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A Young Steve Jobs Smelled So Badly He Had To Be Put On The Night Shift At Atari

Aug 22, 2014, 22:50 IST

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Everyone knows Steve Jobs as the genius who made Apple a tech goliath.

But Jobs wasn't born as Apple's CEO. After he dropped out of Reed College, Jobs started working at Atari as a technician.

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In a Reddit AMA, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell explained why he put Jobs on the night shift.

"Did Steve Jobs really stink that bad that he had to be relegated to work the night shift," asked one Reddit user.

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Bushnell didn't directly address Jobs' hygiene (or lack thereof), instead offering this neat insight into why he had Jobs work nights:

"Yeah. I knew that Jobs and Woz were fast friends and Woz worked days at HP. If I put Jobs on the night shift, I'd get two Steves for the price of one. A very good business proposition," he said.

Bushnell is talking about Steve Wozniak, Jobs' close friend and Apple cofounder.

Bushnell could have been an Apple cofounder himself, but turned down the opportunity. This obviously came up in the AMA.

One user asked, "Are you sad that you turned down 1/3 ownership of Apple?"

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"As for turning down 1/3 of Apple for 50,000 dollars, what do you think? I regret it," said Bushnell, adding a frown emoji.

That stake would be worth untold billions today.

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