The Power of Introspection

Let me start with a story about Ronald Wayne, the founding partner of Apple you've probably never heard of.

Ron Wayne was a colleague of Steve Jobs at Atari, the arcade game company and eventually got acquainted with Steve Wozniak. On April 1, 1976, at his apartment in Mountain View, California, in the presence of Jobs and Wozniak, Ron Wayne put pen to the official formation and partnership agreement of Apple Computers, where he became responsible for Mechanical Engineering and Documentation and assumed a 10% stake of the company. He also went on to illustrate the very first Apple logo.

At that time, the traumatic experience of his failed slot machine business five years prior was still vivid and he had understandably formed a very risk-averse attitude towards business. With maverick visionaries such as Jobs and Wozniak at the helm of Apple and with the uncertainty and liabilities that a newly formed company presents, Ron Wayne, 41 at the time, found himself in a fish out of water situation. Inevitably, just 11 days after the formation of Apple, he rescinded the agreement, ceased to function as a partner and gave up his stake in the company for a minuscule payment of $2300.

If that puts a smirk on your face and puts you at awe, here's some perspective. Had he stayed on and kept his 10% stake, at the end of 2010 it would've been worth approximately $2.6 billion. Crazy, right?

Ronald Wayne

Now, understandably you'd think that Ron Wayne would later become a very regretful person and be constantly pulling his hair off for the opportunity lost. But when asked, he said things that I found to be quite insightful. He said:

 I made the best decision for me at the time. I knew Apple would be successful but with the stress of staying with Apple, I probably would have wound up the richest man in the cemetery. I was getting too old and with two real whirlwinds such as Jobs and Wozniak, it was like having a tiger by the tail. I knew my stomach and it wasn't ready for such a ride. What can I say? You make a decision based on your understanding of the circumstances, and you live with it.

If you have stuck around until this point, let me give you my two cents from my own experiences and from what I've learnt from the story above. Throughout the course of our lives, both professional and personal, we are presented with quite a diverse pool of opportunities. When these opportunities manifest themselves, we have to make some decisions, the implications of which might change the course of our lives, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. When making these decisions, if we can look inwards, introspect about the values we embody, focus on our priorities in life and stay true to our core beliefs, all the while being mindful of and sympathetic to our circumstances, it becomes easier to take better decisions and also to make peace with the outcomes, however bleak they may turn out to be. Regret can be a black hole of negative energies and in hindsight, when you're at peace with the decisions you've taken, you're always one step ahead in your road to becoming a truly content human being.