50 Fascinating Historical Facts About Steve Jobs
Not a lot can be said about Steve Jobs that hasn't been said before. One of the most influential people in the last decade without question. Even after his passing, his legacy has been set in stone. While many details of his life have been covered in the media, there are a few facts about Steve Jobs that may surprise you.
Scroll through this gallery and see if any of these facts change the way to look at Jobs, for better or for worse.
Jobs was Adopted
Before he became one of the biggest success stories in world history by starting the tech giant Apple, Steve Jobs came from very humble beginnings. For starters, he was an orphan. He was adopted as a child by a nice couple named Paul and Clara Jobs.
The Jobs family was nowhere near rich, nor were they able to afford the sorts of fancy private institutions that are used to turn out billionaires and CEOs. In fact, Jobs came up so poor that he had to take a job collecting bottles that earned him just enough money to buy one decent meal on a weekly basis.
Child Prodigy
Steve Jobs is considered to have been one of the foremost visionaries in the world when it comes to technology. It should come as no surprise to learn that Jobs displayed his considerable talents at a young age. He had a natural drive to understand how things worked, and how they were put together.
His evolving intellect was finally recognized at his 8th-grade science fair. His project earned so much notoriety that he was granted a summer internship offer from computer giant Hewlett Packard Corporation.
Calligraphy?
When Steve Jobs graduated from high school, he did what almost every teenager stepping out into the world with big dreams does, he pursued higher education. With all the expanded courses that universities offer, it would be natural to assume that Jobs was attracted to courses within the science and technology fields.
Surprisingly, it was courses on Calligraphy that drew in Jobs the most. While he certainly had his fair share of classes related to computer technology and sciences, it was the art of using brushes and edged pens to create artistic lettering that inspired him the most.
Secrecy Pays Off
While Jobs was deeply inspired by calligraphy, he attended these classes secretly. It’s unclear what his motivation for doing this was in the beginning, but the classes did end up paying dividends in a big way later on when he launched his first computers.
The classes as estranged as they seemed coming from a person with Job’s intellect, also served as a huge inspiration for a feature on his MacIntosh computers. Those calligraphy classes were responsible for Job’s design for the alphabetic letters on his original computer model.
College Dropout
A college education has always been considered paramount to success in almost any job field. Clearly, a man like Steve Jobs with his enormous intellect would have understood and respected that. Someone like Steve Jobs would have more than likely been the valedictorian of his graduating class.
He very well might have been…. if he had graduated. As shocking as it may seem, after only 18 months at Reeds College, Steve Jobs dropped out. He believed that he wasn’t getting anything out of it and believed it to be a waste of his time. He would later refer to it as “The best decision of my life.”
Steve Jobs still lived on campus after dropping out
Despite dropping out, Jobs did not want to vacate the campus. In fact, he continued to live there for quite a few more months. During that time, he slept on the floors of his friend's rooms, while reverting back to his roots and collecting bottles to make the money necessary to survive.
Most of the time, Jobs didn't even have enough money to buy food, resorting instead to visiting a local temple and getting the free food they offered as a charity for the less fortunate. It is unclear how long Jobs lived off this combination.
First of Its Kind
Steve Jobs created the version of his personal computer back in 1977. At that time, computers were a relatively new invention, and not highly thought of. Jobs’ invention, titled the “Apple II” became the first computer to gain the public’s trust and acceptance, as the nation began to take a step forward in the lens of technology.
With the success of the Apple II, Jobs believed that the gap between computers and ordinary people could be bridged. In 1984, he further aided in the quest by creating the Macintosh, the first computer with a mouse.
The Beatles
Nearly every single person that resides on planet Earth knows that Steve Jobs created the first Apple computers. With the help of his friend Steve Wozniak, also a college dropout, the pair built the first prototype in Jobs' garage.
