1. Steve Jobs (°1955) Was Not Born As A Millionaire

Steve Jobs (San Francisco, 24 February 1955 – Palo Alto, 5 October 2011) was not born as a millionaire. He was adopted as a child by Paul and Clara Jobs and spent a life later on with practically no money. He had a bottle-collecting job that earned him a few dollars to buy a decent meal once a week. However, what he did have was passion and intellect, which made him soar to heights of success, once he started Apple.

2. Steve Jobs Spent His Youth Around Technology & Books

Steve Jobs was a wonder boy with technology, even as a child. He loved to research and ponder over how things were made and assembled. Perhaps his biggest eight-grade achievement was a summer internship offer by the acclaimed Hewlett Packard Corporation.

3. A Unique Passion

As a student, Job’s biography has little to narrate! Even though he attended Reed College for 18 months, guess which course attracted him the most… Calligraphy!

4. Almost Spent His Life As A Buddhist Monk

As unbelievable as it sounds, Jobs’ adolescent dream was to become a Buddhist monk. After being in close quarters with some Buddhist activities, he got inspired and even shaved his head to start living like a monk. In 1974 when he visited India, Job’s found his philosophical side and delved further into the studies of existentialism and spiritualism.

5. Steve Jobs Only Met His Biological Sister Mona Simpson When He Was 27 Years Old

As if fame was in his blood, an interesting fact about Steve’s biography is that his biological father was a Syrian called Jandali, who married Joanne Carole after they gave up Steve for adoption. His biological sister is the famous author Mona Simpson, whom he met years later when he was 27 years old (photo courtesy: MonaSimpson.com).

6. Steve’s Dress Code & Statement: Black Turtleneck Shirt & Blue Levi’s Jeans

An eccentric fact about Jobs himself is that during his lifetime he owned close to 100 pairs of Levi’s jeans! Being his staple wardrobe, Jobs preferred to dress simply yet make a statement with his signature black turtleneck shirt (designed specifically for Steve Jobs by famous Japanese designer Issey Miyake, in picture) and blue Levi’s jeans.

7. The Music On The iPod Of Steve Jobs: Only Artists In Line With His Values & Beliefs

Job’s music library on his iPod was not just a random collection of hits. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys and John Mayer were some of the big names whose music he loved because he could relate to their values and beliefs.

Video: Introduction Of iPod In 2001

.

8. The Origin Of Apple

It is a known fact for most of us that Apple was co-founded by Steve jobs and his college dropout friend, Steve Wozniak, in Steve’s family garage. However, what is a surprise is that, according to some, Steve Jobs named his company Apple after being inspired by the Beatles ‘Apple Records’, who started using this name in the 1960s. A legal battle pursued and both parties settled the case in 2007. Other sources, and probably more close to the truth, say that Apple was so named because Jobs was coming back from an apple farm and he got the inspiration there. Steve Jobs said that the name Apple sounded like “fun, spirited and not intimidating”. The first Apple logo pictured Newton under an apple tree.

9. Steve Jobs, Employee #0 At Apple

Steve was one of the most competitive employees ever! When Steve Wozniak was named employee #1, Steve worked so hard to beat him at the game, that until he was named employee #0 he was not satisfied!

10. Steve Jobs’ Fortune Comes (Also) From His Stake in Disney

Not most of us know that Steve Jobs was the largest shareholder in The Walt Disney Company, after he purchased Pixar for $10m in 1986 (i.e. $5 million for George Lucas and 5$ million cash for the company) and sold it back in 2006 to The Walt Disney Company at a valuation of around $7.4 billion. Steve Jobs is also the savior of the movie ‘Toy Story’ because without his intervention, Woody was scripted to be a bad guy!

11. Steve Jobs’ Annual Salary At Apple, Inc: $1

Did you know that despite being the CEO of a company worth $300 billion in 2011, Steve Job’s annual salary was much less than any white or blue collar worker? Famous as he was, Jobs gained a lot of fame and respect when it was disclosed that his annual salary was a single digit figure of $1.

12. Steve Jobs Got Fired At Apple in 1985

Steve Jobs was not an ordinary man. He was full of inspiration and positivity, both of which were the ingredients to his creativity. After being fired as Apple CEO in May, 1985 by the board, all Steve had to say was that the episode ‘freed’ him and ‘was one of the most creative periods of his life.’ He later even commented during his famous & worth watching 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech: ‘The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. I am pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.’

Video: Stanford Speech In 2005

13. Fish, Vegetables & Lots Of Fruits

Steve Jobs was a ‘pescetarian’ by nature. Of his favorite foods, fish topped the list. Walter Issacson’s biography of Steve Jobs reveals that he was fond of eating carrots and apples and could live on these two for days on end.

14. Steve Jobs Instilled Rules & Discipline At Apple

Jobs philosophy of leading Apple, Inc was a combination of energy, discipline and charisma. He believed in being strict when he needed to because rules and discipline mattered to him. In 1993, he made it to Fortune’s list of the Toughest Bosses in America!

15. Steve Jobs & Bill Gates: Good Friends In The End

Steve Jobs is perhaps the only CEO to be praised by Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates. Gates, himself being the primary architect at Microsoft, saw Jobs to be an inspirational leader who changed the course of Apple’s history by single-handedly revolutionizing it in 1997. Steve Jobs even compared their relationship at a D conference to a Beatles song ‘Two Of Us’, quoting the following lyrics: ‘You and I have memories / longer than the road that stretches out ahead’.

Video: D Interview With Bill Gates In 2007

16. Steve Jobs Patented All His Inventions

Steve Jobs had many patents under his name. Most sources say they amount to more than 300! One of them is the patented glass staircase at the Apple store, which is one in a hundred attractions alone that pull passersby inside the store.

17. The Unprecedented Success Of Apple’s Marketing Approach

Steve Jobs was arguably the first person to make computer stores accessible to the general public with great success. His ideology behind having Apple stores in the major hubs of towns was to make Apple a household name and to set a trend of personal computers that was not a very widespread one back in the 90’s. The 1997 ‘Think Different’ ad campaign positions Apple as a unique company in history.

Video: Apple TV Ad ‘Think Different’ In 1997 (Steve Jobs version)

18. The Release Of iPhone 4S in October 2011

Rumor has it that one of the latest versions of the iPhone, the iPhone 4s, has been named after Steve Jobs, standing for ‘iPhone 4 Steve.’ For all that, the young CEO did for Apple, Inc, this is definitely a commendable gesture. The iPhone 4S was announced to the world on October 4, 2011; the following day, Steve Jobs passed away (October 5, 2011).

19. Steve Jobs & The Women In His Life

Guess what, Steve Jobs asked out Laurene Powell in Stanford University’s parking lot after speaking there at a seminar. Steve was a romantic by nature, dating Joan Baez and Lisa Birnbach for a while and then having a blind date with Diane Keaton, Steve Jobs oozed class & serenity in every aspect of his life.

20. Steve Jobs Adored All His Children

There was more to the Silicon Valley giant than technology. Steve Jobs was an amazing father who loved spending time with his three children, Reed Powell, Erin Sienna, and Eve and his wife. Taking them for horse riding, concerts and shows were one of his favorite pastimes.

.