Steve Jobs, counted among the greatest American CEOs of his generation, was truly an iconic man whose quirks too, are as famous as his products. The former Apple CEO passed away a few days ago and while you know him as the guy to thank for why you have an iPhone, here are 10 rare things you didn’t know about Steve Jobs aka the greatest pirate of Silicon Valley:
1. A College Drop-Out
So, like Mark Zuckerberg who dropped out of Harvard to create Facebook, Steve Jobs too had some better things to do than going to school. He attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but dropped out after 6 months.
A year later he co-founded Apple.
2. He Co-Founded Pixar
Jobs was so attached to Apple that most people don’t know that in 1986 Steve Jobs purchased the animation studio, Pixar, for $5 million and gave the company an additional $5 million to experiment with animation.
Jobs was also one of the people responsible for the sale of Pixar to Disney nearly 20 years later.
3. A Great Innovator
Jobs had his name listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor in 338 US patents or patent applications related to a range of technologies from actual computer and portable devices to user interfaces (including touch-based), speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves, lanyards, and packages.
4. Apple’s Father
After staying 10 years away from Apple he returned in 1996, a company that struggled through most of the late ’80s and ’90s. But as soon as he returned, Steve Jobs started doing his magic all over at Apple, again.
A few years later in 2001, he developed the iPod and never looked back.
5. He Was a Player
Before marrying his wife Laurene Powell in 1991. Steve dated Diane and Joan. He also fathered a child with a woman named Chrisann Brennan but denied paternity, claiming he was sterile.
He later acknowledged being the baby daddy.
6. He Didn’t Eat Meat
He was a Pescetarian, which means he ate fish but no other meat. He would eat eggs and dairy and anything else a vegetarian would eat.
7. He Enjoyed LSD
After dropping out of college, Jobs traveled to India, became a Buddhist, and experimented with the psychedelic drug LSD.
Steve described his LSD experiences as one of the two or three most important things he had done in his life.
8. He Was a Buddhist
He was such a hardcore Zen Buddhist that he almost thought about joining a monastery and becoming a monk. He was married in a Buddhist tradition by a Zen monk who was his guru.
9. His Total Worth
Steve Jobs’ estimated net worth at the time of his death in 2011 was $20 Billion. He was number #39 on the Forbes list of the Richest People in America in 2011.
Had he been alive till February 2024, his stake in Apple alone would have been worth over $220 billion.
10. Steve Jobs’ Father
His biological father Abdulfattah Jandali is a Syrian Muslim. So, Steve Jobs was a half-Syrian Muslim. His father Jandali was a vice president at Boomtown Hotel Casino and was once a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Do you know any interesting facts about Steve Jobs that we missed? Share with us in the comments below!
Title Image Courtesy: Flickr/Dunk