The shocking part of this story was the inspiration behind the name “Apple." Music has the power to inspire us all in unique ways, for Jobs, it came in the form of his company name. He chose the name Apple because he was inspired by the Beatles, taking a particular shine to the “Apple Records,” a name they conjured in the 1960s.
An Apple in every City
There is little doubt that Apple quickly became a universal name in terms of top of the line computer systems. Many would assume that it became that way due to the overwhelmingly superior quality over its competitors. While this may be a large part of it, another major factor was the marketing strategy Jobs employed.
His theory was that the secret to making Apple computers a household name was to have Apple stores in almost every major city, so as to be completely accessible to the general public. Clearly, he had the right idea.
NeXT
After launching Apple, Jobs did not stay Satisfied with his creation for a, particularly long time. Instead, Jobs went off on his own in order to build another company. In 1985, he founded a company called NeXT. The company is another computer-based business, but not a direct competitor to Apple.
In fact, Apple ended buying NeXT in 1996 for 429 million dollars. NeXT (and Jobs) had created an operating system known as “OPENSTEP” which was the building block for what we now know as iOS and OS X operating systems today.
Steve Jobs thought beyond his Means
Surprisingly, it is not uncommon to find out that many people perceived as brilliant businessmen often go bankrupt. A notable example of this is Donald Trump, who had several of his own businesses go belly-up. Many would not have expected this from a pioneer of Steve Job’s ilk, however, he too ran into some financial struggles.
During this financial crisis for Jobs, he realized that he needed to use his innovation to create a way out. The business giant ran into these struggles as a result of heavy investments into Apple, NeXT, and his newest project, PIXAR.
Out at Apple
In 2011, Steve Jobs shocked the nation by quitting as the CEO of Apple. He was a leader in the industry, a titan, and he firmly held the public's image within the company in his hands. After mere hours had elapsed after the announcement of his resignation, the company shares went down 5%.
Forbes magazine also reported that shares in his other companies took a hit as a result of the news. Jobs was so well regarded by the public, who had unlimited faith in him that since his death, stocks in his companies have skyrocketed.
Quite a Legacy
Steve Jobs will be remembered as one of the most brilliant men to ever live. His contributions to computer-based technology literally changed the landscape of how technology was viewed forever. Though he had some hiccups throughout his journey, he was laid to rest with some impressive stats.
At the time of his death, Steve Jobs had a net worth of $7 billion dollars. While most of his years in business were remarkable successes, the years of 2008 and 2011 are his best fiscal years.
Digital Music
The trend of Mp3 players was a game-changer for almost all media-related industries. With music able to be downloaded directly from a computer to a playable device, the race was on to create new software to coexist with the technology.
One of the major hurdles is that most of the Mp3 streams for music were illegal to download. Attempting to create software to aid in the theft of digitally protected copyrights was not something any company wanted to get involved with. Sensing the opportunity, Jobs created iTunes, the first legal source to download and transfer digital music.
Death Comes for Us All
The doctors told Jobs he only has a few months to live, but Jobs was a fighter. After that initial diagnosis, he refused to give up. After his terminal diagnosis, Jobs went on to live for 8 more years before finally succumbing to cancer.
Holistic Treatment
After Steve Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, he refused to have any of the usual treatments available to him for many months. This seemed to puzzle many people as to why he was not attempting to utilize medical technology to fight for his life.
In reality, Jobs was pursuing a very different type of treatment outside of the normal routine. Instead of attempting to wield his wealth to innovate some sort of groundbreaking treatment to prolong his life, Jobs simply began a regiment of natural herbs, fruits, and vegetables, before engaging in traditional treatments. As a result, he was able to live for 8 more years.
Letter from Bill Gates
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are considered to be the fathers of modern-day computer technology. A few months before Steve Jobs passed away, he set a meeting with Gates. In the meeting, he and Gates discussed the future and reminisce about the past. Jobs makes an impression on Gates.
A few months later, while Jobs is lying on his deathbed, Gates pens him a letter. In the letter Gates makes references to the wonderful family Jobs has created, whom Gates has personally gotten to know, and reminds Jobs of all of his many accomplishments to help him be at peace.
