Ron Wayne: The Third Apple Co - Founder
Bianca Snead
Brenau University

The apple company has had many successes throughout it’s the years, and will continue to have success as long as technology is the main focus of the generation, and the economy. The Apple company has made sure to make excellent foundations for their future, with their choices in release dates, products that are offered, and also customer satisfaction. Steve Job’s was the man behind all of the success of the company which began on April 1st 1976. However, he had some great executives behind him to keep his dream alive. Those people consisted of Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne, who were also co-founders. Ironically, Ron Wayne did not want to work for the company, he declined his share for 10% of the company after the incorporation documentation was signed. In turn, he left with eight hundred dollars, and took another journey.
Throughout this article on Ron Wayne, it really puts in perspective what personality he carried throughout his lifestyle, and career choices. If management were to pay more attention, they would see that Wayne was not the best choice for being an additional CEO of the Apple company. If there were any engineering positions available, Wayne would have been the perfect candidate. Ron Wayne expressed that he was brought into the Apple company to be more of a chaperone and helping hand to make decisions.
In the text, job satisfaction is described as a,” pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the five dimensions of the job, which is the work itself, promotions, supervision, and co-workers” (Nelson & Quick, 2013). Since he was unable to use many of his engineering skills with Apple, Ron Wayne was able to join many other different organizations and help them in the engineering avenue. Ron Wayne decided that he was not satisfied with his working conditions. With his management style of mind, he always wanted to ensure that he had full control of his projects. He was able to pitch ideas to the company CEOs, and from then develop, implement, and engineer the ideas. Nelson and Quick explain that, “management must consider personal and environmental factors to fully understand how people behave in organizations and to help them reach their maximum potential” (Nelson & Quick, 2013). In this situation with the Apple company, Steve Jobs, and Ron Wayne, there should have been an executive team meeting where they all got together and looked to see what Wayne’s interests were and how they could help the Apple company in general.
One particular reference from Ron Wayne states, “If I would have stayed at Apple I would have been the richest man in the cemetery.” In the economy today, college graduates, and entry level workers are not permitted to turn down such great opportunity for experience, and salary to follow their career dreams. Many American’s today, can say the exact opposite of Ron Wayne, which is what makes this article so interesting, and pertaining to today’s economy. He explained how creating games, and slot machines were among his goals and ambitions for his career dreams, and Apple was unable to provide a position catered to him and his skill sets. Surprisingly, during his interview in March of this year, he states that he does not regret his decision one bit. Wayne knows that he would have been much wealthier than he is now, and for that matter even a multi-millionaire with all of the success that Apple has had throughout the years.
It is best to be happy in life and your career path, just doing something because it pays the bills, or provides a great salary is not always the best career choice. Having a salary driven mindset isn’t the best option sometimes, as it can leave you depressed, and looking for something more rewarding in the future. Ron Wayne states in the article that he has had a happy life by choosing to do what he loves, and even though he is not wealthy, he is not hungry or in position where he lacks the basic needs of life.
Ron Wayne later decided to auction off lots of his original Apple documents that he received throughout his career. Some of the documents included his incorporation documents, the apple original logo, and a manual of the Apple I computer, these documents helped him to be able to retire and even earn quite a substantial amount of income.
Wayne ends the article interview by stating that even though he would have liked to be rich, and have a lot of money, he would have been rich and miserable. He states that he was happier with himself that he was living a simpler lifestyle, and was also able to pursue his dream.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explains the theory of humans and how it relates to the work and personal life culture. The hierarchy of needs categories are psychological needs, safety and security needs, love needs, esteem needs, and finally the need for self-actualization (Nelson & Quick, 2013). Ron Wayne gave a clear understanding of all these needs throughout the article. His psychological needs including making sure that he had the basics of food and shelter, the safety and security needs can be cross referenced with job security. Wayne wanted to ensure that he was happily employed, and could see a future with the company. He did not let his salary or title encourage his decisions. His love needs consisted of his love for himself, and his dreams and desires. Wayne’s esteem needs came from being offered such great positions with other companies of his interest in gaming, and technology, yet he still had the opportunity with the Apple company. Finally, his self-actualization needs came from selling his items that he had received from the Apple company to be able to have money for retirement.
In reading this article about Ron Wayne, it is noted that he used a lot of motivation factors to influence his career choices. Motivating factors help to encourage different things such as growth, contribution, and a positive mentality (Crawford, Hasan, Warne, and Linger 2009). When individuals such as Wayne, and Jobs are motivated, they tend to do exceptionally well in their positions as well as personal life. Some of the motivating factors for Ron Wayne were to have job satisfaction, self-stability, as well as happiness. Many other factors of motivation include achievement, responsibility, salary, advancement, and recognition. When establishing contributions, Ron Wayne was sure to explain in the early part of the corporation start up that he would not be able to continue to establish the type of work that Steve Jobs wanted him to provide. In business, this is very important, especially when an individual is acquiring a very important role as another CEO (Groysberg & Slind 2012).
In conclusion, the article about Ron Wayne being the third CEO for the Apple company is a very big eye opener to today’s economy. One reason is because if many other American’s were in those shoes today, they would have taken that CEO opportunity and left their dreams on the line. That opportunity doesn’t come around very often, and to later find out that the company was a multi-million-dollar company would upset a lot of people and created lawsuits. However, it closely tied into the management and organizational sector because it helped to understand what’s most important when being offered a position. It also helped to view the downfall of management at Apple, and what they could have done better to sustain their exceptional employee (Kemeny, T., & Rigby, D. 2012).

References

Crawford, K., Hasan, H., Warne, L., & Linger, H. (2009). From traditional knowledge management in hierarchical organizations to a network centric paradigm for a changing world. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 11(1), 1-18. Retrieved from http://emergentpublications.com/ECO/about_eco.aspx From the abstract: "However the complexity that arises from a continually changing global environment highlights the need for knowledge management to move in new directions both in practice and theory."

Groysberg, B., & Slind, M. (2012). Leadership Is a Conversation. Harvard Business Review, 90(6), 76-84. Retrieved from http://hbr.org/magazine From the abstract: "Globalization and new technologies have sharply reduced the efficacy of command-and-control management and its accompanying forms of corporate communication. ...the authors concluded that by talking with employees, rather than simply issuing orders, leaders can promote operational flexibility, employee engagement, and tight strategic alignment."

Kemeny, T., & Rigby, D. (2012). Trading away what kind of jobs? globalization, trade and tasks in the US economy. Review of World Economics, 148(1), 1-16. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.brenau.edu/10.1007/s10290-011-0099-5

Nelson, D., & Quick, J. (2013). Organizational behavior:
Science, the real world, and you. Mason, OH: South-Western.