Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual

by Yvon Chouinard

To know and not to do is not to know.

By “interesting” I’m referring to the Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times.”

The Dalai Lama says too much choice brings unhappiness.

“a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem,”

An illustrator becomes an artist when he or she can convey the same emotion with fewer brushstrokes.

If you wait for the customer to tell you what to do, you’re too late. My customers didn’t want a model T, they wanted a faster horse.

In many companies, the tail (finance) wags the dog (corporate decisions).

Yet there’s no difference between a pessimist who says, “It’s all over, don’t bother trying to do anything, forget about voting, it won’t make a difference,” and an optimist who says, “Relax, everything is going to turn out fine.” Either way the results are the same. Nothing gets done.

One of the largest pharmacies in the United States, CVS, in 2014 ceased selling tobacco in their stores, thus losing more than a billion dollars in revenue a year. Yes, customers will now go somewhere else to buy their tobacco, but it won’t be from CVS! Bravo! —Y.C.

Do Our Penance If you want to die the richest man, then just stay sharp. Keep investing. Don’t spend anything. Don’t eat any capital. Don’t have a good time. Don’t get to know yourself. Don’t give anything away. Keep it all. Die as rich as you can. But you know what? I heard an expression that puts it well: There’s no pocket on that last shirt. —Susie Tompkins Buell

Duck hunters have done the most to protect waterfowl in North America.

Turn Around and Take a Step Forward

It seems to me if there is an answer, it lies in these words: restraint, quality, and simplicity.