Family Tree
Though Jobs is adopted, he does discover the identity of his biological parents. Surprisingly, his father is a man named Jandali, who is Syrian, and his mother is an American woman named Joan Carol. The two got married just after Joan gave young Steve up for adoption.
In addition, Jobs eventually learned that he also had a sister. His biological sister was a famous author by the name of Mona Simpson. When he was 27 years old, he managed to track her down and meet her for the first time.
Jobs was a Family Man
Steve Jobs will forever be remembered as a technology giant. His major accomplishments, like Apple, iTunes, NeXT, and Pixar will forever be the accomplishments that are remembered whenever the life or legacy of Steve Jobs is discussed. However, there are accomplishments, much more personal, and out of the public eye that can be attributed to his brilliant legacy as well.
Steve Jobs was a genuine and compassionate family man. He was an amazing husband and father. He will forever be remembered as such by his children, son Reed Paul, daughters Erin Sienna, Eve, and his wife.
Jobs was a Music Lover
Music is one of the few things in life that is just good and universal. Most everyone on the planet identifies, and in some way, resonates with it. The beautiful thing about music is that it hits everyone differently. What speaks to some people, may not speak to others. It is both universal and subjective at the same time.
Steve Jobs preferred music and musicians whose ideologies mirrored his own. His iPod contained a collection of hits from artists like the Black-Eyed Peas, John Mayer, and Alicia Keys to name a few. These selections were made because Jobs identified with the values and beliefs of the artists.
The Diet of Steve Jobs
Part of the fun of being rich and famous is that you get to eat whatever you want. Enormous spreads of all the lavish foods you could imagine. For Steve Jobs, this was not appealing. In fact, by choice, he ate a very particular diet. There was no real reasoning behind it besides the fact that he just liked what he liked.
Steve Jobs identified himself as a pescatarian. His favorite type of meat, reportedly, was fish. When Walter Issacson penned a biography on Steve Jobs, he learned that Jobs LOVED apples and carrots, and could go for up to two full days just eating those two items.
Barefoot Billionaire
When you’re worth 7 billion dollars, you make your own rules. In 1997, when President Bill Clinton went to Silicon Valley to meet the tech giant, he was greeted by Jobs and his wife and served wine and vegan food. Jobs was truly an eccentric blend of billionaire and hippie.
In addition to the reported Bill Clinton meeting, complete with dinner details, Time Magazine also released a story detailing how Steve Jobs enjoyed walking around barefoot in his $4 million-dollar Palo Alto house.
Apple of my Eye
Steve Jobs is a wonderful blend of several seemingly opposite ideologies. The tech billionaire has rightfully earned his right to pursue whatever hobbies and interests he develops, given his many contributions to the modern technological landscape. It shouldn't be a shock that a guy who named his company “Apple'' would have an obsession with fruit.
One of Jobs' hobbies that he was passionate about was his developing skill as a “Fruitarian.” During his lifetime, he devoured a substantial amount of time cultivating apples at a hippie commune. Because of that hobby, he became inspired to be a vegan.
Jean Hoarder
The current culture is no stranger to the fashion trends of the celebrity crowd. The number of eccentric outfits that have been worn to public events is in the thousands. Some prefer their clothing to make a loud and boisterous statement, while others let the man make the clothes, by keeping it pure and simple.
Jobs represents the latter. Although you could classify him as a collector, as he owned close to 100 pairs of Levi's Jeans, Steve Jobs preferred to keep it simple, wearing a very basic signature black T-shirt and blue jeans.
Steve Jobs: Old School Romantic
There are many clichés when it comes to classifications of the super-rich. “Big Spender'' or “Flashy Dresser” “Ruthless Businessman” or “Ladies Man.” While you cannot assign the majority of these labels to Steve Jobs, there is one that hit the nail on the head in reference to Jobs.
