What is there to say about the legendary, and dearly departed, Steve Jobs? He’s the face of modern technology, the man behind making consumer products for the masses. Still, Jobs is so much more than what we know about him on the surface. We pulled together 12 incredible, amazing, and enlightening facts about the departed tech genius for your consumption. Keep on reading, there won’t be another like him.
Steve Jobs was adopted!
Whether or not we mean to, we tend to judge people in the adoption system. Steve Jobs was adopted as a child and his biological parents had only one request: his adoptive parents must be college graduates. Still, Jobs was adopted by Clara and Paul who both never graduated. Steve would go on to famously drop out of college in order to start his company alongside Steve Wozniak. We’d say that all of the holiday gift baskets in the world can’t compare to that monumental decision.
Steve Jobs was adopted
Steve dropped out of college, but never quit learning.
Even though Steve dropped out of college he never left education behind. Despite leaving college in an official capacity, Jobs continued to audit classes in order to keep up to date. During this period Jobs had to work hard, rely on friends, and even scrounge for garbage to exchange for money in order to simply eat. It was pretty clear from the start that Jobs wasn’t the kind of guy to just give up and let life pass him by.
Steve dropped out of college but never quit learning
Steve chose the ‘Apple’ name for a powerful reason.
While Mr. Jobs eventually found Buddhism and his own form of inner peace, he never really left behind the concept of those that passed him by. Steve had worked at Atari before starting Apple and the reason that he chose the name ‘Apple’ was simple: it cam before ‘Atari’ in the phone book. You could tell from the beginning that Steve was not interested in coming in second. We wouldn’t be surprised if Steve had sent a few chocolate gift baskets to the men and women at Atari as a thank you for letting him go.
Steve chose the Apple name for a powerful reason
The Jobs empire has continued to grow.
Even though Steve tragically passed away only a few short years ago, his work has continued to grow alongside of his empire. Since Jobs passed away back in 2011 due to pancreatic cancer he has been awared over 140 new patents to his name. Talk about setting yourself up for the future!
The Jobs empire has continued to grow
Steve only had $1 salary as Apple’s lead exec.
Being the top executive and one of the founders of Apple required Steve to be so much more than a leader behind the scenes. In order to set an example and to put his company first, Steve decided to take on a single $1 salary every year, starting back in 1997. While Jobs’ famously started the ‘$1 salary club’ he was far from the only one to do it as both Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg followed suit later on.
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Jobs was fearless in his innovation.
We all know that Jobs helped to revolutionize how we look at our technology but how did he get to that point? You don’t craft a great weight loss diet by starting at the end and Jobs mirrored that thought when it came to the original iPod. Apparently when the first iteration of the iPod was created, Jobs immediately dropped it into a nearby aquarium. The ensuing air bubbles proved that the device could be made smaller and this is what inspired Jobs to make it smaller.
Jobs was fearless in his innovation
Jobs made, and committed to, interesting life choices.
Most people don’t realize that Steve was quite the interesting person behind the scenes. Jobs was much more than just the turtleneck and jeans wearing man that he presented to the world. Jobs was a devoted pescetarian, meaning he didn’t eat meat outside of fish, and he was a Buddhist as well. Jobs’ commitment to his Buddhism may have led him to alternative medicines and that may have helped to lead to his early passing. In fact, Ashton Kutcher, who would play Steve in a film (Jobs), ended up trying to emulate Jobs’ fruit based diet though he would end up hospitalized with pancreatic problems.
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Steve was responsible for major technological innovations.
If you are on a laptop right now then you’re probably using a trackpad in order to navigate your browser. Just remember: without Steve’s work at Apple you probably wouldn’t have that convenient and easy to use piece of technology at your fingertips. Not only was Jobs the mind behind the iPod and Mac computer, he was also the guy behind the incredible animation company, Pixar. Jobs purchased the company from George Lucas, changing the name and rebranding it as a film studio for animation. The company would go on to rack up 26 different Academy Awards before being sold to Disney for over $7 billion. Jobs was a true visionary and he saw things in companies that would come true at later dates. Steve was integral in many advancements in modern computing technology but some of them stand tall above others.
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Mr. Jobs famously rewarded a tardy secretary.
There are always going to be conflicting reports about famous people but Steve was incredibly kind to those whom he appreciated — and that extended further than just offering low cost health insurance to his employees. One day one of his trusted secretaries was late to work due to car issues. Later on that same afternoon he gave the woman a new jaguar automobile only saying, “here, don’t be late anymore.” To further point out how kind Jobs was to his hard working employees: Jobs gave every Apple employee an iPhone when it was first released.
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The ‘Steve Jobs’ biography is one of the most highly purchase ebooks ever.
The Kindle is one of the premier reading devices available on the market today and it is a great barometer for what people are reading. The most downloaded books on the Kindle at the time of this writing are as follows, and in order: The Bible, Steve Jobs’ Biography and the Hunger Games series. This is a clear indicator that Jobs will continue to live on even though he has passed away. Jobs’ left behind an incredibly deep and complex legacy and it makes for absolutely incredible reading.
The-Steve-Jobs-biography-is-one-of-the-most-highly-purchase-ebooks-ever
Jobs was integral in helping ‘Google’ to become a reality.
Though Jobs, nor his people, would ever claim to be part of Google’s team, he was definitely integral in its eventual creation. Jobs served as a mentor to Google’s two founders: Sergey Brin & Larry Page. Jobs would do more than just share a few thoughts as he would even lend his own supervising team to the company. Google has gone on to become one of the biggest, most important tech companies on the entire planet and they can honestly thank Jobs for some of that success. Jobs even famously called up the Google team to tell them that the yellow in their second ‘O’ was not shaded correctly. The team leapt to change it.
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When Jobs passed away Disney, Apple, and Microsoft paid respects.
Jobs struggled with his pancreatic cancer under the public spotlight though he didn’t need to, possessing some of the best individual health insurance that money could buy. Still, as Jobs started to lose his health for good, and was summarily bedridden, he received a supposedly powerful letter from his formerly bitter rival — Bill Gates. When Jobs ended up passing away the flags at all Disney, Microsoft and Apple properties were flown at half staff. Despite some public controversy throughout his life, Jobs still commanded the respect of the biggest and most powerful people on the planet.
When Jobs passed away Disney Apple and Microsoft paid respects
