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RON WAYNE COULD have been a part of history, instead he’s a footnote.
Wayne was a founding member of Apple with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. But after just 12 days he changed his mind and backed away from the company losing out on a fortune.
He decided to explain on Facebook once and for all why he left Apple:
I didn’t separate myself from Apple because of any lack of enthusiasm for the concept of computer products. Aside from any immediate apprehension in regard to financial risks, I left because I didn’t feel that this new enterprise would be the working environment that I saw for myself, essentially for the rest of my days. I had every belief would be successful but I didn’t know when, what I’d have to give up or sacrifice to get there, or how long it would take to achieve that success.
And here’s how much money he lost out on:
To counter much that has been written in the press about me as of late, I didn’t lose out on billions of dollars. That’s a long stretch between 1976 and 2012. Apple went through a lot of hard times and many thought Apple would simply go out of business at various times in its maturity. I perhaps lost tens of millions of dollars. And quite honestly, between just you and me, it was character building.
If I had known it would make 300 people millionaires in only four years, I would have stayed those four years. And then I still would have walked away. Steve and Steve had their project. They wanted to change the world in their way. I wanted to change the world in my own.
He wrote his essay to promote a new book he has, Insolence of Office. You can check it out here.
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Don’t forget the sacrifices which people need to make in order to do what Apple did. This guy didn’t make a bad decision as some of you are claiming. He simply made the best decision for him. He wasn’t willing to make those sacrifices so he didn’t.
He’s share today would be worth billions. If he didn’t try to justify it to himself, he would go crazy by now…
It’s easy to say something like that with the benefit of hindsight. Knowing the lotto numbers is of no use 10 minutes after they’ve been announced. And it’s entirely possible that, had he stayed, he may well have been a catalyst in dragging the company in a slightly, if not vastly, different direction.
Yes your dead right. Am reading Steve jobs bio at the moment and am surprised that he didn’t go bust numerous times it was the right decision for him at the time he couldn’t of known what was to happen
I agree, it only appears to have been a bad decision if all you care about is money and you don’t care what you’re doing to get it.
A quick Wiki of Mr Sculley reveals that at the ripe old age of 30 he became the youngest vice president of Pepsi. He created the Pepsi challenge in 1975, which I think may still run as a marketing tool? It seems he went on to help Pepsi go from 83m revenue and 16m in loses to making 300m in revenues and 40m in profit, in three years. I think its safe to say the man actually went on to do quite well for himself.
Definitely not a footnote anyway!
Different guy
Wait aren’t we talking about ron wayne?
Are you sure the Wiki article was actually about Mr Sculley?
article is about Ron Wayne, not Scully….
The above article is about Ron Wayne not scully who was brought into apple to try and control Jobs. He eventually ousted Jobs from applep
Well aren’t I a plonker! Sorry folks wrong guy…. I’ll just leave quietly
And I taught having negative equity was bad!
Why in the jesus is there an apple post once every two days . You dont this for microsoft products , or anything else . Do you get endorsements to keep the apple stories flowing ? No company deserves updates every two days to sell us the same shot that we have come to expect from apple . Same stuff repackaged , with a bigger price tag . Rant over . Why not write about something different , maybe the sharp increase of hard drives due to the thailand floods . I bet a lot of people didnt know that
Cause there products are special. U obviously don’t have a iPhone !
Why would you bother writing about any Microsoft products.
It IS getting pretty annoying.
Apple = sexy = Adam & Eve = Eden = naked sex in the garden of paradise.
Windows — As the escort said to Bill, “Now I know why you’re the President of Micro-soft”.
Apples are for fruit bowls!
He changed the world alright…… He probably made the worst business decision of all time
I said ‘business’ decision
Apple, I don’t like apple, and I don’t have an iPhone because I’m not a muppet. Stop these pointless stories.
@ Ian Conway. Understandable mistake, because the photo shows Sculley,not Wayne.
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