These 40 facts and curiosities about Steve Jobs will help you get to know the most important person in Apple’s history.
Steve Jobs was a real genius in terms of business and technology vision, but he was a rather peculiar person. For it his life is full of anecdotes and curiosities which are really worth it.
We’ve told you many of these stories over time, like when he refused to allow the iPhone to use a SIM card, when he poked fun at Windows in an Apple presentation, or when he presented a device that was in a small pocket.
The most curious facts about Steve Jobs
It is enormous collecting data on Steve Jobs was manufactured by inc. and we think it’s worth sharing with anyone who feels connected in any way to Apple or Steve himself.
- Steve Jobs was adopted shortly after birth.
- Jobs was, biologically, half-Arab. Her biological father was Syrian and her mother was American.
- Jobs’ biological parents wanted him to be adopted by two college-educated people. When they discovered that neither Clara nor Paul Jobs had ever graduated from college, they tried to block her, but the adoption happened when they promised Steve Jobs that they would get a college education.
- Jobs never got good grades, he didn’t like school and preferred to learn in unconventional ways
- Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, also co-founder of Apple, met in high school: Wozniak was 18 and Jobs was only 13.
- Steve Jobs dropped out of college, but continued his studies by taking the courses that interested him the most.
- One of those classes was a calligraphy class, which Jobs says contributed to Apple’s attention to detail when it comes to typography and fonts.
- Jobs spent seven months traveling through India, experimenting with psychedelic drugs and adopting the practices of Zen Buddhism.
- Steve “stole” his partner and co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak. When the pair first created the Breakout game for Atari, they planned to split the payout 50-50. Although Atari gave Jobs $5,000 for the game, Jobs told Wozniak they would get $700, so Jobs gave him $350, while he pocketed the remaining $4,650.
- Jobs was transferred to the night shift while working at Atari due to complaints about his hygiene. He rarely showered and walked barefoot around the Atari offices.
- Few people know that there was a third founder of Apple: Rolandd Wayne, who even designed the first Apple logo. Wayne sold his 10% stake just two weeks after partnering with Jobs and Wozniak for just $800.
- The original Apple I computer was priced at $666.66. But that has nothing to do with the devil: Jobs and Wozniak just wanted the Apple I to cost a third more than it cost them (about $500).
- Jobs had an illegitimate daughter, Lisa Brennan, when she was 23, whose paternity he denied for years. Eventually Jobs accepted Lisa as his rightful daughter and she changed her name to Lisa Brennan-Jobs.
- Although he initially denied authorship, around the time of Lisa’s birth, Jobs named a new Apple computer the Apple Lisa (although Jobs claimed it simply stood for the Local Integrated Software Architecture ).
- Jobs was fired from his own company in 1985. Although this blow could be considered a blessing, as it gave him the opportunity to experiment creatively and buy an animation studio, which would later be known as Pixar. He eventually joined Apple as CEO in 1997 and saved the company from bankruptcy.
- Shortly after being ousted from Apple, Jobs applied to fly on the Space Shuttle as a civilian astronaut and was turned down, even considering starting a computer company in the Soviet Union for it.
- Jobs ended up connecting at the end of his life with his biological sister, Mona Simpson, with whom he became very close. They were both naturally artistic and shared a lot in common.
- The film Anywhere But Here is based on a book written by Jobs’ sister, Mona Simpson. The film is dedicated to Steve Jobs.
- Jobs was not a philanthropist. In fact, in Apple’s early days, he cut the company’s philanthropic programs, saying they would return when the company was more profitable. Despite Apple’s huge success, the charitable programs were never reinstated.
- At Apple, Jobs has always had an annual salary of one dollar. Of course, he owned 5.5 million shares of Apple and was Disney’s majority shareholder after the sale of Pixar.
- Jobs had a whole packaging team studying the experience of opening a box. The goal was to convey emotion, which is now common with Apple products.
- The jobs were known to be difficult and demanding. In 1993, he was listed on Fortune’s list of America’s toughest bosses.
- And he was also not friendly with journalists and the media, he always wanted to keep full control of Apple’s impression on the public. Apple even went so far as to pursue a teenager named Nicholas Ciarelli on its Think Secret blog, where he revealed secret rumors and details about upcoming Apple products.
- Jobs is listed as the principal or co-inventor of 346 U.S. patents relating to a variety of technologies, with the majority of the patents being design.
- Jobs was romantically involved with Joan Baez and Diane Keaton.
- Jobs never learned to program according to his friend and co-founder of Apple Steve Wozniak.
- Bill Clinton once invited Jobs to spend the night sleeping in the Lincoln Room of the White House.
- He never put license plates on his silver Mercedes (although he constantly drives it). As did? California has a rule that a car owner has six months to put a license plate on a new car. Jobs changed cars (for an identical model) every six months, which allowed him to drive without a license plate.
- Steve often parked in handicapped spaces.
- Originally, Jobs did not want to offer his products in white. Quite surprising considering the clean white look that’s iconic of Apple products today.
- Jobs mentored Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, even sharing some of his advice with the Google duo.
- Jobs was furious when Google created Android, competing with Apple in the phone market.
- Steve was a pescatarian, meaning a vegetarian who also ate fish.
- Jobs was discovered to have pancreatic cancer in 2003, but instead of following his doctor’s recommendations and undergoing immediate surgery, Jobs followed an alternative medicine approach, including a vegan diet, acupuncture and herbal remedies, even going so far as to consult a psychic.
- After nine months, Jobs relented and underwent surgery. The delay in the operation is seen by many as a major factor in his decline.
- Apple, Microsoft and Disney properties (including Disneyland and Disney World) lowered their flags when Jobs died.
- His last words on his deathbed were “Oh woof, oh woof, oh woof”, as he gazed at his family.
- Tim Cook revealed in a 2014 interview that Jobs’ front office and nameplate was still the same as it was in 2011 when Jobs died.
- Sunday, October 16, 2011 was declared Steve Jobs Day by California Governor Jerry Brown.
Of course they are very curious facts that help us to know the founder of Apple. While there are many that you probably know about, there are surely many more that you had no idea.