Here's why Bill Gates was richer than Steve Jobs, and why he wasn't.
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Gates founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975, while Jobs founded Apple one year later.
At the time of Jobs' death, his $11 billion net worth was less than Gates' $66 billion.Apple's market cap at the time was $132 billion greater than that of Microsoft.
If you're familiar with Jobs' story, you already know that he sold all but one of his Apple shares in 1985 after being ousted from the company.
At the time, Jobs' stake in Apple was worth around $130 million.He emerged with a 26% stake after the first serious round of fundraising in 1977.
The stakes are worth more than $60 billion and $139 billion.Gates' current net worth is estimated to be $81 billion, and if Jobs had not sold shares along the way, he would have been the world's richest person.
Not to mention the fact that Apple may have gone the way of the dodo bird without Jobs' return, Jobs had no reason to be optimistic about Apple in 1985.
We wouldn't have Pixar, which he purchased from Lucasfilm in 1986 for $10 million, had Jobs not left.He sold it to Disney for $7.4 billion in 2005, making it the entertainment company's largest individual shareholder.
I would love to have the same net worth as Steve Jobs.Gates, like Jobs, wanted more.Gates' experience shows that there are few better tools than time and compounding returns to build wealth.
Many investors have become millionaires by riding the wave of technology driven by Gates and Jobs.These investors' lives have been transformed in the process.Their goal is no longer making money, but spending it on a lifestyle that is unimaginable.
The key to these investors' success isn't their ability to see promising trends, it's how we do that.Courage and conviction are the keys to putting money on the line.