30 Years on the East Bank, 30 Years on the West Bank, can one really make big money in this lifetime?

In 1976, Apple's third co-founder, Wozniak, feared bankruptcy and withdrew with just $800.
Had he held onto 10% of the shares, they would be worth over $450 billion today, enough to buy several tech giants!
And now he can only live on welfare.
In April 1976, Ronald Wayne, the third co-founder of Apple Inc., chose to leave the company 12 days after signing the partnership agreement, giving up his 10% stake.
By June 2026, when Apple's market value reached $4.5 trillion, this 10% stake's theoretical face value had reached $450 billion, surpassing the combined current market values of Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Snapchat, and Reddit.
At the "Apple@50" event held at the Computer History Museum in April 2026, the 92-year-old Wayne clarified the historical details of the event.
The direct cause of his departure was that Apple had received an order for 50 Apple I computers from Byte Shop at that time.
This order required $15k in parts funding, and under the unlimited partnership structure, all partners bore unlimited personal liability.
Compared to the asset-less Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Wayne, who owned property at the time, chose to exit to avoid debt risks.
This risk management decision completely cut him off from subsequent capital appreciation paths. Half a century later, Wayne lives in a mobile home in Palomp, Nevada, mainly relying on social security benefits to survive, supplemented by buying and selling rare stamps and coins.
In April 2026, he even participated in a commercial collaboration with Anheuser-Busch, appearing in a limited-edition Apple-flavored beer ad with self-deprecating humor to make ends meet.
In an interview, Wayne stated that the $800 was not an equity purchase: frankly, I think it was just a tip, and a cheap tip at that.
He emphasized that the decision at the time was entirely based on the information he had and his previous failed entrepreneurial experiences.