Reading to Lead - Let My People Go Surfing
“No young kid growing up ever dreams of someday becoming a businessman,” begins Patagonia founder and owner Yvon Chouinard. “I wanted to be a fur trapper when I grew up.”
And while he may have become a ‘reluctant businessman’, heading a retail company that made $270 million in revenues last year, Chouinard has stayed fiercely loyal to his first love; the great outdoors. For decades, Patagonia has been run not just as an environmentally conscious company, but as one that proactively fights to protect mother nature. Both the passion of this remarkable leader and his company are the subject of his autobiography Let My People Go Surfing.
Choinard takes us through his life’s journey, from joining the Southern California Falconry Club when he was 15, to creating his first hiking product in 1957; steel pitons (rope anchors), to the financial crisis he faced with Patagonia in 1991 that forced him to let go of 120 employees. Throughout his journey, we meet the people and events that shaped Chouinard’s life and style of management.
He also describes in detail his business philosophies. No matter if it’s product design, production, distribution, finances, or human resources, Chouinard is always asking pointed questions along the way: “Is it durable? Is it easy to care for and clean? Are we telling the entire story? Are we making this a fun place to work?” Of special note is the fact that Patagonia was one of the first companies to open an on-site corporate child care center back in 1984.
Even more notable is the initiative Chouinard co-founded in 2001 with Craig Mathews (owner of Blue Ribbon Flies in Montana), the 1% For The Planet Alliance. Each company that belongs to this group pledges to donate 1% of their sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. Over 500 companies are currently part of this alliance, and the list continues to grow. Or as Chouinard states in the book’s updated preface, “And so the revolution begins!”
Book List, Yvon Chouinard, Let My People Go Surfing, Patagonia, 1% For The Planet Alliance
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