As I mentioned earlier in the week, I’ve been reading this book called let my people go surfing by Yvon Chouinard, the owner and founder of Patagonia, an outdoor clothing company. I was initially attracted to this book because of the title. The title is actually a policy at Patagonia where employees of Patagonia can flex their work hours to go surfing, running, hiking, or whatever errands they need to run during work hours so long as they don’t prevent other people from doing their work. I didn’t buy the book at first because it seemed too “hippy”. Only after I purchased the burrito bag, found it to be an outstanding product, and looked into Patagonia little bit more did I buy the book. After reading the book, I should have bought it sooner.
Surfing has many themes; memoir, business, philosophy, and environmentalism, but it boils down to how Chouinard took his passion and turned it into a $250 million a year company that is one of the most socially/environmentally responsible company ever known to man. If you don’t plan on reading this book, below is a speech by Chouinard that distills Surfing down to an hour.
I’m about 70% through the book and it has resonated quite loudly with me. What I enjoy most about the book is the story of how Patagonia came into existence. It gave me some ideas to mull over, mostly about what direction (industry, role, etc) I really want to head in in the future and the hope that I can create a career path that will allow me to wear sandals to work. The book has also made the issue of corporate responsibility more concrete for me. Before it was just some fluffy idea that I thought companies used as a gimmick to make themselves seem responsible and therefore good in the eyes of the consumer. Now I’m inspired to add socially/environmentally conscious activities/classes to my bschool experience. The last 30% of the book is about Chouinard’s business philosophies which is interesting, but since I don’t run my own company yet, I’ll probably be skimming through most of it.
There a lot of good nuggets in the book. One nugget that I came across helped me realize something about myself.
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 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…“
Replace the italicized line with “that probably explains the diversity of my interests” and that would accurately describe me.
Needless to say, I’m giving this book two thumbs up.