Steve Jobs, Former Apple CEO died today and while you know him as the guy to thank for why you have an iPhone, here's 10 things to know about Steve Jobs, some of which might even surprise you.
1) College drop-out: Like Mark Zuckerberg who dropped out of Harvard to create facebook, Steve Jobs had better things to do than go to school. He attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but dropped out after 6 months. A year later he co-founded Apple.
2) He liked LSD: After he dropped out of college, he traveled to India, became a Buddhist, and experimented with the psychedelic drug LSD. Jobs describes his LSD experience as "one of the two or three most important things he has done in his life." continue..
3) He was adopted: Steve Jobs' biological mother gave him up for adoption one week after giving birth. She was unmarried and was also in graduate school. Jobs was then adopted by and Armenian husband and wife, Paul and Clara Hagopian. In the 90's he decided to track down his long lost sister whom he finally met when he was 27. Not surprisingly his sister, Mona Simpson is a successful author and UCLA professor, I guess brilliance runs in the family.
4) He's a Buddhist: He was such a hardcore Zen Buddhist that he almost thought about joining a monastery and becoming a monk. Everyone with an iPhone, Macbook or iTunes account is thanking him for not going down that route. He was married in a Buddhist tradition by a Zen monk who was his own personal guru.
4) He co-founded Pixar: Jobs was so successful with Apple that a lot of people don't know that in 1986 Steve Jobs purchased the animation studio, Pixar, for $5 million and gave the company an additional $5 million to experiment with animation. Jobs was also one of the people responsible for the sale of Pixar to Disney nearly 20 years later.
5) He loves women: Before Jobs married his wife Laurene Powell in 1991, he dated Hollywood starlets (at the time) like Dianne Keaton and Joan Baez. He also fathered a child with a woman named Chrisann Brennan but denied paternity, claiming he was sterile. He later acknowledged paternity.
6) He gives graduation speeches: Even though he dropped out of college, he was invited to give the commencement speech at Standford for the graduating class of 2005. His speech was one of the most inspirational addresses in recent history urging students to go into a life of work doing something that you love, just like he did.
7) He was fired from Apple: He created Apple at the age of 20 out of his parents garage with his friend Steve Wozniak. After 10 years growing the company and right as he turned 30, he had a falling out with Wozniak and the board of directors sided with Wozniak and Jobs was fired. However, he said it was the best thing that ever happened to him. "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again," he once said.
8) He made Apple famous: After 10 years away from Apple he returned in 1996, a company that struggled through most of the late 80's and 90's. Remember those chunky Mac computers of the 90's? Me neither. That was the period when Steve Jobs wasn't doing his magic over at Apple. A few years later in 2001 he developed the iPod and never looked back.
9) He doesn't eat meat: He's actually a Pescetarian, which means he eats fish but no other meat. He will eat eggs and dairy and anything else a vegetarian would eat.
10) He's super rich: Steve Jobs estimated net worth is $8.3 Billion. He was number #39 on Forbes list of the Richest People in America in 2011.
