Steve Jobs was an intellectual giant, recollects Ron Wayne
Ron Wayne said he knew that the company would be a rollercoaster, and also very successful.
By Bloomberg | Updated:
SAN FRANCISCO | TAIPEI: Ron Wayne, who gave up his stake in Apple Inc. two weeks after founding it with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, said he knew the company would be a rollercoaster, and also very successful.
“They were absolute whirlwinds aside from the fact they were intellectual giants, which I recognized, and it was like having a tiger by the tail; you can’t hang on and you can’t let go,” said Wayne, 77, in an interview.
“If I’d stayed with them, I was going to wind up the richest man in the cemetery, so I figured it was best for me to go off and do other things.” Jobs, who passed away Oct. 5 at age 56, started showing off their computers with Wozniak, now 61, at the informal Homebrew Computer Club in 1975.
Wayne, a colleague of Jobs at games maker Atari, helped settle an early dispute between the two founders, prompting the younger Steve to offer him a 10 percent stake in the venture to lure him aboard as a “tiebreaker” between the two.
“He had more of a mature, adult mentality and he had strong formulas of how things go and how companies are run and how they go right and how they go wrong,” Wozniak said of Wayne in an Aug. 25 interview with Bloomberg Television after Jobs resigned as chief executive officer.
Jobs had introduced Wayne “as a person that we could trust as an intermediary,” Wozniak said. “I was very, very happy to participate with him for the thrill and excitement of being part of something that was really possessed of enormous promise and something that I felt was going to be very, very successful,” Wayne said of Jobs.
“They were absolute whirlwinds aside from the fact they were intellectual giants, which I recognized, and it was like having a tiger by the tail; you can’t hang on and you can’t let go,” said Wayne, 77, in an interview.
“If I’d stayed with them, I was going to wind up the richest man in the cemetery, so I figured it was best for me to go off and do other things.” Jobs, who passed away Oct. 5 at age 56, started showing off their computers with Wozniak, now 61, at the informal Homebrew Computer Club in 1975.
Wayne, a colleague of Jobs at games maker Atari, helped settle an early dispute between the two founders, prompting the younger Steve to offer him a 10 percent stake in the venture to lure him aboard as a “tiebreaker” between the two.
“He had more of a mature, adult mentality and he had strong formulas of how things go and how companies are run and how they go right and how they go wrong,” Wozniak said of Wayne in an Aug. 25 interview with Bloomberg Television after Jobs resigned as chief executive officer.
Jobs had introduced Wayne “as a person that we could trust as an intermediary,” Wozniak said. “I was very, very happy to participate with him for the thrill and excitement of being part of something that was really possessed of enormous promise and something that I felt was going to be very, very successful,” Wayne said of Jobs.
Download
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
Download
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
Related Articles
Quote of the day by Steve Jobs: 'If you want to make everyone happy, don’t be a leader, sell...' - Apple co-founder's simple yet powerful message on leadership2026-06-18T08:46:03Z- Quote of the day for work success by Steve Jobs: 'The only way to do great work is to...' What the Apple co-founder believed was the key to great achievement2026-05-30T09:45:53Z
- Tuesday Motivation by Steve Jobs: 'Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know... Everything else is...'2026-05-26T02:54:57Z
ADVERTISEMENT
