Steve Jobs Facts

Steve Jobs was half Arab.

Steve Jobs' annual salary was $1, just enough to keep company health benefits.

Two of Apple's three founders worked at Atari before starting Apple. Steve Jobs was a technician there, and Steve Wozniak helped design the circuitry for Breakout as a contractor.

Steve Jobs' secretary — a single mom — told him she was late because her car wouldn't start. That afternoon, he walked into her office and tossed her the keys to a brand new Jaguar. "Here, don't be late anymore." The car cost $35,000 in 1981 — about $123,000 today.

Steve Jobs never wrote a single line of programming code.

Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne sold his 10% share in 1976 for $800. Today, that stake would be worth over $300 billion.

Steve Jobs' biological father, Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, managed a popular Mediterranean restaurant near San Jose. Jobs ate there a couple of times without knowing the owner was his father. Jandali didn't know either. Years later, when Jobs' biological sister Mona Simpson tracked Jandali down, he casually boasted: "Even Steve Jobs used to eat there. He was a great tipper." That's how Jobs found out.

Some tech CEOs intentionally use the same outfit every day—like Steve Jobs’ black turtleneck—not out of laziness, but to minimize decision fatigue and boost creativity.

Steve Jobs had to follow an exact sequence of taps during the first iPhone demo in 2007 — one wrong move and it would crash on live TV. Apple engineers called it the "golden path." They had backup phones ready backstage to swap in if he slipped. The most important product launch in tech history was held together with duct tape.