Do you have any regrets?
Would you change any of the decisions you made in the past?
Would you go back and do anything differently if you could?
Well think of this guy.
In 1976, in the days before domestic computers, Ron Wayne was an electronics industry worker.
He’d made a bad investment in a slot-machine company in Las Vegas.
The business had gone bankrupt leaving him with debts.
He decided to settle down with a steady income, and he joined Atari.
After a couple of years he managed to clear his debts.
While he was at Atari, he got to know two young guys who were building DIY computer kits in their spare time.
These kits made it possible for enthusiasts to assemble their own basic computer at home.
The young guys wanted to start manufacturing and selling them and they thought they needed an older, more experienced partner.
They were in their twenties, Ron was in his forties.
They offered Ron 10% if he’d be a partner.
Ron agreed.
He designed a logo for the company, he helped draw up a contract, he advised them on what they needed to do.
But Ron worried.
All the everyday things that you needed to do to run a company, these kids weren’t interested in.
You had to think about revenue, income forecasts, profit and loss, board meetings, premises, stationary, staff, taxes, a million things.
All these kids wanted to talk about was ‘changing the world’.
This all felt very flaky to Ron.
And Ron was particularly worried about the usual clause in the partners’ contracts on ‘joint and several guarantees’.
This meant that, should the company go belly-up, any single partner could be held responsible for the entire amount of debt.
These two kids didn’t own anything, whereas Ron had a family, a house and all the usual possessions.
Obviously the bank would go after him first.
He didn’t want to get into debt all over again.
So after just 12 days, he decided he didn’t need the stress and told them he didn’t want to be a partner.
He had his name legally removed from the contract and sold his 10% back to them for $800.
And the two kids carried on without Ron.
They even got a venture capitalist involved.
The venture capitalist offered Ron $1,500 if he’d agree to forfeit all future claims against the company.
Ron agreed.
He was happy, it was money he never expected.
Except.
The two kids were Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.
The company was Apple.
Within 18 months, sales revenues were $2.7 million.
The year after, $7.8 million.
And the year after, $118 million.
By 1982 the company’s sales were $1 billion a year.
Within four years Apple made 300 people millionaires.
By 1994 it became evident that Apple had become part of modern history.
But of course, Ron couldn’t have seen any of that.
Someone approached Ron and asked if he was interested in selling the original partners’ agreement.
They offered him $500 for it.
Ron accepted, again it was money he hadn’t expected.
In 2011, that agreement sold at Sotheby’s for $1.6 million.
When you’re regretting any decisions you made in the past, think of Ron.
His original 10% share of Apple would be worth $56 billion today.
I wonder if he ever met Dick Rowe…
CJ - 3 September 2012 9:38 am
Dave, wasn’t Ron the guy who advised Gordon Brown 2 sell the UK’s gold reserves at the lowest ever point in the market?
Grilla Login - 3 September 2012 9:39 am
Or we could think of the people who bought Facebook shares.
Robin. - 3 September 2012 9:45 am
CJ,
Who do you feel sorriest for there, Dick Rowe or Pete Best?
Dave Trott - 3 September 2012 9:57 am
Hi Dave, it seems to me that most things you regret in life occur through hesitation. Ron Wayne hesitated, and lost. Taking the safe option is too often the way you stay stuck. Great quote by Goethe, which I found at the memorial service for Simon Jeffes of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra…
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
Tom - 3 September 2012 12:18 pm
Absolutely brilliant quote Tom.
Thanks a lot.
Dave Trott - 3 September 2012 3:46 pm
All that Dick Rowe bollocks about him not signing The Beatles and leaving him a broken man masks the fact that he signed The Rolling Stones, Them (with that Van Morrison bloke singing), Tom Jones, The Small Faces, Moody Blues, Zombies, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (with that bloke Eric Clapton on guitar, replaced by Peter Green who went on to form Fleetwood Mac). Simply signing The Beatles would have been luck, condemning him to One Trick Pony status. Signing all those shows he was good.
Adam Atkinson - 3 September 2012 4:20 pm
I agree with you Adam.
On everything except Tom Jones, we could’ve done without that.
Dave Trott - 3 September 2012 4:42 pm
Given the choice between not having any trick or a solitary one, I’d settle for being a one trick pony – Shergar
john p woods - 3 September 2012 5:32 pm
Oi Goethe. What about those people who begin things, they go wrong, everything goes tits up and they lose their house, their wife and their children? Where are your quotes about those poor bastards?
