11 Things You Didn’t Know About Steve Jobs

by Tim on June 1st 2009

What makes a great entrepreneur tick? What drives them to go the extra mile to success? These lesser known facts about Steve Jobs might just give you a clue.

10 Things You Didnt Know About Steve Jobs

Fact #1 Steve Jobs has Syrian roots.
After his birth in San Francisco to an American woman and a Syrian man he was given up for Adoption.

Fact #2 Atari and HP Turned Jobs Down.
Atari and Hewlett-Packard both turned down start-up funding requests from Jobs in the day:

So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’

Fact #3
Jobs likes Gates


Creative Commons License photo credit: Seattlepi

When interviewed live with Bill Gates Steve Jobs made friendly comments on their relationship referencing their long term “marriage”.

Fact #4
Jobs was a fruitarian


Creative Commons License photo credit: Dreamstime

The name Apple was chosen because Apples were Steves favourite food at the time.

Fact #5
He’s not dead Bloomberg

Bloomberg mistakenly published his 17 page obituary (29-08-2008 ) briefly before the mistake was rectified.

Fact #6
He’s an ex Hippie

In his informative years Jobs travelled to India. Barefoot and threadbare he spent some months on the hippie trail in India, ’60s style.

Fact #7
Jobs paid $10m for Pixar


Creative Commons License photo credit: Pixar

Mr Jobs purchased the computer division of Lucasfilm (of Starwars fame) in 1986 for $10 million and incorporated it independently as Pixar. Later Disney bought Pixar for $7.5 billion.

Fact #8
His catchphrases are…


Creative Commons License photo credit: Photobucket

He favorite catch phrases are: “Un-be-lievable”; “Mere mortals”; “It’s huge” & “Wouldn’t it be great”. He tells the story and sells the dream, this character trait is common amongst successful entrepreneurs.

Fact #9
He’s got huge feet

Steve has big feet, size 14 big. Perhaps he went barefoot in India because he couldn’t find any oversize shoes!

Fact #10
$1: Steves annual salary

As the Chairman and CEO of Apple Computers, he pays himself an annual salary of $1 per year.

Fact #11
Lazy parking habits


photo credit: Cultofmac

Some people are obsessional about catching Steve parking in Handicap spaces. Steve, you may have changed the world with your computers but you still can’t illegally park!

  1. [...] He’s part Syrian? He wanted to work at Atari? What the hell? And that’s only the first two. [...]

  2. bryan ribas says:

    good read. I didn’t know 4.

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  4. he’s also obsessed with Indian ashrams and spirituality.

  5. Patrick says:

    Parking illegally seems to indicate what I have seen with some of the strong-headed entrepreneurs I know. They have a belief that normal rules do not apply to them and a limited ability to see the world from other people’s perspective.

    I suspect it’s easier to focus with that mindset.

  6. Ron says:

    Another interesting item: he was involved in primal therapy during his college days in Oregon, a time he refers to as being “in the orchard.”

  7. Really interesting facts about Jobs.
    I hope he’s coming back soon with another revolutionary product

  8. Rizzo says:

    We need iPhone 3!

  9. Johnny 5 says:

    Hes a good guy but did he invest in the
    Electronic Cigarette …. dont think so

  10. phil says:

    Yes, he gets $1 to make him a legal employee but he does it to avoid
    income taxes, SS tax and medicare tax. He is PAID in Apple Stock.
    He sells it soon afterward and pays only a 15% capital gains tax.
    So, he avoids all those taxes and pays only fifteen cents on a dollar.
    So he pays a smaller percentage of his income than the receptionist
    at Apple in Cupertino.
    Also, he does not have to pay any taxes until April 15 of the year,
    just once a year.
    Many execs in the US avoid taxes this way including mogul Barry Diller
    et al.

  11. Rob says:

    To be fair, that’s the farthest handicap spot from the entrance.

    Looking at those pictures I had a pretty good idea of where that is in Apple’s lot. As luck would have it, I checked Street View on Google Maps and he’s parked exactly where I thought:

    http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&q=1+infinite+loop+cupertino+ca&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&split=0&gl=us&ei=2R4kSoXUJ5CUMraWwK8J&ll=37.331704,-122.031081&spn=0.001027,0.001042&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=37.331707,-122.030976&panoid=DK2OhX5fFZKGoZptFhMZDA&cbp=12,209.55,,1,-1.72

  12. Love it! He also doesn’t carry around an iPhone, he just uses one online like http://interactivephone.com through his neural connection. Nah, I just made that up, but I am sure he has something much better than a normal iPhone that he carries around.

  13. I actually knew all those things except the one about the size 14 feet. Anyone who watched the movie “Silicon Pirates” probably knows most of this stuff, but it is still a good list.

  14. a says:

    And he gives as much to charity as a person who makes $1 a year. How about matching your buddy Bill in the charity department. Tightwad!

  15. D says:

    How do you know he doesn’t give to charity? just because he doesn’t make it publicized doesn’t mean he doesn’t give anything to charity.

    Also Bill Gates makes 4 times as much as steve jobs.

  16. Doug Aghassi says:

    I heard that his Syrian last name is really “Jafari.”

    (Not Joking).

  17. Todd Lohenry says:

    Ummm. According to “The Second Coming of Steve Jobs” Jobs was born in Green Bay, WI.

  18. Matthew says:

    WOW!

    Awesome facts!

  19. Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Steve Jobs…

    What makes a great entrepreneur tick? What makes them to go the extra mile? These lesser known facts about Steve Jobs might give you a clue….

  20. Don says:

    Somewhere, I don’t remember where, I read that large feet are a sign of intelligence. The larger the foot, the greater the intelligence! If this is true, then it’s quite apparent, that Steve is very, very intelligent indeed!

  21. buddha hands says:

    I want iPhone 8 or something. we’re lagging behind in tech! : ‘(

  22. Wonderful read. I know for a fact that lots of people would be wondering how Steve Jobs manages with a meagre salary of $1. Well, it’s only now that he takes a salary of $1. He’s gathered enough through the years to survive on that :-)

  23. He didn’t create App Giveaway but he created the App Store to where you can redeem the codes :-)

  24. Even though i knew most of the things being a Steve Jobs fan, it still makes a nice read.

  25. More things you need to know:

    Steve Jobs is still in a Job, that doesnt pay him much $1 as chairman of Apple, would you do his job for a $1???

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  28. Priyanka D says:

    Wow quite an inspiring article, one has to stick on to make it big sometimes!

  29. divaba says:

    Didn’t know most of this information.

  30. Kiran says:

    One thing that fascinated me was from his commencement speech. He walked few miles for free food at Hare Rama temple. He started off as a simple man and now he is one of the most sought after CEOs in the world! Great job Jobs!

  31. Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!

  32. Tom says:

    About Fact #4: May be right, but I herad him say, he wanted be in phonebooks in front of the other coputer company, atari was in the alphabtic order on first place….

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  34. Wow! I didn’t know all that! And somehow, i still don’t feel enlightened…

  35. Nancy Sharp says:

    Steve Jobs is the man and im a big fan. He is very smart.
    Increase Metabolism

  36. Doug Aghassi says:

    …Not Jafari, even though it rhymes with Safari…

    JANDALI, was Steve’s real last name!

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