Steve Jobs was a romantic. He entertained many dates with many notable names at that time. All of those women rave about what a gentleman he was. He asked out Laurene Powell after a speaking gig at Stanford, dated Joan Baez, Lisa Birnbach, and even Diane Keaton.
He was a Bad Boss
Part of the curse of being brilliant is that you sometimes create impossible standards. Those can be difficult for you, but even more difficult for your employees. Steve was manic about his work and demanded excellence from his employers. At times he could be generous, but at times, he could be impossible to work for.
As an example of his overbearing expectations, he would often be heard screaming “Fire Yourself!” at employees whose work did not meet his standards. An example of his good side can be found at the next Christmas party of 1986, where he dressed up as Santa and passed out $100-dollar bills.
Apple Reflects Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs, one of the most brilliant minds of the last 4 decades has an elegant simplicity to his approach. From his lifestyle to his style of dress, it's all about simply done to its absolute best.
It is no surprise that his company reflects those same stylistic characteristics. The design of most Apple devices are simple, and yet elegant, and it doesn't just stop there. The design of every Apple store, including the mini-stores, have simple white walls. The concept was so popular that Samsung began copying it for their own stores inside Best Buy.
Steve Jobs Cooked his Meal on a hot plate over a trash can
Steve Jobs is the blueprint for a bottom-to-the-top success story. From a business perspective, every aspect of his personality, his drive, his innovation, his style, are all completely perfect. Generally speaking, when someone's life looks like the definition of perfection, there is usually dirt in another aspect of their life.
According to his biological sister, author Mona Simpson, Jobs is also "perfect” in his personal life. Another anecdote she offered to reveal the life of Jobs, is that the Jobs' family kitchen in their Palo Alto house was being remodeled, and it would take them years to finish. As a result, Jobs simply resorted to cooking all of their meals in the garage over a hotplate.
In My Next Life
Steve Jobs is not by any means a religious man. However, it was revealed in his biography that he does subscribe to the belief in reincarnation. In speaking with the author of his biography about his beliefs, it is reported that Jobs said, “There is more to life than meets the eye.”
His beliefs go on to include that when you die with years of experience and accumulated wisdom, that they also leave something behind. There is little doubt that even on his deathbed, Steve Jobs was thinking about his plans for the future.
Benevolent Benefactor
In Steve Jobs's lifetime, though he made billions of dollars, he also gave away boatloads of money. If there is one concrete thing that can be said about Steve Jobs, it's that he cared. Not just about money, or the company, but about suffering, despair, the less fortunate, and humanity in general.
Though he received some negative publicity by refusing to sign a pledge with the other billionaires that they would donate their wealth on death, Jobs made up for that by donating $150 million to California’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Steve Jobs was on Fortune's "Toughest Bosses" list
When it comes to Companies, Apple, NeXT, and PIXAR are among the best in the world. However, companies like that don't get to that level without everyone pulling their weight. In order to achieve a high standard, bosses have to drive their employees to consistently perform to the best of their abilities.
For Jobs to get, and maintain his companies on this level, he had to have strict rules and enforce discipline with a combination of positive energy and charisma. Those characteristics led him to appear on Fortune’s list of Toughest Bosses in America.
iPhone S
Anyone who has owned an iPhone in the past is familiar with the “S'' series of phones. It was unclear, at least initially, what the “S'' stood for. Over time, the symbolism behind the letter was revealed.
As it turns out, the “S” series of phones was a nod in honor of the brilliant CEO that had created the giant. The iPhone “Steve.” It was a clever way to pay homage to the man who gave life to the company.
Four Powerful Words
One of the many positive attributes of Steve Jobs was his ability to inspire the people around him. He has dropped many powerful nuggets of wisdom over his years, and given his momentous success, his words carry significant weight.
Competitive Spirit
There was virtually no one on the planet more competitive than Steve Jobs. He was a perfectionist when it came to his work, anything less than the best was unacceptable. His desire for greatness is highly visible within his legacy. Steve Jobs was the kind of guy who applied himself to a task and did not stop when he was the best at it.
