I think the story he told on the channel (that's back in the day when he did appear on the channel regularly) was that gemology was something he became interested in when he was in his teens - I recall him saying that he was never academic at school, so he looked for something else that would interest him, and became fascinated by gemstones. Glenn Lehrer, I believe, told a similar story, except that he said he was older, just out of university and travelling the world when he became interested in experimenting with cutting gemstones.
Steve's a butterfly - he flits from one thing to another as you've said. All the hype about Sarah being such a wonderful, in-demand designer. A reputation in any field takes years to achieve, it's not a 5-minute wonder, and it isn't achieved by flitting from one enterprise to another and always finding excuses why the grass is greener elsewhere. In my view, he should sort out the mess that Gemporia has become or shut it down.
