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

by Yvon Chouinard

I’ve always thought of myself as an 80 percenter. I like to throw myself passionately into a sport or activity until I reach about an 80 percent proficiency level. To go beyond that requires an obsession and degree of specialization that doesn’t appeal to me. Once I reach that 80 percent level I like to go off and do something totally different; that probably explains the diversity of the Patagonia product line—and why our versatile, multifaceted clothes are the most successful.

The sooner a company tries to be what it is not, the sooner it tries to “have it all,” the sooner it will die. It was time to apply a bit of Zen philosophy to our business.

I wanted to create in Patagonia a model other businesses could look to in their own searches for environmental stewardship and sustainability, just as our pitons and ice axes were models for other equipment manufacturers.

“Make the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”

The first precept of industrial design is that the function of an object should determine its design and materials.

The entrepreneurial way is to immediately take a forward step and if that feels good, take another, if not, step back. Learn by doing, it is a faster process.

Again, like the Zen approach to archery or anything else, you identify the goal and then forget about it and concentrate on the process.

Leaders take risks, have long-term vision, create the strategic plans, and instigate change.

When there is no crisis, the wise leader or CEO will invent one. Not by crying wolf but by challenging the employees with change.