If you had invested right after Apple's IPO, you would have had a nice run for some years, and then quite a few years that tested your patience while Apple's market cap was whittled down to even less than the cash they had in the bank at one time, and your shares would also have been red, had you not sold before the drop started.

You would have had to believe beyond what skeptics were saying about the "devil's deal" Jobs made with Microsoft, for a $150 million cash infusion, to keep Apple afloat, and with that witness the optics of Bill Gates' conquering face looming large on a big screen over Steve Jobs when he announced the investment on stage, to an audience that started booing.

Only ONE analyst by this time, if I remember corectly, had anything good to say about Apple.

But if you stayed pat through the next very tough several years, where Jobs slashed products and brought out the iMac and then the iPod, you would have likely rejoiced and done VERY well.