Born on Feb 24, 1995, Steven Paul, popular as Steve Jobs, is an American Entrepreneur, Inventor, and Marketer. He was the founder, Chairman and later CEO of Apple Inc.
Through his work at Apple Inc, Jobs is widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer to the computer technology of the 21st century.
But is this all there is to know about this famous genius? No! Here is a list of top 10 interesting things you didn’t know about Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs Denied Paternity On His First Child
Steve Jobs claimed that he was sterile and that he couldn’t bear kids. His first child was, therefore, raised by a single parent who managed to get through with welfare checks. I can’t judge Jobs on this because raising kids is a demanding task where your energy and creativity is directed into parenting.
Steve Jobs’ parents might have felt the same way. However, he later grew up and was a great father, and even Apple III-The Lisa computer was named after his first child.
Steve Jobs Didn’t Go To College
I am among the few who can’t believe this. Though Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, Facebook and Microsoft CEOs respectively, were both college dropouts, Steve Jobs is known for only attending a single semester at Reed College.
You can, therefore, wonder how he came up with his unique inventions. And there is only one conclusion. You probably don’t require a college degree to build a business empire, be a computer whiz, an actor and a successful manager.
Steve Jobs Was A Zen Buddhist
You would think Steve Jobs was a Christian. No, he wasn’t. Instead, he was a Zen Buddhist and at one time he even thought of joining a monastery and dedicating his life to Zen Buddhism as a monk. His mentor was also a Zen monk.
According to Jobs, Zen Buddhism enabled him to have peace of mind and relieve pain that he underwent at times. Buddhists are not attached to material wealth.
You may then wonder how Steve Jobs’ interests, profession and family life conflicted with this religion. But to Buddhists, it’s normal to be successful in life and pursue anything that brings you happiness.
The only catch is that you should not be attached too much to such things. You can still be happy despite your position in life.
There is an inspiring story about a Zen Master and his student who were walking along the river when they came across a prostitute who needed help to cross the river.
The Zen Master carried her across the river and left her there. Later, while walking with his student, the agitated disciple asked how his Master could touch a prostitute. In reply, the Master asked the student why he still thought of her while he had already forgotten about her.
Steve Jobs Lied To Steve Wozniak
Steve Jobs and Wozniak were both involved in making breakout, for Atari, and they agreed to share gains equally. However, from the $5000 Atari gave Jobs, he only gave Wozniak $350 claiming that Atari only gave him $700. Well, he was young then, and young people frequently make mistakes.
Besides, it is difficult to find a completely honest person who has not lied in his life. It is only through such mistakes and lies that one can truly find his purpose in life and know boundaries lie.
Steve Jobs Doesn’t Give Any Money To Charity
While he was the CEO of Apple, Jobs stopped all charity programs within the firm stating that they had to concentrate on earning profits first. And when they did get profits of up to $40billion they still didn’t donate to philanthropic causes.
Despite this, I think Jobs was charitable enough to put all his energy into developing technology that could improve people’s lives. Besides, Bill Gates was already combating malaria in Africa.
Though many people think that entrepreneurs should always give back to the society, this is always not true. As contributors, they have already changed people lives within their organizations.
An example can be given of iPhone, ipod, Mac or Disney ecosystem, and those who have benefited directly or indirectly from such initiatives. In his life, Steve also didn’t give his thoughts about charity.
Steve Jobs Was A Pescetarian
This means that he only ate fish and any other thing a vegetarian eats like eggs and dairy products. Meat was not part of his diet. He, therefore, had less chance of dying from heart disease by 34% compared to meat-eaters. Besides, vegetarians also have less chance of dying from heart-related diseases by 20% compared to meat-eaters.
Therefore, like Steve Jobs, I can become a pescetarian except if I move to Argentina where you have to eat steak. Some think that pescetarians only come from California because even Mary Tyler Moore and Ted Danson are pescetarians.
Psychedelics
Of all the important things he did in his life, Steve Jobs used LSD while he was young. This was among the top 3 achievements he always cherished in his life. In fact, use of LSD had great influence in Apple’s motto “Think Different.”
It contributed a lot to his way of thinking, and looking at problems from a unique perspective. You can rightly argue that combined with him being a genius, his past experiences and problems, and him being a Zen Buddhism, use of LSD impacted more on his subsequent inventions.
Steve Jobs Made The Game “Breakout”
Of all games I have played on Apple II+; Breakout was my favorite 1st generation Atari game. Even now every version of my Blackberry Smartphone has the game. And even without his other inventions, I would still have lauded him had I met him if I had learnt that he was the brains behind Breakout.
And things usually turn out well because Steve Jobs went on to form Apple while founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell later formed Chuck E. Cheese, the greatest restaurant chain ever.
Steve Jobs’ Father’s Name Was Abdulfattah Jandali
I would not have guessed that Jobs’ father was a Syrian Muslim. Coming from a Jewish background, I also probably expected him to be a Jew too. I didn’t know that he was put up for adoption by his parents-two students who were graduates but could not afford to raise him.
His parents later had another child. While putting him for adoption, his parents also demanded that the couple adopting Steve Jobs should both be college-educated. However, the first couple that adopted him lied, and the mom was not even a high school graduate.
Steve Jobs’ parents nearly withdrew from the agreement but only settled for it when the couple promised to send Jobs to college, a promise they didn’t fulfill. So Jobs’ life was surrounded with high expectations and myriads of lies and promises but still he succeeded in the end.
Nature Versus Nurture
Mona Simpson was Steve Jobs’ sister a fact that he wasn’t aware of until he was an adult. She was among one of my favorite novelists from the late 1980s.
Anywhere,’ here her first novel talked about her relationship with her parents-Steve Jobs parents. Steve was adopted and therefore he and Mona didn’t know that they were siblings until he tracked her down later in the 90s.
This is proof enough of nature versus nurture theory where two siblings unknown to each other, are such great artists with unique abilities in completely different fields. It’s great that I was a fan of both without knowing that they were siblings.
Well, these are the top 10 unusual things you did not know about Steve Jobs. Which one do you find most strange? Are there more queer facts about Jobs you would like the universe to know? Feel free to put your comments in the box below and let the world hear you opinion. You are also welcome to tweet or share this post via social media.