High Praise
There are not many men on the planet who can measure up to the great Bill Gates. Gates wasn’t just a brilliant businessman, he was also a generous humanitarian and his efforts have for years, saved lives and helped the less fortunate in the fight for survival, putting tens of thousands of lives over his own.
Peaceful Aspirations
To say Steve Jobs was eccentric would be an understatement. “The vegan, billionaire, hippie, fruition, music lover” is not a sentence you would ever dream of uttering if it were not the mind-boggling truth. Understanding this fundamental fact about Steve Jobs' persona gives you a glimpse into how truly unique the man was.
When Steve Jobs was younger, he didn't want to become a tech billionaire. He didn’t dream of inventing the groundbreaking computer. Young Steve was a man of peace and balance, and for that reason, his childhood aspiration was to become a Buddhist Monk.
Steve Jobs Saved Toy Story
One of the more interesting aspects of Steve Jobs' life is his association with Disney. In 1986, he gained ownership of PIXAR for $10 million dollars. After that purchase, due to its partnership with Disney, Jobs also decided to invest in the entertainment giant. Steve Jobs was actually, until his death, the largest stakeholder in Disney.
Steve Jobs lived on $1 a year Salary
Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world. All the global tech giant does seemingly, is make money. Steve Jobs is considered the pioneer of the company, the architect. With the company pulling in so much money, Jobs had the opportunity to do what many of the rich elite do, double-dip by enjoying a share of the profits, and give himself as CEO, a hefty salary.
However, Steve Jobs believes in the company being the best, and for that, he needs to have the best possible employees. So Steve Jobs was the CEO for a whopping salary of $1 per year. It is no wonder why Apple has been at the pinnacle of success since its inception.
Patents for Days
Steve Jobs was a gifted innovator. A mind like his never rested, until he finally reached his death. It is simply staggering to look at the long list of his accomplishments. As an innovator, he created many things, not just companies, phones, and laptops, but other small aspects of Apple that go under-appreciated by the public.
According to sources, Steve Jobs holds over 300 patents. From the technological gizmos and gadgets that Apple unveils, to laptops, to operating systems, all the way to the glass staircase at the Apple store, which is just one of 100 things that grab your attention and make you want to enter the store.
Steve Jobs gave Advice to Obama
Walter Issacson was given the privilege to interview Steve Jobs and wrote his biography. It was in this book where the public first learned that President Barack Obama once met with Steve Jobs. It is unclear if Obama was seeking advice from the brilliant billionaire, but as was his custom, Jobs offered advice anyway.
He told President Obama that the way to avoid being a one-term president was to run America like a business. The key, believed Jobs, was to make America “Business-friendly” so as to keep everything in house and keep the economy flush.
Steve Jobs created Video Games
Before the existence of the PlayStation 5, or the Xbox, or Sega, or even the Super Nintendo, there was the Atari. It was the first Television game system of its kind, and it was insanely popular. One of the most popular available games for the Atari was a game called Breakout.
The game consisted of a ball and a paddle, and the player attempted to hit every brick on the screen and sash it, and then catch the ball with the paddle. Failure to catch the ball resulted in the loss of a life in the game. Fail to catch the ball 3 times, and it's game over. The inventor of this game was none other than Steve Jobs, and he was paid $5,000 for his efforts.
Meeting Dad
Steve Jobs was adopted. Years later he looked into his birth family and discovered their true origins. He had a mother, a father, and a sister whom he had never met. Steve sought out to change that, unsure of what to expect. After a while, he managed to track down his father.
His father, Adul Fattah Jandali, was a half Syrian Muslim living in the United States. It was widely believed that Steve Jobs never met his father, as he rarely ever mentioned the existence of him, but while being interviewed for his biography he discloses that he actually met the man in San Jose in the 1980s.
