Trivia tidbit associated with my pick for person of the year
Posted By RichC on December 31, 2011
In tying up loose ends in closing out the year, one story that made a big impact on technology followers was the death of Steve Jobs. He was an inspirational and creative marketing wizard with 
oddities all too common with those we associate with the “genius” label … and would have been my pick for person of the year. What I found interesting was that there was a lessor known founder of Apple Computer back in the mid-1970s. Almost everyone knows of the two Steves, Jobs and Wozniak, but very few knew of their other partner, Ronald Wayne (most likely because he sold and left the company within a couple weeks of its inception).
During the formation of one of the world’s most admired companies, Ronald Wayne wrote the founding documents, created the original Apple logo (right), as well as initial manual for their Apple I computer. He was an innovative type in his own right having an interest in electro-mechanical engineering from his youth. His friendship with Jobs began in their previous employment at Atari and set him up with 10% of the original company. Unfortunately for Mr. Wayne, his age, unfortunate experience and risk tolerance had him concerned with potential legal problems and he chose to sell his share shortly after its founding.
Ron Wayne sold a few of those original documents to a collector in the 1990’s when many thought Apple would go into bankruptcy, but recently some of the documents auctioned off at Sothebys for $1.6 million. Wayne still has a few items tucked away in an envelope such as rejected drawing for the Apple I computer, purchase forms for the Apple II and copies he made of the “million dollar” original documents he sold to a collector. Some would say that was his second “miss” to be a winner with Apple, but who can really predict the future.
In hindsight he wasn’t the only one who could have been a bit smarter and have held onto a piece of Apple … as besides being an early and lifetime Apple user (Macs in the 80s thru present day i-devices), I also held AAPL stock back in the 1990s, but also had Ron Wayne’s “risk tolerance” problem and sold it in those lean years.
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