Book: Let my people go surfing, The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, Yvon Chouinard

An absolutely marvelous read of how being an environmentally responsible business is absolutely possible; it takes corporate social responsibility to the next level. The book follows the start, growth and philosophy of outdoor wear company, Patagonia, and illustrates how business could, and in fact, should be done to put the environment first. 

It’s fascinating how Yvon Chouinard, a reluctant businessman has taken Patagonia from strength to strength finding solutions with the least environmental impact. One percent of all of their sales, regardless of whether they make a profit or not, gets allocated to environmental activism programs.

Love this very apt quote about being an entrepreneur:

'If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent.

This one also really resonated: ”you can’t wait until you have all the answers before you act”.

One of the key things that I have learnt about reputation management, is the importance of having clearly defined values that need to be top of mind (it does not help having beautiful posters around the office with random values written on them, but no one knows what the company's values are). I was thrilled when I read Yvon Chouinard's take on it too:

Living the values and knowing the philosophy of each part of the company aligns us all in a common direction, promotes efficiency, and avoids the chaos that comes from poor communication.

Synchronicity fascinates me. They say a book crosses your path when you are ready for it. There was a key message in it for me, just when I needed to hear it.

Not so long ago, as I was ready to go out, my neighbour said to me that my jacket looked like I had bought it from the local charity shop. He was 100% correct; finding treasures at charity shops is one of my favourite hobbies. But, being told that I looked like I shop at a charity shop is not exactly the greatest compliment or look that I was going for.

Not long after this incident, Yvon Chouinard’s words comforted me, “Buying used clothing and wearing it as long as possible is the most responsible thing you can do.” 

Yvon Chouinard’s comparison of climbing mountains with business and life is also fascinating. “Many people don’t understand that how you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top. You can solo climb Everest put ladders across crevasses, lay in six thousand feet of fixed ropes, and have one Sherpa pulling and one pushing you. You just dial in ’10,000 fee’ on your oxygen bottle and up you go.

Typical high-powered, rich plastic surgeons and CEOs who attempt to climb Everest this way are so fixated on the target, the summit, that they compromise on the process. The goal of climbing big, dangerous mountains should be to attain some sort of spiritual and personal growth, but this won’t happen if you compromise away the entire process.

I also found his take on crisis very interesting:

Just as doing risk sports will create stresses that lead to a bettering of oneself, so should a company constantly stress itself in order to grow. Our company has always done its best work whenever we’ve had a crisis. I’ve never been so proud of our employees as in 1994, when the entire company was mobilized to change over from using traditional cotton to organic grown by 1996. It was a crisis that led to writing down our philosophies. When there is no crisis, the wise leader or CEO will invent one. Not by crying wolf but by challenging the employees with change.

You might think that a nomadic society packs up and moves when things get bad. However, a wise leader knows that you also move when everything is going too well; everyone is laid-back, lazy and happy. If you don’t move now, then you may not be able to move when the real crisis happens. Teddy Roosevelt said, “In pleasant peace and security, how quickly the soul in a man begins to die.” And Bob Dylan says, “He not busy being born is busy dying.

 Something else incredibly interesting:

…a study done of the most successful CEOs in America (not the celebrity CEOs, but those, without fanfare and jumping jobs every few years, get the work done), found one factor they all have in common. They enjoy working with their hands. The older ones had cars that they worked…or had woodshops. [I must admit when I read this, it did give me nod of approval for all the crocheting I’ve been doing and for the Re.Bag.Re.Use initiative.]

"Looking for somewhere to start? Go plant a tree. Only an optimist would that," Amy Kumler.

It seems to me if there is an answer, it lies in these words: restraint, quality and simplicity. We have to get away from thinking that all growth is good. There’ a big difference between growing fatter and growing stronger.

Wonderful final thought:

I believe the way toward mastery of any endeavour is to work toward simplicity; replace complex technology with knowledge. The more you know, the less you need. From my feeble attempts at simplifying my own life I've learned enough to know that should we have to, or choose to, live more simply, it won’t be an impoverished life but one richer in all the ways that really matter.

A highly recommendable read.