have to watch from the sidelines.
“I knew that I was standing in the shadow of giants and that I would never have a project of my own,” he echoed to Business Insider. “I would wind up in the documentation department, shuffling papers for the next 20 years of my life, and that was not the future that I saw for myself.”
And while Wayne recalled having no regrets at the time, he’s since admitted it would’ve been nice not to worry about money. To make ends meet, he’s relied on renting out part of his property, as well as cashing his monthly Social Security check.
“I’ve never been rich, but I’ve never been hungry either,” he said.
