Steve Jobs co-founded Apple, a company which became industry standard, played a significant role in bringing computers to every homes and brought the PC revolution. Company which back to back launched products that were considered to be the definition of innovation. And needless to say Apple became rich and so did it's employees too.
So why wasn't Steve Jobs as rich as most billionaires in the industry right now having net worth of 200B+ dollars? I rea his biography and it was stated that he was never really excited about the money. He was in the business for the excitement and experience of it rather than money. But is that the only reason ? How come he ran such a huge enterprise and had a big stake in it while still not make billions and billions of dollars ?
Why didn't Steve Jobs ever top the list as the richest person or things like that ?
byu/FreeBirdy00 inEntrepreneur
Posted by FreeBirdy00
14 Comments
Steve dumped his apple stock in 85 and then gained his financial jump through apple’s purchase of NeXT and steve’s Pixar purchase with Toy Story raking in the dollars for him. He wasnt very much about the money and made some not so wise calls/decisions as a result.
Some people are in for the money, some for the influence. That’s my guess.
When Steve died he owned 38 million Apple shares which was less than 1%. His net worth of around $10B when he passed away was mostly in Disney shares from the purchase of Pixar with a little over $2B of that being Apple.
I don’t think Steve spent a lot of time thinking about money. He didn’t chase it. He didn’t spend it. He didn’t give it away. By all accounts it just wasn’t something that occupied his brain much. The spending he did that one could consider “extravagant” had more to do with convenience than luxury.
From what I gather, he wasn’t really a money chaser. His investment portfolio only held apple and disney at the time of his death (great picks but not diversifying with that amount of wealth screams disinterest to me).
He cared more about legacy and being at the forefront of consumer technology.
Apple’s market cap was about $350B when Jobs resigned. He didn’t hold much stock (I think he had more stock in Disney after the Pixar acquisition). It was Tim Cook who grew Apple into the powerhouse it is today, growing almost 10x since he took over as CEO.
Apple stock was not as relatively high as it is now when he was alive
“So why wasn’t Steve Jobs as rich as most billionaires in the industry right now having net worth of 200B+ dollars?”
There are 3 of these guys (Musk, Bezos, and Ellison). Maybe you didn’t mean to directly imply that you think most tech billionaires have 200b+, but if that *is* what you think, maybe looking at the other billionaires will help you understand the question about Jobs specifically a bit better. Your general understanding of the context seems off.
He made more money from Disney shares acquired through Pixar sale- plus Apple wasn’t the same powerhouse until they came out with the iPhone. He died too early before the bull run of the 2010s.
You’re thinking of Microsoft and its PC revolution into people’s homes (Windows 95-98)
Berkshire Hathaway owned largest share of Apple until a month ago. Buffet got most of the Apple gains. If Steve retained ownership, his wife would be one of the top 10 richest.
Larry Ellison from Oracle is now 2nd richest since he owns 40% of Oracle and Oracle has done very well this year from their Cloud and NetSuite business.
because he was busy inventing, not like Elon who busy pumping himself by spreading lies/half baked products
“played a significant role in bringing computers to every homes and brought the PC revolution.”
That is Microsoft. And Bill Gates did eventually reach these heights.
Here is the answer, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mPPfrOc2ypc
I think his focus on innovation over wealth might explain why he never sought the top spot on those lists.
He should have asked for 25% like Elon