10 Things You Never Knew About Steve Jobs

By now, most of you have heard of the late Steve Jobs, Apple Inc’s former CEO and one of the major innovators of our time. Turns out, Jobs was quite the interesting man – even apart from being a technological genius and self-made billionaire (because who cares about things like money and fame, anyway?). Here are 10 things you never knew about Steve Jobs:

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1. Not only did he drop out of college – he studied calligraphy. Jobs graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California and went on to study at Reed College – where he lasted only a semester (though he did continue to audit a few courses). Not only that, but during his time at Reed, he studied calligraphy. Yeah, Steve Jobs’ major of choice was fancy letter-writing.
2. He dated Joan Baez. Yes, she of the hippie public activism, spectacularly beautiful voice, and notorious romantic entanglements (most notably with Bob Dylan). Apparently, friends of Jobs believed that he only became involved with Baez because she had been involved with Dylan (which is actually probably reason enough).
3. The man really, really liked his LSD. After Jobs dropped acid for the first time, he was quoted as saying that it was “one or two of the most important things he has done in his life.”
4. He was born to an Arab father, but was adopted. Jobs was born in San Francisco to Abdulfattah Jandali, who was from Syria, and Joanne Carole Schieble, an American. He was put up for adoption after Schieble’s father announced his opposition to the marriage between his daughter and Jandali. He was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs.
5. He went to India to seek spiritual enlightenment. During the summer of 1974, Jobs traveled to India with a friend in order to meet Neem Karoli Baba, a noted Hindu guru (though they found out Baba had died). Reportedly, Jobs came back to America with a shaved head and a Buddhist outlook on life.
6. He took home a $1 yearly salary. Despite the fact that the value of his shares skyrocketed to $1.84 billion in 2010, it was reported that he was content to take home a mere $1 a year.
7. He chose the Apple name because he’s a big Beatles fan. Apparently, Jobs loved the iconic British band so much that he decided to name his company after their record label, Apple Records.
8. He used to be poor and homeless. That’s right; once upon a time, billionaire Steve Jobs didn’t have his own place to lay his head at night. During his time at Reed College, Jobs slept on friends’ floors and returned Coke bottles for a 5-cent deposit in order to buy food.
9. He single-handedly saved Pixar. In 1986, Jobs bought the failing company from George Lucas, for $10 million. His first order of business? To produce the critically-acclaimed (and much-loved) Toy Story. Oh, and in 2006, Disney bought Pixar for $8.6 billion. No big deal.
10. He was offered a Hewlett-Packard internship. In 8th grade. After discovering that a part was missing from a frequency counter he was putting together, he decided to call up William Hewlett. Hewlett talked to Jobs for a bit…then promptly offered him a summer job.

This is a post by NewYork101, the definitive guide to Moving to New York.