Apple visionary Steve Jobs liked to soak his feet in the toilet to destress

Steve Jobs, the visionary behind Apple, liked soaking his feet in toilet water to decompress.

Steve Jobs is remembered as the visionary behind Apple, a pioneer of the personal computer revolution, and the man who would change the way the world interacts with technology. Some of his earlier employees, however, may also remember him as the eccentric founder who refused to wear deodorant and soaked his feet in the toilet.

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, died in 2011.

In one of the more bizarre anecdotes surrounding the tech icon, his authorized biography by Walter Isaacson reveals that he occasionally soaked his feet in toilet water as a way to decompress — a habit that reportedly unsettled many of his colleagues.

Steve Jobs’ way to destress

In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple in Jobs’s room. The company later moved to his garage and, still later, found a proper headquarters.

According to the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Jobs was known as “temperamental and bratty” by the time Apple moved out of his garage and into a rented office on Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino.

While he was harsh in his judgments and sharp in criticism, his personal hygiene habits also did little to endear him to his colleagues.

According to the biography, Steve Jobs — who followed a vegan diet — believed that it rendered him immune to body odour. Mike Markkula, the original angel investor in Apple, said: “We would have to literally put him out the door and tell him to go take a shower… At meetings, we had to look at his dirty feet.”

The tidbit about Jobs’ feet, in fact, has become the stuff of legends. According to Isaacson’s biography, Jobs liked to soak his feet in the toilet.

“Sometimes, to relieve stress, he would soak his feet in the toilet, a practice that was not as soothing for his colleagues,” Isaacson revealed.