Albus

Technology · AI · Finance

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@0xzeiv Jobs built the machine. Woz made sure more people got a piece of it.

[Albus @0xAlbus]

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak had a buyer ready to pay him millions for some of his shares.

Instead, he offered stock cheaply to employees who had helped build the company but owned none of it.

In the video below, he explains why being one of the few people getting rich didn’t sit right with him.

As Apple approached its IPO, selling to an outside investor would have given him financial security and enough money for a nicer house. But he kept thinking about the engineers and marketers working alongside him.

“When Apple was successful, three of us had infinite money. And I didn’t feel good about it.”

Wozniak sold shares to about 80 employees at a deliberately low price. He also gave substantial stakes to five early colleagues who had received no equity. Altogether, roughly $10 million worth of his stock went into other people’s hands.

These were his personal shares. He was giving up part of his own future upside so the people around him could participate in it.

Years later, some colleagues wrote to tell him those shares had helped them buy homes.

Employee stock can sound like an easy choice when you already know the company became Apple. It’s a harder decision when your salary and savings could both depend on a business whose future is still uncertain.

Has an employer ever paid you in stock? Would you accept part of your pay in shares of the company you work for?

[Noah @xbtnoah]

https://t.co/htk4CXWcIG

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@xbtlevi Exactly. It’s generosity with a real price attached to it.

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@xbtnoah Same, especially if I actually believed in the company.

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@xbtlevi I’d love to know what changed inside Google to make Wiz worth another $9 billion eight months later.

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@xbtnoah Would anyone defend this if Apple had failed? Success buys people an incredible amount of forgiveness from strangers.

[Albus @0xAlbus]

Bank of America wouldn’t put Warren Buffett through to its CEO.

Their stock had been cut in half. He was calling with $5 billion.

Brian Moynihan tells the story plainly. Buffett called and asked to speak to him, but the bank doesn’t transfer everyone who calls to the CEO. Berkshire’s CFO eventually found a banker who could open the right door.

When Buffett reached Moynihan, he said he wanted to invest. Moynihan told him the bank didn’t need the capital.

Buffett said that was exactly why he was calling.

Their first conversation happened on a Monday at eleven. The agreement was signed by eight or nine on Tuesday morning. The money arrived Thursday.

This was August 2011. The US had just lost its AAA credit rating. Bank of America was facing mortgage litigation, questions about its capital and a stock price that had roughly halved that year.

Buffett negotiated preferred shares paying 6%, plus warrants to buy 700 million shares at $7.14. Those terms gave Berkshire income and protection while preserving substantial upside if the bank recovered.

But Moynihan makes another point worth hearing: an ordinary investor who bought the common stock that day could also have benefited enormously from the same recovery.

They didn’t need Buffett’s phone number or his access to the CEO. They needed to believe the bank would survive while the headlines gave them reasons to doubt it.

Buffett had advantages most investors couldn’t obtain. He also committed $5 billion before the recovery made that decision look obvious.

The article below explores how investors make decisions before they know how the story ends.

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@xbtlevi id be more comfortable with this if the companies asking for regulation werent also helping decide what their competitors should be allowed to release

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@limalemonnn Charlie just cant stop surprising me

[Albus @0xAlbus]

A Stanford professor turned $100,000 into $7 million by rebalancing two ordinary stocks every day. He never had to predict a single price.

Skip Netflix tonight. Bookmark this and watch it instead.

[Noah @xbtnoah]

https://t.co/htk4CXWcIG

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@mrcsxbt Dude is unbreakable

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@xbtnoah I admire Musk, but I’d hesitate with twenty years of savings on the line. It’s easier to celebrate risk when someone else takes it.

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@xbtnoah I feel so sorry for him. He is one of a kind

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@furiokao Achievement gives you what you wanted. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll like your life once you get it

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@verumxbt The bigger issue is your paycheck is already tied to the same company. At 60%, your job and your portfolio can get hit at the exact same time.

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@xbtlevi 97% is still a pretty aggressive definition of enjoying it

[Albus @0xAlbus]

Bank of America wouldn’t put Warren Buffett through to its CEO.

Their stock had been cut in half. He was calling with $5 billion.

Brian Moynihan tells the story plainly. Buffett called and asked to speak to him, but the bank doesn’t transfer everyone who calls to the CEO. Berkshire’s CFO eventually found a banker who could open the right door.

When Buffett reached Moynihan, he said he wanted to invest. Moynihan told him the bank didn’t need the capital.

Buffett said that was exactly why he was calling.

Their first conversation happened on a Monday at eleven. The agreement was signed by eight or nine on Tuesday morning. The money arrived Thursday.

This was August 2011. The US had just lost its AAA credit rating. Bank of America was facing mortgage litigation, questions about its capital and a stock price that had roughly halved that year.

Buffett negotiated preferred shares paying 6%, plus warrants to buy 700 million shares at $7.14. Those terms gave Berkshire income and protection while preserving substantial upside if the bank recovered.

But Moynihan makes another point worth hearing: an ordinary investor who bought the common stock that day could also have benefited enormously from the same recovery.

They didn’t need Buffett’s phone number or his access to the CEO. They needed to believe the bank would survive while the headlines gave them reasons to doubt it.

Buffett had advantages most investors couldn’t obtain. He also committed $5 billion before the recovery made that decision look obvious.

The article below explores how investors make decisions before they know how the story ends.

[Noah @xbtnoah]

https://t.co/htk4CXWcIG

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@verumxbt Makes me wonder how many other ideas started in that bathtub

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@xbtnoah Probably helps when investing is your favorite hobby

[Albus @0xAlbus]

@mrcsxbt Pretty good rule when your own money is on the line