Apple's lost founder

[Capt Worley PE]

I thought this was interesting, seeing that the new iPhone launched yesterday.

PAHRUMP, Nev. — It's usually past midnight when Ron Wayne, co-founder of Apple — colossus of the tech world, and Silicon Valley's most adored franchise — leaves his home here and heads into town. Averting his eyes from a boneyard of abandoned mobile homes, he drives past Terrible's Lakeside Casino & RV Park, then makes a left at the massage parlor built in the shape of a castle.
When he arrives at that night's casino of choice, Wayne makes a beeline for the penny slot machines. If it's the middle of the month and he has just cashed his Social Security check, he will keep battling the one-armed bandits until 2 a.m. Wayne is waiting to hit the jackpot, and he is long overdue.

If Ron Wayne, now 76, weren't one of the most luckless men in the history of Silicon Valley, it wouldn't have turned out like this.

He was present at the birth of cool on April Fool's Day, 1976: Co-founder — along with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak — of the Apple Computer Inc., Wayne designed the company's original logo, wrote the manual for the Apple I computer, and drafted the fledgling company's partnership agreement.

That agreement gave him a 10 percent ownership stake in Apple, a position that would be worth about $22 billion today if Wayne had held onto it.

But he didn't.

Much more at: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_15214122?sou...;nclick_check=1

 

[Ble_PE]

Talk about hind sight being 20/20.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I drove through Pahrump one time on the way to Death Valley. It was definitely the land that time forgot. Pretty run down place. Plus we amused ourselves for hours saying Pahrump over and over again.

I didn't find out that prostitution was legal there until after I got back. Talk about hindsight being 20/20...

 

[Master slacker]

... wow... just wow...

 

[NEED2009]

I would took that $800 risk....wow....now he is playing penny slot to hit it big...bad decision

 

[Slugger926]

I would took that $800 risk....wow....now he is playing penny slot to hit it big...bad decision

Sounded like not much of a risk taker there. Sometimes not taking the risk is much riskier than taking the perceived risk like a batter that never swings will never get a hit but has a much higher chance of striking out.

He was living with his mom at 42, and a new business was too much of a roller coaster? He had nothing to lose if he was still living with his mom.

"There were at least six times in my life when I really thought that I had the world by the tail," Wayne says, "when I thought, 'I have an invention here that's going to make me a fortune.' And six times it blew up. I don't know why, it just never happened. It's probably because I'm not the businessman I should be."

And once you get an idea, you have to develop a solid business plan for it to go get funding from venture capital or even the bank. The right people with a solid business plan can help you get things launched.