Yvon Chouinard - Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman

For everyone who is alternately outraged and depressed by the wave of greed that has been the hallmark of corporate America in the twenty-first century, there is a name that inspires hope: Yvon Chouinard. Unique and compelling.

San Francisco Chronicle

Chouinard the antibusinessman is businessman to the bone. Maybe more so. Because its not a set of clothes he puts on, or an office he shows up at. Its not a role he can pick up or put down. Its who he is. How he thinks. The fly rod was always beside the point. The point, as Surfing shows us, is how powerful an organizing force authenticity can be.

Inc.

The highest compliment I canpay Let My People Go Surfing is that Id love to break bread with Yvon Chouinard. Its heartening to read about a company that has stuck to its principles and flourished.

The Washington Monthly

Chouinards biography, Let My People Go Surfing , reveals a fascinating and colorful character. For all of our sakes, it seems the responsible thing for companies to do is follow Chouinards ascent.

USA Today

Yvon Chouinards message is clear: if youre not part of the answer, youre part of the problem. Mr. Chouinard has made it a lifes work to be part of the answer.

Santa Barbara News-Press

Yvon Chouinard is a mountain climber in both the literal sense and the metaphorical sense, and no mountain he ever climbed literally was more daunting or important than the one he is climbing in his business: Mount Sustainability. Here he tells the story of that climb, not only the what and how of it, but also the why. What an important and inspiring read!

Ray Anderson, chairman, Interface, Inc.

Yvon Chouinard is far more than a world-class mountaineer and brilliant outdoors haberdasher. He stands out as a mountain himselfa mountain of integrity, responsibility, courage, and vision. No matter what you do, you will find essential guidance and inspiration in Let My People Go Surfing . I probably wouldnt be here without Yvons support over the years; his book now gives me more strength to carry on.

Dave Foreman, The Rewilding Institute

At last Yvon Chouinard has taken time to write his story, some of us in the progressive business world have waited decades. This is a wonderful, wonderful book. Two hundred-odd pages of truth-telling, consciousness-raising and ballsy bravery. Every wannabe entrepreneur, every school teaching a course on business and every MBA program should buy this book. Yvon, thank you!

Anita Roddick, founder and owner, The Body Shop

Humility coupled with clear vision has made Yvon Chouinard personally, and Patagonia corporately, the natural leaders for many of us in business. Not only is this book a great read about the history of Patagonia, but it is a thought-provoking benchmark for ones own personal and civic values.

Nell Newman, president, Newmans Own Organics

An appealing practical guide to encourage capitalism and ethics to play nice together.

Kirkus Reviews

LET MY PEOPLE GO SURFING

Yvon Chouinard is founder and owner of Patagonia, Inc., based in Ventura, California. He began in business by designing, manufacturing, and distributing rock-climbing equipment in the late 1950s. His tinkering led to an improved ice ax that facilitated the French ice-climbing technique and is the basis for modern ice ax design. In 1964 he produced his first mail-order catalog, a one-page mimeographed sheet containing advice not to expect fast delivery during climbing season. In 2001, Yvon cofounded 1% for the Planet, an alliance of businesses that contribute at least 1 percent of their net annual sales to groups on a list of researched and approved environmental organizations. Today, he makes significant contributions to activist environmental concerns, serves on the boards of numerous environmental organizations, and spends much of his time in the outdoors.

The Education of a Reluctant Businessman

Founder and Owner, Patagonia, Inc.

PENGUIN BOOKS

For Malinda Pennoyer Chouinard,
my wife and partner
for all these good years.

PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in the United States of America by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 2005
This edition with a new preface published in Penguin Books 2006

Copyright Yvon Chouinard, 2005, 2006
All rights reserved

An extension of this copyright page appears at the end of this book.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER EDITION AS FOLLOWS :
Chouinard, Yvon.

Let my people go surfing: the education of a reluctant businessman / Yvon Chouinard.
p. cm.
ISBN: 1-4295-3714-0
1. Chouinard, Yvon. 2. BusinesspeopleUnited StatesBiography. 3. Social responsibility of business. I. Title.
HC102.5.C42 2005
658.4'083dc22 2005047650

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.

BUSINESS AFTER OIL

S ince the original publication of this book in October 2005, a lot has happened in the world and at Patagonia, Inc. The general public is becoming increasingly aware that our planet is getting warmer through our own doing. And yetdespite the plethora of books, articles, films, and even military men saying that global warming is the single biggest threat to the security of mankindgovernments, businesses, and you and me continue to refuse to take meaningful steps to reverse the problem.

A dozen books have come out about oil, all pretty much saying the same thing: the end of the petroleum era will come sooner than later and we should prepare for a lifestyle that will be far different than what we have been enjoying for the last 150 years. Economic and social chaos is predicted as the price of oil skyrockets (its doubled in a year and spiking higher as I write). The bad news is we have the super-polluting nuclear and coal industries to fall back on.