Yvon Chouinard

“I learned at an early age that it's better to invent your own game than you can always be the winner.”

“Conventional corporations are at the center of the ring, and eventually they will die off through either their own misdeeds or catastrophic events, such as dismal economic climates or unforeseen competition. Only those businesses operating with a sense of urge…”

“I started selling them for a dollar 50 each. You could buy European pitons for 20 cents.”

“I believe the way towards mastery of any endeavor is to work towards simplicity. The more you know, the less you need.”

“A company needs to constantly stress itself in order to grow. Our company has always done its best work whenever we had a crisis. When there is no crisis, the wise leader or CEO will invent one, not by crying wolf, but by challenging the employees with a chang…”

“If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, this sucks. I'm going to go do my own thing.”

“The original intent for writing Let My People Go Surfing was for it to be a philosophical manual for the employees of Patagonia.”

“The company was restructured five times in five years, and no plan worked better than the last one.”

“Once you lose the discipline of functionality as a design guidepost, The imagination runs amok. Once you design a monster, it tends to look like one too.”

“A company needs someone to go out and get the temperature of the world.”

“People always ask me to make, like, a top 10 list, which is so hard to do, because I love all the books in general, but all the books that I cover, I would, I'd have to imagine if I did ever have, like, a permanent top 10, I think this book would be in it.”

“Too much choice brings unhappiness, and really what he's saying is part of the value that you're providing Is making the decision for the customer. You have the time and the knowledge and the specific knowledge to make intelligent decisions. They do not. They'…”

“Because so much of the image relies on authenticity, a formula would destroy it. Amen. Without a formula, the only way to sustain an image is to live up to it.”

“At one point, our accountant even introduced us to the, to a mafia connection who wanted 28% interest.”

“Chouinard Equipment operated at a one percent profit margin.”

“The first part of our mission statement, make the best product, is the cornerstone of our business philosophy. Make the best is a difficult goal. It doesn't mean among the best or the best at a particular price point. It means make the best, period.”

“Instead, Steve argued there was no reason that well-designed, well-made computers, just like Yvonne is arguing here, that well-designed, well-made clothing couldn't command the same market share and margins as a luxury automobile. A BMW might get you to where …”

“Complexity is often a sure sign that the functional needs have not been solved.”

“At the time we had about 75% of the climbing hardware market, but we still weren't making much of a profit.”

“From the mid-nineteen eighties to 19 nineties our sales grew from twenty million a year to a hundred million dollars a year. Melinda, that's his wife and co-founder, And I were not personally any wealthier because we kept the profits in the company, but the gr…”

“Yarak is a falconry term, meaning when your falcon is super alert hungry, but not weak, and ready to hunt. So Yvonne is telling us, keep your company super alert, hungry, but not weak, and ready to hunt.”

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

“If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent”

“One of my favorite lines ever describing founder mentality and entrepreneurs comes from Yvonne Chouinard, who is the founder of Patagonia. He says, if you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his act…”