Ronald Wayne was an engineer who grew up in Cleveland in the 1930s and 1940s.
After moving west to California, he made his first foray into his own business, which involved slot machines.
That company did not succeed. Wayne blamed the failure on his lack of business acumen.
He returned to engineering and got a job at a new company called Atari.
That’s where he met fellow employees Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.
In 1976, the two Steves pitched Wayne on their concept to create a personal computer company. They wanted him onboard. Wayne was intrigued.
The two Steves were in their 20s. Wayne was in his 40s and deemed more of a grownup. They wanted Wayne’s input, and they needed a tiebreaker vote on decisions.
Steve & Steve received a 45% share in the company while Wayne would receive ten percent.
Ronald Wayne drafted an agreement, which the trio signed.
With that, Apple Computer was born on April 1, 1976.
Wayne was responsible for writing the owners manual for the first Apple computer.
He also created the first Apple Computer logo, which was nothing like the one used today.
Wayne grew anxious about venturing into another risky enterprise. The failure of his slot machine company left him nervous about losing his shirt — again.
So, just twelve days after signing on as a founder of Apple Computer (or months later according to Wozniak), Ronald Wayne declared that he had left the company.
Jobs tried to get Wayne to reconsider. He failed.
Jobs and Wozniak bought off Wayne’s shares of their fledgling business for $800.
Wayne kept his position at Atari until he left in 1978.
He then opened another business of his own — Wayne’s Philatelics. He bought and sold rare stamps and coins.
After a robbery, he moved his stamp shop from California to Nevada, where he has lived ever since.
Apple Computer went on to become a worldwide success. Ronald Wayne did not profit from it.
In the 1990s, Wayne made $500 by selling the original business contract he and the two Steves had signed in 1976.
Twenty years later, that document was purchased at auction for $1.6 million.
Ronald Wayne did not profit from that, either.
For decades, Wayne never possessed any Apple devices until he was given a free iPad at a business conference.
His website — which lists him as an engineer, historian, and poet — promotes merchandise for sale bearing his original Apple Computer logo from the 1970s.
As of this writing, Ronald Wayne is in his late 80s, and he lives in a trailer park in Pahrump, Nevada.
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