Steve Jobs, in full Steve Paul Jobs, was an American entrepreneur, investor and industrial designer who co-founded Apple Computer ( now Apple Inc.) along with Steve Wozniak in 1976.
He revolutionized modern technology with products like iPod, iPhone, and iPad and is considered a pioneer of the personal computer revolution.
There are many unknown and amazing facts about Steve Jobs’s personal and professional career, including his spiritual journey in India and Zen Buddhism.
Born on February 24, 1955, Steve Jobs changed the world with his way of thinking. However, he was diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor in 2003 and died on October 5, 2011, at the age of 56 due to respiratory arrest related to the tumor.
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Steve Jobs Facts
The Former Apple CEO was known to many as a workaholic business magnate but there are a lot of other things that people don’t know about him. Here are some of the facts about Steve Jobs that will leave you surprised!
1. An Adopted Child
His biological mother (Joanne Schieble Simpson) was a young unwed graduate student and it was planned before Jobs was born that he will be adopted by a lawyer and his wife.
But at the last minute, the couple decided that they wanted a girl. So his parents who were on the waiting list agreed to adopt him.
His biological mother wanted him to be adopted by college graduates and when she found that both of the adoptive parents never graduated from college, she refused to sign the final adoption papers.
His biological mother relented only after few months after she was promised that Steve would go to college.
2. A College Dropout
Jobs dropped out of Reed College in Oregon after 6 months. However, he continued his education unofficially and attended audit classes he found interesting. These are not some inspirational facts but are some surprising Steve Jobs facts.
3. Steve Was Half Arab
Steve’s biological father Abdulfattah John Jandali was Syrian which technically makes him half Arab. His mother, however, was American. They met at the University of Wisconsin.
Steve has two sisters, Patricia Ann Jobs and Mona Simpson. Patricia was his adoptive sister and Mona was his biological sister. Moreover, Steve met his biological sister at the age of 27 years old.
4. Trip to India for Spiritual Enlightenment
Jobs traveled to India to visit Neem Karoli Baba in mid-1974. However, when he found that Neem Karoli Baba had died in 1973, he traveled to northern India where he got exposed to Zen Buddhism practices.
During his 7 months in India, he also experimented with psychedelics like LSD and called it “one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life.” Steve Jobs facts enlist some important information which shows his inclination towards spirituality.
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5. How “Two-Steves” Started
A mutual friend of Jobs and Wozniak introduced them to each other. Their business partnership started when Wozniak produced his original ‘blue boxes’ that allowed the user to make long-distance calls free of cost.
Jobs sold hundreds of blue boxes for $150 each and the profit was split in half.
6. It Always Didn’t Split in Half
Jobs was given to make a “one-person pong” by Atari for which he asked Wozniak’s help for half of the pay. They worked day and night and created Breakout, an instant classic.
Atari paid Jobs $5,000 for the game but Jobs told Wozniak that they only received a total of $700 and gave him $350 while he pocketed $4,650!
7. “Two-Steves” created Apple
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak both agree that without the other Steve ‘Apple’ would not exist. Although Jobs is famously known as ‘Apple mastermind’, he never did programming or engineering for any of the Apple devices.
It was all done by Steve Wozniak and Jobs was more responsible for providing necessary altercations and product sales.
8. “Two-Steves” Started From Scrap
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 with almost no money. They made Apple I in Jobs’ Los Altos garage with money they got by selling Jobs’ Minibus and Wozniak’s programmable calculator.
9. A Third Apple Founder
Ronald Wayne, a third friend, helped Jobs and Wozniak during the early stages and even designed Apple’s first logo. However, he did not feel the same enthusiasm later and sold 10 percent worth of stakes for $800.
Wayne’s share would have been worth $75 billion today if he hadn’t sold them. These facts about Steve Jobs reveals the third founder of apple.
10. Apple I and Apple II Sales
The Apple I was a desktop computer designed and hand-built by Wozniak in 1976. However, only 200 units were sold which was way below their expectations.
Even with low sales of Apple I, Jobs remained positive and started working on Apple II. He asked Wozniak to create faster processors while he designed a user-friendly interface.
Computers back then were very difficult to operate and were ugly. Jobs was successful in creating an aesthetically attractive user-friendly device.
In June 1977, Apple II was released and changed the world forever. With about $8 million in sales, Apple was trending in the whole world.
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11. Apple Was Not Easy
While Apple was more focusing on being a home computer, Microsoft led by Bill Gates aimed at the office/business market and made computers for them surpassing Apple’s sales.
Apple then released the original Macintosh but the product utterly failed as Microsoft was all over the market.
Apple had the capacity to produce 80,000 computers per month but was only selling 800. This made the Apple stocks fall to 50% in a month.
The board of directors at Apple felt Steve Jobs was not focusing on selling computers so he was fired in 1985.
12. A New Start for Jobs
Right after he was fired, Jobs founded NeXT, a company that manufactured computer workstations for higher education and the business market. He also partnered with Pixar and produced the movie “Toy Story”.
Later when Disney purchased Pixar, Jobs became the largest shareholder of the Walt Disney Company. On the other hand, Apple was not doing very well and forecasted total collapse and bankruptcy before 1997.
The board of directors then asked Steve Jobs to come back hoping he will at least save the company.
13. Steve Jobs saved Apple
Steve found a quick solution by persuading Bill Gates to invest in Apple. Bill knew Steve had a good point so he invested $150 million in Apple.
With this budget, Steve Jobs created the legendary iPod and saved Apple from total collapse. Then in 2007, iPhone was introduced to the world by Steve Jobs and the rest is history.
