His adoption was nearly blocked. Jobs’s biological mother, Joanne Schieble, initially refused to sign the adoption papers because Paul and Clara Jobs were not college graduates. She relented only after they promised to pay for Steve’s future college education.

He reconciled with his biological mother but not his father. Jobs reunited with Joanne Schieble in the mid-1980s, eventually forgiving her and helping care for her later in life. He refused, however, to meet his biological father, Abdulfattah Jandali, despite unknowingly dining several times at Jandali’s Silicon Valley restaurant.

He had both an adopted sister and a biological sister. Jobs grew up with his adopted sister Patti and later learned he had a biological sister, Mona Simpson, who became a successful novelist and one of his closest confidantes.

He lived in near poverty after becoming a dropout. After dropping out of Reed College, Jobs slept on friends’ floors and walked seven miles every Sunday to receive a single weekly meal at the Hare Krishna temple.

Apple was named during a fruitarian phase. Jobs chose the name “Apple” while following a fruit-based diet and seeking a friendly, non-intimidating company name.

Apple’s first employee was his sister. Jobs’s younger sister Patti was technically Apple’s first part-time employee, paid one dollar per board to insert chips into Apple I circuit boards in the family garage.

He exploited a license-plate loophole. Jobs famously drove a silver Mercedes without license plates by leasing a new identical car every six months, taking advantage of California’s grace period for registration.

He demanded beauty in invisible details. Inspired by his adoptive father’s insistence that unseen work should still be well done, Jobs required Apple engineers to make internal circuit boards visually elegant, even though users would never see them.

Perfection delayed furnishing his home. Jobs lived for years in a nearly empty mansion, refusing to buy furniture until he found pieces that met his exacting design standards.

Pixar nearly failed before succeeding. Long before becoming a cultural powerhouse, Pixar struggled financially, with Jobs personally funding the company while refining its long-term vision.

He distrusted market research. Jobs believed customers often did not know what they wanted until they saw it, relying instead on intuition and tight end-to-end control.

PowerPoint was discouraged at Apple. Jobs banned formal slide presentations in many internal meetings, insisting that clear thinking mattered more than polished visuals.

He dated a folk music icon. In the early 1980s, Jobs had a high-profile relationship with Joan Baez, a bond reportedly deepened by his admiration for her former partner, Bob Dylan.

The aquarium proved the iPod could shrink. When engineers claimed the original iPod could not be made smaller, Jobs dropped it into an aquarium. Rising air bubbles revealed unused space, and he ordered the design reduced in size.

His keynotes were meticulously rehearsed. Jobs treated product launches as theatrical events, rehearsing extensively to achieve the illusion of effortless spontaneity.

He rejected dynastic wealth. Jobs chose not to leave a large inheritance to his children, a philosophy later echoed by his widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, who has argued that massive legacy wealth can be socially harmful.

His children followed diverse paths. All of Jobs’s children pursued careers outside Apple: Lisa became an author and journalist, Reed founded a cancer-research venture firm, Erin worked in architectural design, and Eve became an elite equestrian and fashion model.

The family legacy is managed quietly. Laurene Powell Jobs oversees the family’s philanthropic and investment efforts through the Emerson Collective, which blends venture investing with discreet social impact work.