The Simple Life
Steve Jobs' penchant for simplicity was overly and abundantly clear in his lifestyle. He was not a flashy guy and had no desire to show off. Despite his house in Palo Alto costing $4 million dollars, it was a very modest size and design.
It was so modest in fact, that Jobs never even bothered to decorate it. It sat mostly vacant until he met and married his wife, Laurene Powell. When she moved in, she began planting fruits and vegetables in the garden and adding a few tasteful pieces of furniture, keeping in mind his minimalistic style.
Yacht Club
Though Steve Jobs is not known for making overly splashy purchases, he did make one notable purchase in his later years. In true “Rich Guy” fashion, he decided to buy a yacht. The impressive vessel was said to be purchased because Jobs wanted to spend more time with his family, vacationing on the large boat.
One of the more notable features of the Yacht was the custom clear glass deck that Jobs designed himself. Always the master of innovation, Steve could never let anyone's work, even the designers of his yacht, stand out more than his own. The Yacht is named Venus.
Dr. Jobs
The death of Steve Jobs took a toll on his family. In particular on his son, Reed. Reed was so torn up about his father’s death that he decided to dedicate his career to helping to fight the disease that took his father from him.
Excelling in his studies, Reed Jobs attended Stanford, where he graduated and is now working within a research center keeping his word true and attempting to help find a cure for colon cancer. As a research Oncologist, Reed specializes in the study of advanced cancer and the various treatment methods.
Friendly Rivalry
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates developed a friendship during the later stages of Jobs’ life. The two were larger than life, so it would only be natural if their egos flared a little when they were together. Jobs, not one to be shown up, devised a perfect strategy to flex on his billionaire buddy.
An Engineer named Adams, from NeXT disclosed that when Bill Gates used to come to visit Jobs at the facility, Jobs would make Bill Gates wait for an hour in the lobby. Adams gives good intel on this, as he was the one that kept Gates company while he waited.
Meeting Mom
Steve Jobs’ birth mother was a lady by the name of Jean Carol. Admittedly, Steve resented her for giving him up. He wanted nothing to do with her for a very long time. Despite his curiosity peaking after his adopted mother's death from lung cancer, Steve was still apprehensive about meeting his real family.
Finally, at 31, Jobs decided to bite the bullet and meet his biological mom. She had never heard of Apple computers and did not have the slightest idea of how successful her son was. When the pair met, she expressed great resentment about having to give him up. Eventually, Jobs forgave her, and the two formed a close bond until her death, spending every Christmas together.
Jobs in Space
To says Jobs had lofty aspirations for his career would be an understatement. In fact, some might say that Jobs’ career ambitions were “out of this world.” Jobs worked at Apple for a long time, before taking a hiatus to explore new opportunities.
In 1985, after stepping away from Apple, Jobs wanted a change of pace, something that pushed his limits. This desire led him to submit an application to NASA in the hopes of becoming a civilian astronaut. Unfortunately, NASA rejected the application, and Jobs was forced to remain here on Planet Earth.
Quid Pro Quo
Most of the pictures painted of Jobs and Wozniak's relationships were of an equal partnership, both doing their fair share of the work to get Apple up and running. The common anthology shows Steve Jobs as the computer savvy, computer Wizkid that is the main brain responsible for the success.
However, there are stories that refute that. In fact, it is said that Jobs early on declared himself “The Idea Guy” leaving Wozniak to do most of the grunt work. It is said that Steve Jobs never even learned how to code. Either way, it is doubtful either one has complaints about how it turned out.
The Biggest $800 Mistake
While Jobs and Wozniak are considered the two horsemen of the Apple-apocalypse, there was actually a little known third member of the computer band. A mutual friend, Ronald Wayne was involved in the project early on and was one of the three original founders of Apple.
Ronald however, lost interest in the project and decided to walk away from it. In order to step away, he decided to sell off his shares to the other two founders, his friends, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Regrettably, for him, he sold his large share in the company for only $800.