Zoran Thrist-Kimbleton - 3 September 2012 7:12 pm
Zoran,
A sad day is when we measure millionaires
by the size of a chequebook.
Massive sums in banks guarantee nothing.
Look what happened to Steve Jobs.
We are all millionaires in different ways,
it’s just that some of us don’t realise
what we already have is an abundance.
Some of the happiest times of my life
have been when I have been stone broke
because when you have nothing to lose
you have everything to gain.
Kev - 3 September 2012 10:27 pm
Zoran,
As Churchill said “Success is moving from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Dave Trott - 4 September 2012 9:00 am
>Zoran,
As it happens, I have lost a wife and a child. But what option is there but to go on? “Try again. Fail again. Fail better’ Beckett
Tom - 4 September 2012 9:31 am
Not sure Churchill is a wise person to quote. Failiures such as his Dardaelles Campaign which resulted in a lot of wives and children losing fathers.
My point is that sometimes it isn’t wise to begin something. Sometimes it’s wise not to. Simply carpeing the diem is something advertisers are always telling us to do (and then share it – like my friends want to hear boring crap about me). We always hear about people who carpe the diem and succeed brilliantly. They are then lauded as great role models. We hear about Steve Jobs but we don’t hear about Joe Blogs who crashed and burned after betting the farm on something.
Maybe for balance we should laud some people who successfully didn’t carpe ny diems by investing time or money into a project that subsequently went tits up.
Zoran Thrist-Kimbleton - 4 September 2012 9:54 am
This is the man, Zoran,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlIQZyPOyGU
john p woods - 4 September 2012 10:03 am
Zoran,
How about 3 people who’ve done both?
http://www.cstthegate.com/davetrott/2011/11/my-three-heroes/
Dave Trott - 4 September 2012 10:16 am
Dave,
I was surfing the internet and came up with someone else who ‘came back from the dead’
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2003-04-13/the-silver-surfer
john p woods - 4 September 2012 10:47 am
Amazing story John.
I think Harry Hodge is the real hero.
Dave Trott - 4 September 2012 11:27 am
Dave,
I think we touched on it before but yes everyone needs a ‘corner man’ (or woman).
Ali – Dundee
Tyson – D’amato
Clough – Taylor
Jobs – Wozniak
Anymore for anymore?
john p woods - 4 September 2012 12:11 pm
Dave,
Getting back to the crux of the story there’s a quote I gleaned that seems to ring true, “Shallow men speak of the past; wise men of the present and fools of the future”- Madame Marie du Deffand
Perhaps France is in need to heed? http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/essay-on-france-and-its-obsession-with-itself-a-849817.html
john p woods - 4 September 2012 12:16 pm
Dave,
Was John Webster your Harry Hodge?
john p woods - 4 September 2012 12:54 pm
Definitely John.
He should have fired me loads of times but he never did.
Dave Trott - 4 September 2012 12:57 pm
Dave and John. I don’t think I’m making my point very clearly. Never mind. It, like most things in life, doesn’t really matter.
Here is my quote:
Montaigne.
“Rejoice in the things that are present. All else is beyond thee”
Zoran Thrist Kimbleton - 4 September 2012 1:19 pm
Dave,
I’m guessing he didn’t fire you because he wanted to turn something usable into something brilliant.
john p woods - 4 September 2012 2:04 pm
Zoltan,
Unless I’ve missed something I think you are referring to being here now.
http://www.cstthegate.com/davetrott/2009/06/be-here-now/
john p woods - 4 September 2012 2:47 pm
U’ve missed the r in Zoran, John – that’s 4 sure.
Grilla Login - 4 September 2012 3:20 pm
Jihn
I was nearly referring to be here now.
http://www.cstthegate.com/davetrott/2009/06/be-here-now/
That seems to be about living in now.
Montaigne advocates trying, not only to live in now, but to rejoice in it too.
This is unrelated to the post in which I tried to make my point about Carpe Dieming (unsuccessfully as it turned out but probably more to do with my incoherence than anything else).
It is simply a quote I not only find to be good, I also try to live by too. Somtimes it’s difficult.
Zoran Thrist Kimbleton - 4 September 2012 3:28 pm
Zoran,
Many apologies I was getting confused with this for some inexplicable reason… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWZ4c66V1P4
john p woods - 4 September 2012 4:44 pm
Dave and Zoran,
Wouldn’t you say ultimately the trick is to be young, foolish and happy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5B03qimRtU
john p woods - 4 September 2012 10:14 pm