Tim Cook's Net Worth Is a Lot of Apples
The Apple Company is worth $2 trillion. Forbes says that the CEO, Tim Cook, runs the most profitable company in America. Apple earns more than $95 billion in net income each year. Tim Cook’s net worth in 2023 is $1.8 billion.
The Slow-Cooking Of Tim Cook’s Net Worth
Tim Cook was born on November 1, 1960, in Mobile, Alabama. He is currently 62 years old. He went to Auburn University to get his Bachelor of Science degree and then got his MBA from Duke University.
While Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were reforming the world with the personal computer, he worked for “Big Blue” IBM from 1982 to 1994. From 1994 to 1998, he worked at Intelligent Electronics as its Chief Operating Officer.
After leaving Intelligent Electronics, Cook briefly worked for Compaq in 1998, when Steve Jobs convinced him to work for Apple. At the time, Compaq was doing well financially and Apple was nearly bankrupt. Such was the legendary persuasive power of Jobs. Cook bought into Job’s vision for bringing Apple back to life. The rest, as they say, is history.
Bringing Apple Back To Life
The nearly-dead Apple thrived from the re-invigoration led by Steve Jobs and Tim Cook was a big part of it. Cook provided the thing that Jobs lacked before that got Jobs kicked out of the company Jobs founded. Cook was able to temper Job’s mercurial tendencies in positive ways. Jobs was more mature and less volatile. Both shared a common vision and purpose. They were able to focus on the things that would make the company successful again. Cook worked for Apple as its Senior Vice President of global operations, and then as the Executive Vice President for Apple’s worldwide sales and operations
Cook became the CEO of Apple on August 24, 2001. Steve Jobs died soon thereafter, in October 2011, from the complications caused by pancreatic cancer. At the time of his death, Steve Jobs’ net worth was $10.2 billion. He left knowing Apple was in the good hands of Cook.
Taking a Bite Out Of the Apple
Apple is thriving. The revitalization was a job well done. Cook continues to run Apple but he does not own any founder’s shares. He makes a huge annual salary and bonus based on the company’s profitability. In 2019, from his salary and bonuses, he made $99.4 million.
The Original Bite
There was already another bite taken out of the Apple logo. Did you know why that is? If you think about Snow White and the poisonous apple in that fairy tale, you are close. Urban legend says that the bite out of the apple in the Apple logo is for Alan Turing.
This is not true. Still, it is an interesting concept. The Apple logo idea came from Rob Janoff, hired by Steve Jobs to make the logo. Jobs told Janoff, just do not make it cute. Janoff says the bite was to make sure it was not confused with a cherry and it does not have anything to do with Eve in the Garden of Eden either. Thanks, Janoff, for spoiling the fun.
Keep Your Finances in Balance. The Wealthry Store Will Help You.
The Turing Urban Legend Persists
Now, back to the urban legend. Those are my alternative facts and I am going to stick with them. Turing supposedly committed suicide, which is in dispute, by taking a bite from an apple laced with cyanide to mimic the Snow White story. He was only 41 years old. Many think he was poisoned. It is more likely that this was an accidental death because Turing kept cyanide in his house to do experiments in his chemistry lab.
Turning is famous for breaking the Enigma code used by the Germans in WWII. Turing also invented the Turning test to use to tell if you are in a conversation with a computer or a human.
Maybe this is all code, wrapped up in a mystery, that is an enigma. Alan Turning had one thing in common with Tim Cook. Can you guess what that is? I will tell you at the end of this article to give you time to think about it.
The Third Founder Was a Flounder
After you read this part of the story, you will perhaps feel less bad about Tim Cook not having founding shares in Apple.
There were three founders of Apple in 1976. They were Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. Now, who in the heck is Ronald Wayne?
Ronald Wayne's Gigantic Blunder
CNBC says that Ronald Wayne sold back his 10% stake to Jobs and Wozniak for $800 when the company was worth nothing and in debt $15,000. This was in 1976. They were working out of a garage. That 10% stake in Apple, would be worth more than $100 billion today.
After he owned part of Apple as a founding partner, Ronald Wayne almost immediately felt that he made a mistake. He had "buyer's remorse," after typing up the Apple partnership agreement on April 1, 1976, and the three founders, Jobs, Wozniak, and he signed it. Yes, it was April Fool’s day. He was a fool for selling back his ownership share and that is no joke. He sold his 10% share back for $800, after having the ownership position for a mere 12 days. After his departure, the ownership of Apple reverted to 34.6% Wozniak and 65.4% Jobs. Jobs offered to let him come back in as a partner many times after that but he never did. He worked instead for Atari that he thought would be a bigger success than Apple. What a bunch of Chuck E. Cheese that was.
Nevertheless, Wayne does not regret his decision. He says that working with Steve Jobs would have killed him. He may be right. Jobs was a tyrant in the early days, forcing himself and his co-workers to work until exhaustion. He pushed people past their breaking points.
