Most of the stories seem to suggest his brilliance or effectiveness came entirely from within, but I'm interested to know who guided Steve when he had questions.
The closest he had to a business mentor was probably Mike Markkula who was Apple's angel investor (he also was CEO for a few years).<p>Not strictly mentors, but two of his biggest influences were Paul Rand (who designed the logos for IBM and NeXT) for graphic design and Dieter Rams (who started the Functionalist School of industrial design) for product design.
Perhaps Bill Hewlett when Steve was a kid? He cold called him up when he was 12.<p><a href="http://www.hp.com/retiree/history/founders/hewlett/quotes.html#generosity" rel="nofollow">http://www.hp.com/retiree/history/founders/hewlett/quotes.ht...</a><p>I wonder if Bill mentored Steve later when Steve was at Apple?
During his trip to India, Jobs met with Neem Karoli Baba and eventually became Buddhist. He also experimented with LSD. I imagine these experiences, as he specifically states, had a large impact on his life.