10 Inspiring Facts About Steve Jobs
In 1974 Jobs traveled to India to stay at the Neem Karoli ashram, seeking spiritual enlightenment.
Unfortunately, upon his arrival, he had learned of Neem Karoli’s death the previous year, so he altered his trip.
Instead, he headed to the ashram of Haidakhan Babaji, where he spent seven months before returning to the US.
Jobs started to practice Zen Buddhism, which became a huge part of his life.
At one point, he considered becoming a monk at Eihei-Ji in Japan.
1.Steve Jobs was a college dropout.
Like many successful entrepreneurs, Jobs was a college dropout.
In 1972 Jobs enrolled at Reed College but dropped out after one semester.
He explained to his parents that he didn’t want to waste their money on education that was meaningless to him.
Jobs’ adopted parents had promised his biological mother Schieble that they would pay for his education.
2.Steve Jobs Founded Apple Inc in 1976.
Alongside Steve Wozniak, Jobs created the first Apple computer in March 1976.
Wozniak designed the Apple I, and together with Jobs, they decided to sell it to the public.
By April 1, 1976, the two set up Apple Computer Company as a business partnership alongside Ronald Wayne, now known as Apple Inc.
The business was registered at Jobs’ parents’ home on Crist Drive. Jobs’ bedroom was their office, which later moved to the garage.
The name “Apple” came from Jobs’ time on the All One Farm commune in Oregon.
Jobs spent a lot of time in the apple orchard and decided that should be the company name.
3.Jobs named an Apple computer after his daughter.
Out of Steve’s four children, only three were with his wife, Laurene Powell.
His first child was with his Homestead High on and off girlfriend, Chrisann Brennan.
When Brennan found out she was pregnant, Jobs denied responsibility for the pregnancy, which resulted in Brennan ending her relationship with Jobs.
Lisa Nicole Brennan-Jobs was born May 17, 1978. Jobs was not present for Lisa’s birth but went to visit Brennan three days later. Together they named their daughter Lisa.
Jobs then named the computer he was working on the Apple Lisa.
He then denied publically that he named the system after his daughter and that LISA stood for “Local Integrated Systems Architecture.”
In later years he has admitted that the project was named after his daughter.
4.He married one of his students.
Jobs first met his wife-to-be in 1989 during a lecture he was giving at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Laurene Powell was sat in the front row of Jobs’ lecture, and he couldn’t keep his eyes off her.
Following the lecture, Jobs met with Powell in the car park and invited her to dinner.
Jobs proposed to Powell in 1990, and they married at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park on March 18, 1991.
5.Jobs met his biological sister at age 27.
Due to being adopted as a child and not knowing his biological family, it took a long time to find out about his sister.
Jobs tracked down his sister, author Mona Simpson and met when he was 27 years old.
Her first book was titled “Anywhere But Here,” which was about her relationship with her parents, Jobs’ biological family.
6.In 1986 Steve Jobs funded the Graphics Group, which later became Pixar.
Initially, it was a sub-company under Disney until Jobs invested, and the company became its own spin-off company.
The first Pixar film “Toy Story” (1995), was a joint venture with Disney, but because of Jobs’ investment, it meant he was credited as executive producer.
Disney bought back the company in 2006.
As part of the takeover, Disney converted Pixar shares into Disney shares, which made Jobs one of Disney’s largest shareholders for a short amount of time.
7.He has over 300 patents to his name.
The exact number of patents that include Jobs’ name as either sole inventor or co-inventor varies across the board.
Jobs has 43 patents on “inventions” to his name, whilst the rest are all design-related.
He has patents for speakers, staircases, packages, power adaptors, phones, etc.
Jobs received the patent for the Mac OS X Dock user interface the day before he died.
Since his death, he has received another 141 patents to his name. Thus, there are hundreds of patents that contain Jobs’ name.
8.Jobs wore the same outfit daily.
In 1978, at the young age of 23, Steve Jobs’ net worth was $1 million. Just two years later, Jobs was worth $250 million.
At the time of his death in 2011, his net worth was $10.2 billion.
Most of this was from his stock in Disney as opposed to Apple.
9.Jobs biography was released 19 days after his death.
In 2009 Jobs started to open up about his life and take part in interviews with journalists.
Jobs allowed Walter Isaacson to write his only biography.
Isaacson was given all the rights to create the biography, except for the cover image.
Jobs allowed Isaacson to get truthful interviews from friends, family, and coworkers to make the book a true account of his life.
Isaacson based the book on over 40 interviews with Jobs and conducted hundreds of interviews with people who were part of his life.
Jobs stated that he did not want to read the book before it was published as he wanted it to be a true account and not have any influence.
Sadly it wasn’t published until October 24, 2011 – 19 days after his death.
10.Steve Jobs has his own statue in Budapest, Hungary.
There is a nearly 7 foot (2.1 meters) tall bronze statue of Jobs in the capital city of Hungary.
Artist Erno Toth made the sculpture for Graphisoft, a Hungarian software company.
The statue was erected on December 21, 2011, following his death that year.
The statue was put up to commemorate Jobs’ contributions to the tech industry and the support he gave Graphisoft during their communist rule.
The statue is located at Graphisoft Park, where other tech and science companies are based.
Steve Jobs has had an interesting life, starting with being adopted but finding a spiritual path through Buddhism.
His interest in electronics and computers was his gateway to a successful and innovative future, creating Apple Inc.
Jobs shaped personal computer systems and technology so much that even today, his work is a part of everyday life.
His legacy will live on as Apple continues to create and invent.
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