<story><title>Apple at 40: The forgotten founder who gave it all away</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35940300</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Stratoscope</author><text>There are so many things that might have happened but for one key decision. You can&amp;#x27;t spend the rest of your life wondering &amp;quot;what if?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;But it can be tempting!&lt;p&gt;In my case, I had the opportunity to be the first programmer at Apple. I told the story on Reddit a few years ago:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;IAmA&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;h4n5w&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;IAmA&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;h4n5w&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;As you can imagine, I have wondered &amp;quot;what if?&amp;quot; more than a few times. :-)&lt;p&gt;But &amp;quot;what if?&amp;quot; can work both ways. I could have become a billionaire and one of the most famous people in Silicon Valley. Or Steve could have driven me from the mild depression I&amp;#x27;d occasionally experienced into full-blown mental illness, as happened with one of Apple&amp;#x27;s earliest employees. You just don&amp;#x27;t know which way it could have turned out.&lt;p&gt;The other story on the front page today about Regis McKenna reminds me of one of the more remarkable coincidences I&amp;#x27;ve encountered.&lt;p&gt;As I told in the Reddit story, when I walked out of Apple&amp;#x27;s answering service in 1976 I thought to myself, &amp;quot;Those guys are flakes! They&amp;#x27;re never going to make it.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;It was one of those things that sticks in your mind. I remember vividly to this day exactly where I was walking and the exact words that were in my head.&lt;p&gt;A couple of years ago I was reading Michael Moritz&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;Return to the Little Kingdom&lt;/i&gt; and ran across this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;At first there was great uncertainty at the Regis McKenna Agency about Apple&amp;#x27;s prospects. The account executive, Frank Burge, explained, &amp;quot;People who knew Markkula and Apple wondered whether they would make it. We kept saying &amp;#x27;These guys are flakes. They’re never going to make it.&amp;#x27;&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Other than &amp;quot;these&amp;quot; vs. &amp;quot;those&amp;quot;, it&amp;#x27;s the &lt;i&gt;exact same words&lt;/i&gt; I was thinking.&lt;p&gt;It was definitely a strange feeling to run across that quote!</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple at 40: The forgotten founder who gave it all away</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35940300</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>CapitalistCartr</author><text>This is an excellent example of why startups are dominated by the young, single, affluent. They have nearly nothing to lose.  The rest of us do.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If the company goes poof, we are individually liable for the debts,&amp;quot; Wayne explained.
&amp;quot;Jobs and Wozniak didn&amp;#x27;t have two nickels to rub together. I had a house, and a bank account, and a car… I was reachable!&amp;quot;</text></comment>