50+ Interesting Steve Jobs Facts

Steve Jobs

We all know that Steve Jobs changed the way we compute, listen to music, and watch movies. The Macintosh 128k, that my dad brought home, was the first computer I ever used. Steve Jobs was the Thomas Edison of our time and he will be greatly missed, but never forgotten. Below are some interesting facts I dug up in remembrance of him.

Make sure if you haven’t already, watch the following video for which he tells his 3 most important stories from his life.

1. Founded Apple when he was 21
2. Favorite vegetable was the carrot
3. Bought over 2 dozen black turtlenecks for $175 from St. Croix every year
4. Studied Zen Buddhism and wanted to be a monk in Japan
5. Was adopted
6. His favorite musician was Bob Dylan
7. Was a vegan since his teens
8. Loved German engineering especially Porsche and Mercedes
9. Forbid his kids to watch TV
10. He has a private Gulfstream V Jet worth over $40 million
11. He is half Syrian Muslim
12. Filed over 300 patents
13. He became a millionaire at age 25
14. Purchased computer animation studio Pixar from George Lucas for $10 million in 1986
15. Once considered running for Governor of California
16. Dated folk singer Joan Baez
17. Reportedly tried LSD and liked it
18. Became Disney’s largest shareholder in 2006 when they bought Pixar
19. Usually parks crooked in handicapped parking spaces
20. Usually didn’t have license plates on his cars
21. He once was homeless
22. He was a fruitarian for a little bit
23. He would often stay up consecutive days to work
24. He believed that his metabolism slowed him down from doing his work
25. Dropped out of college after 6 months
26. Studied Calligraphy to invent Computer Fonts
27. Once threw an iPhone in an aquarium to make a point that there was too much wasted space inside.
28. Worked Atari in 1976
29. Fired from Apple in 1985
30. He’s dyslexic
31. Said to have poor hygiene
32. He believed that it was important to look the same
33. Often seen to wear black turtlenecks, levi jeans, and new balance sneakers
34. He takes a $1 salary from Apple
35. Receives approximately $48 million/year from Disney shares
36. Backpacked around India doing psychedelic drugs
37. Considered a trouble maker in grade school often with outbursts
38. Jobs once stated that LSD was one of the most important things he has done in his life
39. Convinced John Sculley, CEO of Pepsi to come work for Apple
40. Denied paternity of his first daughter
41. Started the company NeXT in 1985 which now powers the Mac OSX
42. Considered The Beatles as his business inspiration
43. Has no public record of philanthropy
44. His favorite fruit is Apples.
45. Was offered a job to work at HP in the 8th grade
46. He has 4 kids
47. Steve Jobs dressed up as Jesus Christ at the first Apple Halloween party
48. The original iPod was launched without the support of iTunes
49. Gave every employee a free iPhone when it was first released
50. Refused surgery to operate on his cancerous tumor for 9 months until finally giving in
51. Created the first Macintosh based on a mouse based electronic from Xerox PARC
52. Credited in the Pixar movie Toy Story as an executive producer.
53. Middle name was Paul
54. Greatly admired Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid and modeled his career after him
55. Forbes estimated net worth of 8.4 billion in 2010
56. Employed more than 49,000 jobs at Apple in 2010
57. Started a rival against Michael Dell when he criticized about their beige box looking computers
58. Surpassed Dell in market capitalization in 2006
59. Apple became the most valuable company surpassing Exxon for a day in August 2011.
60. Since his return to Apple in 1996, Apple stock soared to more than 7000%