Apple's third co-founder admits he had zero regrets selling shares

Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne firmly claims he has no regrets selling his 10 per cent share in one of the world's most valuable companies in 1976. Picture / AP.

Imagine being the third co-founder of Apple and selling your share of the company for $1100 just 12 days after it was incorporated in 1976.

It's hard to believe someone wouldn't regret that decision, especially given those shares would now be worth around $92 billion.

But Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne firmly claims he has no regrets selling his 10 per cent share in one of the world's most valuable companies.

"Do I regret selling my share of Apple? No, that has been my answer ever since day one and will be my answer until I die," Wayne told Motherboard.

Wayne explained despite being the man who designed Apple's first logo, he had no desire to commit his life to building to company.

"First of all, my passion was not computers, it was slot machines. I had a passion for them my whole life and I wanted to design them," he said.

The 83-year-old said he believed he would have been in the shadow of giants if he stayed working with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.

"I was in my 40s, [Wozniak and Jobs] were in their 20s, it was like catching a tiger by the tail. If I had stayed with Apple, I would have wound up the richest man in the cemetery," he said.

When the company did eventually blow up, Wayne felt like Wozniak was keen to offer him more money, but Jobs wouldn't sign off on the deal.

"Jobs, for some strange reason, had a very different view of money than Wozniak did," he said

The reasoning behind Jobs' snub was likely just a hard business choice, he admits.

"Let me put it this way, if you had your choice between Steve Jobs and an ice cube, you'd nuzzle up to the ice cube for warmth," he said.

"But I suppose that is what it took to get Apple where it went," he said.

Despite Jobs' well-documented cold demeanour, Wayne admits the Apple chief executive did ask him to come back to the company on three separate occasions.

"We had lunch together and he offered me a job at Apple. And each of those times I said no," he said.

One of the more interesting aspects of Wayne's life is the fact he has never owned an

Apple product in his life. Admittedly he was once gifted an iPad, but his time with the product was short-lived.

"I gave it to my adopted son who showed me how to use it. But once he had it, the chances of getting it back were between slim and none," he said. "That is the closest I came to ever owning an Apple product."

Surprisingly, Mr Wayne does admit to owning an Android, but claims he never actually uses it.

"I just have it in the car in case of emergencies, it's a TracFone," he said.