Ronald Wayne was one of the first three owners of Apple Computers. After a year, he sold his 10 per cent share for $1,066. That share would now be worth $1.25 billion. Now 84, he regrets nothing. So, at 68, I will have to do that for him and will spend the rest of my days kicking himself.
Wayne left Apple when he realized he would not be able to get along with co-founder Steve Jobs. What would his life be like had he stayed with the company? “I would be the richest man in the cemetery,” he says, hinting at an early death due to stress.
And while I guess I admire Wayne’s nonchalance at his missed opportunity at riches of his own, I have a whole bunch of Apple regrets and wouldn’t care less if I was the richest man in the cemetery. In 1994, I spent $8,000 on my first Apple computer, printer and scanner. Apple shares were selling that year for $1.05. In 2000, I bought a used Apple laptop for $600. Shares then were $2.87. In 2002, I spent $5,000 on two more Apple desktops when the company’s shares were selling for $1.20. On Monday, the shares reached $199.23.
I won’t put you through the calculations here, but if I had not bought Apple machinery and put the money into Apple shares instead, I would have had 11,995 shares which I could have sold yesterday for $2,389,763.85. Meanwhile, my first computer, scanner and printer went for recycling, my second Apple was donated to a computer repair shop, and my laptop and other desktop are sitting in the garage under piles of junk.
Ronald Wayne, bless his heart, is a better man than I am.
©2019 Jim Hagarty
