5 Surprising Facts from 'Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine'

By Graham Winfrey Graham Winfrey is a staff writer for Inc.com. He previously covered alternative investments at Private Equity International magazine, prior to which he worked at Business Insider and MSNBC.com. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. @ GrahamWinfrey Staff writer, Inc. @ GrahamWinfrey

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How well do you know the life and career of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs?

Alex Gibney's new documentary Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine, released Friday, shines a light on some of the little-known facts about Jobs. Even if you're a die-hard Jobs fan, you may not have come across some of the anecdotes about his life Gibney uncovers.

Here are five surprising five facts about Jobs from the new documentary.

1. Jobs was obsessed with Bob Dylan.

Gibney even put five Dylan songs on the documentary's soundtrack to help convey Jobs's infatuation with Dylan's music. Jobs's interest in Dylan is also part of the reason Apple included the singer in commercials and billboard advertisements as part of its "Think different" campaign. 

2. Jobs cheated Steve Wozniak out of money.

 When Jobs and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak sold the video game Pong to Atari, Jobs told Wozniak they were paid $700, and gave Wozniak $350 for his half. The actual pay was $7,000. Jobs kept $6,650 for himself. 

3. Jobs considered becoming a monk.

 When he was 18, Jobs visited a Buddhist monk claiming he was enlightened. The monk asked Jobs to prove his enlightenment, and Jobs returned with a computer chip he had made. The monk was unconvinced, but did mentor Jobs for several years afterward.

4. Jobs made more money from Pixar than Apple.

 After buying Pixar for $5 million in 1986, Jobs became the company's largest shareholder and CEO. He eventually sold the company to Disney for $7.4 billion in 2006. Gibney says Jobs was likely a better manager at Pixar than he was at Apple because he left his creative colleagues alone, rather than micro-managing them.

5. Jobs misled people about his cancer.

In Jobs's famous commencement speech at Stanford University, he mentioned that he underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer after doctors discovered his cancer was treatable. In reality, Jobs refused surgery at first, opting instead to try alternative medicine, only to change his mind nine months later.