We have all made mistakes in our lives, but for most of us the consequences are relatively minor. Maybe you forgot to pay a bill and it accrues some interest (such as when I forgot to pay my $5 dental co-pay and they tacked 50 cents onto the bill…price gouging!!).
Maybe you didn’t get an oil change and your engine seizes up and now you are out several thousand dollars (I always get my oil changed on time, so I have no idea why my engine failed). Or perhaps you sold your 10% share in what would go on to become the most valuable company of all time and now you are out over 60 billion dollars.
Unfortunately for Ronald Wayne, the last example is not a hypothetical scenario. In 1976 Mr. Wayne, who worked at Atari with Steve Jobs, helped found Apple Computers. He drew the first Apple logo, wrote the original partnership agreement, and wrote the Apple I manual. For his assistance, he was awarded a 10% stake in the company. Less than two weeks later, he sold his share back to Jobs and Steve Wozniak for $800 as he was worried that the new company would go into debt and he had assets that creditors could potentially seize.
This week, Apple became the most valuable company of all time (not adjusting for inflation because if you do Microsoft is still the winner and no one wants that) hitting a total market capitalization of around 624 billion dollars. This would make Wayne’s share 62.4 billion dollars, which is 78 million times as much as he was paid for it.
For all of you out there who rue not buying Apple stock when it was under $10, take some comfort in the fact that you only lost out on multiplying your investment 100 times or so. That is nothing compared to a 62.4 billion dollar error in judgment.