Why didn’t Steve Jobs Have a License Plate?

When we look at some of the most successful people in the world, they might almost seem like a sort of foreign being to regular folks. Normal people, if you will, seem to have this ingrained way of thinking sometimes. It can be easy to fall into the traps of society. Before we know it, life can get rather mundane.

With people like Steve Jobs, a different way of thinking seems to be what propelled him to the top. Some might see this as a little bit strange. However, for the person with the ideas, it’s just their way of succeeding. There were lots of idiosyncrasies that set Job apart from the norm. One of those ideas might just so happen to be the fact that he drove around without a license plate on his vehicle.

In addition to other ways of living that were off of the beaten path, this is one aspect that some people simply couldn’t figure out when it came to Jobs. In fact, it became such a big deal that much speculation surrounded why he would travel around with no plates.

Some argued that it was a means of creating his own privacy. Others said that maybe it was because he didn’t like the aesthetic of the car with a license plate. After all, he basically built a career off of making things more aesthetically pleasing.

The reality of the matter turns out to be a nuance in California law that Jobs took advantage of. Why he didn’t want to run a license plate, we can’t be sure. However, the law in California used to say that a new car didn’t need plates on it for the first six months of ownership. After then, new license plates would be fastened to the vehicle and things would continue on as normal.

Today, that wouldn’t fly as temporary tags are assigned as soon as the vehicle is purchased. Back then, though, Jobs took full advantage of this idea, simply getting a new car every six months.

Another strange part of this whole situation that we can talk about is the fact that he bought basically the same car every time. That’s a discussion for another time, though.