Apple’s third co-founder Ronald Wayne sold his stake for $800

Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Apple Inc. founding partnership agreement signed by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne from 1976.

So after spending a mere 12 days with Wozniak and Jobs, Wayne had his name taken off the contract and sold his shares back to his co-founders for only $800.

Wayne’s decision to leave the start-up cost him big. Today, a 10 percent stake in Apple would be worth more than $80 billion. That kind of fortune would make Wayne one of the richest men in the world.

Amazingly, Wayne says he doesn’t regret his decision, mostly because he knows he’d never have have thrived at Apple. “I would wind up in the documentation department shuffling papers for the next 20 years,” he tells Business Insider.

Wayne felt out of place, like he was “standing in the shadow of intellectual giants,” he tells Cult of Mac of his brief tenor with the company. “I was 40 and these kids were in their 20s. They were whirlwinds — it was like having a tiger by the tail. If I had stayed with Apple I probably would have wound up the richest man in the cemetery.”