Chetan Bhawani

Update: October 5th, Steve Jobs left the world. Saddest moment right now, but the news is official. May his soul rest in peace.

He is an inspiration, he has a brain that very few have or had. No one could be as brave as him, and no would so innovative. Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc. is always an inspiration for me. Here are 20 things about him which you might have not heard earlier -

A college dropout in 1973, just like many other successful entrepreneurs. Joined a company in 1974, and in 1976 the world heard the name Apple as he founded the company. He left Apple in 1985, and joined NeXt, went to the next level and bought Pixar in 1986. Later he returned back to Apple in 1996, and 10 years later, sold Pixar in 2006. Since then, Apple is making heaps and growing stronger. He has an endless and continuous journey of a curve that never went down.

He is Dyslexic. Guess what, all geniuses have the same disorder, or I call it a feature. Alexander Graham Bell, Albert Einstein, and Henry Ford were all dyslexic too.

Little terror – At his 3rd grade itself, he was so troublesome that he used to let snakes in the classrooms, and exploded bombs in the classroom.

Exposure to computer at the age of 12 – The craze to make and play around with computers started in Steve’s mind since the age of 12, when Larry Land, an engineer at HP showed him his computer. Since then he had an urge to mess around with a computer.

Employee No. 0 – Above the ranking of No. 1, Steve was Employee No. 0 in the company. Steve Woznaik, the co-founder of Apple had got the No. 1, and Jobs was given No. 2. He protested till he got the No. 0 employee status. Crazy eh?

Steve has never liked Dell Inc. He called its computers “un-innovative beige boxes.”

Shabby fella – Steve Jobs while working in Atari, was given Night duty, because he had poor personal hygiene, and never cared about his look and cleanliness. And yeah, he used to smell terrible.

Loved Calligraphy – He got fascinated with fonts while sitting in the calligraphy classes, and then he attributed Macintosh’s beautiful typefaces in that class. This was copied by Windows. Although Steve dropped out of college, he never missed a Calligraphy class.

Fruitarian, Vegetarian – His favorite fruit was Apple, the reason that gave the name to his company. He and his wife are vegetarians, and strictly follow it. They never eat any animal products.

First suit – Bought his first suit at Age of 22. He needed a suit for West Coast Computer Faire in 1977, where he presented Apple II.

Convinced President of PepsiCo to join Apple – By saying something that made John Sculley (then president of PepsiCo) think about it. He said “Do you want to sell sugared water all your life or do you want to change the world?” Now who would not accept something like that?

Image Credit: Tsevis – Charis Tsevis

He has an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor (aka pancreatic cancer). It was treated and removed, but again had spread.

He was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune magazine in 2007. Power, not in accordance to personality, but to brain!

His annual salary from Apple Inc. is $1. Yeah!

Died and reborn? :O – In 2008, Bloomberg published a 2,500-word obituary to Jobs in its corporate news service, and this news spread all over the Internet, where people assumed he was dead. Luckily, he was not. The spaces in the obituary for his age and cause of death were left blank.

Strictly on Uniform – Steve owes over 100 Levi blue jeans which he wears with St Croix black cashmere/silk turtleneck sweatshirt and New Balance Sneakers (Size 14).

136th Richest – According to Forbes, he is 136th richest man in the world in 2010, with a net worth of $5.5 billion.

He is a big fan of Beatles, and says that they were a part of inspiration in his business model.

The company Pixar, which he bought in 1986, for $10 million, went on sale for $7.6 Billion in 2006. 20 years and its net worth became 760 times! It was sold to Walt Disney.

He is a dedicated Buddhist. His marriage was officiated by a Zen Buddhist monk.