Nowadays, Tim Cook starts his workday at 3:45 a.m. He has the same energy level now, as Jobs had then. But back in 1976, this was just too much for poor ole Wayne, so he quit and sold back his ownership for a pittance.
Maybe we can understand Wayne’s mistake. In 1976, Wayne was in his forties and the other two partners were energetic 20-somethings. He was a family man with a house to lose if the Apple partnership could not pay its debts. The other two were renegades.
What we cannot forgive, is that Wayne's stupidity occurred again, many years later, when it was more obvious. In the early part of the 1990’s, he sold the original typewritten, signed contract from 1976, for a measly $500. In 2001, a collector paid $1.59 million for that contract document at an auction. At least he said, he regretted doing this.
Ronald Wayne is 88 years old and still alive in 2023. His current net worth is about $400,000. There is still a little time for a third big mistake. Maybe Tim Cook needs to ask Ronald Wayne to check under his bed or in his attic to see what else he will sell for a few bucks that is worth millions.
What Makes Up Tim Cook’s Net Worth?
The numbers are large for Tim Cook’s net worth but his net worth is just sort of piling up due to his lack of interest in it. He acts like a “regular Joe” and not because he is trying to impress anyone about how humble he is.
Clean Underwear
It is just that money is not that important to him. Tim Cook’s net worth is not something that drives him. He says that he buys his underwear when it goes on sale at Nordstrom’s. He admits to this extravagance.
No custom Lamborghini. No 1,000-foot yacht. He likes to have a nice supply of new, fresh underwear. He owns a modestly-priced home in Palo Alto, California that is valued at $1.9 million. The median price of a home in his neighborhood is $3.3 million. Many luxurious estates sell for over $10 million there.
Not So Much For The Bling Billionaires
If the billionaire couple, Beyoncé and Jay Z, who are the entertainment couple with the biggest net worth, came to visit Cook, they would think they are visiting their maid’s house. Those two high net worth individuals teamed up. Their marriage recently survived the threat of divorce. They know what it takes to be considered wealthy in the USA, which is now one billion dollars. If they got divorced, they would both have less than $1 billion for their separate share and maybe that is why they are still together.
Steve Jobs' Vision was Contagious
Cook joined Apple when the company was broke because he had the dream of what he and Steve Jobs could do together. He was not at all intimidated by Jobs and was a big part of Apple’s financial recovery through his innovative management. He saved the company but does not care if he is named entrepreneur richest person in the world, which is the title held by Jeff Bezos of Amazon. His entrepreneur's net worth leans more toward the Suze Orman style of modesty. He is more like Elon Musk in the group of the wealthiest entrepreneurs that enjoy what they are doing.
No Boats, No Car Collection, No Fleet of Jets
Cook does not have a fleet of private jets although the Apple company flies him around in one. He does have an extensive art collection or a car collection to rival what can be found in Jay Leno’s massive 20-car garages. Cook just is not a flashy kind of guy. He gives lots of his money to charities and prefers to do this without making a big public deal about it. He gives to political causes and candidates that he believes in.
Cook’s success comes from his focus on people, strategy, and execution. His favorite things to do, when he has free time, cost very little and include hiking, bicycling, and going to the gym.
Like Peas In an iPod
How are Turing and Cook alike? They are both gay men. However, Turing was arrested in 1952 for homosexuality. He called the police to investigate a burglary at his house and the police found out that he had allowed a male lover to stay at his house. Homosexuality was a capital crime in the UK at that time. Rather than go to prison, Turing agreed to be chemically castrated by taking strong female hormones to quell his sexual desires for men. It did nothing to diminish his desires; however, he did begin to grow breasts, which may have been a side benefit.
Times sure have changed. Tim Cook is an openly gay man running one of the most successful companies in America. Nobody wants to throw him in jail or castrate him. Many would be happy to buy him clean underwear every year on their wedding anniversary. NBC News reported that Cook was the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company to come out publicly as a gay man in 2014. It is a nice part of him. No big deal.
Conclusion
Alan Turning would appreciate the irony of the logo chosen by Steve Jobs in the 1970s, that it would create an urban legend that lasted for so many years later, which would be predictive that a gay man would run Apple after both Turing and Jobs were dead. I am on Tim’s team and I love the enigma of it all.
Both Jobs’ and Turing’s personalities could be brought back as a simulation with the advancements in artificial intelligence. There are AI computer programs that are now able to pass the Turing Test.
That is the challenge I now put to Tim Cook for the next generation of Apple products made with artificial intelligence. This will help build up Tim Cook’s net worth to a respectable multi-billionaire level. I will even give these new Apple products a brand name that Tim Cook can use, to include the A for “Apple” and “AI” for artificial intelligence as in the AiPhone, AiPad, etc.