- “Have you looked at a modern airplane? Have you followed from year to year the evolution of its lines? Have you ever thought, not only about the airplane but about whatever man builds, that all of man’s industrial efforts, all his computations and calculations, all the nights spent over working draughts and blueprints, invariably culminate in the production of a thing whose sole and guiding principle is the ultimate principle of simplicity?
It is as if there were a natural law which ordained that to achieve this end, to refine the curve of a piece of furniture, or a ship’s keel, or the fuselage of an airplane, until gradually it partakes of the elementary purity of the curve of a human breast or shoulder, there must be the experimentation of several generations of craftsmen. In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.“
- “Disliking authority and angry about having to close down my little climbing business, I didn’t get along well with the army.”
- “I’ve always thought of myself as an 80 percenter. I like to throw myself passionately into a sport or activity until I reach 80 percent proficiency level. To go beyond that requires an obsession and degree of specialization that doesn’t appeal to me”
- “If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, “This sucks. I’m going to do my own thing.”
- “I had always avoided thinking of myself as a businessman. I was a climber, a surfer, a kayaker, a skier,and a blacksmith. We simply enjoyed making good tools, and functional clothes that we, and our friends, wanted.”
- “Some people think we’re a successful company because we’re willing to take risks, but I’d say that’s only partly true. What they don’t realize is that we do our homework… Although we encourage everyone at Patagonia to be “gonzo,” to stick his or her neck out, we don’t want to become martyrs…You can minimize risk by doing your research and, most of all, by testing.”
- “The basic tenants of our philosophy are a deep appreciation for the environment and a strong motivation to help solve the environmental crisis; a passionate love for the natural world; a healthy skepticism toward authority, a love for difficult, human-powered sports that require practice and mastery, a disdain for motorised sports, a bias for whacko, often self-deprecating humour; a respect and taste for real adventure (defined best as a journey from which you may not come back alive – and certainly not as the same person), and a belief that less is more (in design and in consumption).“
- “Patagonia’s image arises directly from the values, outdoor pursuits, and passions of its founders and employees. While it has practical and nameable aspects, it can’t be made into a formula. In fact, because so much of the image relies on authenticity, a formula would destroy it. Ironically, part of Patagonia’s authenticity lies in not being concerned about having an image in the first place. Without a formula, the only way to sustain an image is to live up to it. Our image is a direct reflection of who we are and what we believe.”
- “we are approached by prospective buyers almost weekly, and their intent is always the same. They see an undervalued company that they can rapidly grow and take public. Being a publicly-held corporation or even a partnership would put shackles on how we operate, restrict what we do with our profits, and put us on a growth/suicide track. Our intent is to remain a closely-held private company, so we can continue to focus on our bottom line: doing good.”
- “The child development center has an intimate bond with the company as well. Children’s laughter and chatter are among the regular sounds of our business, from the playground outside, individual children at their parents desks, or full classes traipsing through the buildings on Halloween… At Patagonia, our child development facility is producing one of our best products, excellent kids. The babies are constantly being held and handled by lots of caregivers, they are being raised by the whole village, with lots of stimulation and learning experiences. As a result, when a stranger says hi to them, they do run away and hide behind their mothers’ skirts”
- “The first few years of a child’s life are recognized as being the most important learning period of their entire lives. When their brains are actively growing is the best time for them to learn cognitive skills, including problem solving and sensory processing, and language, social, and emotional skills. They are also learning physical skills, including gross and fine motor skills, as well as perceptual skills. Allowing freedom to make mistakes and structuring opportunities for success gives children a sense of power over their environment that fuels self-esteem, independence, and problem solving. An outdoor experience ignites a world of learning and wonder for children that cannot be duplicated indoors. A child plugged into watching television for hours a day at home or at a low-quality child-care center is wasting many of these opportunities to develop their skills.
We encourage the kids to climb and fall and scrape themselves. When they are ready for kindergarten, their new teachers often comment that they are the most confident and polite children in class. We used to let the kids go barefoot all the time — until we started getting complaints from their teachers that the kids refused to wear shoes in class”
- “I have a little different definition of evil than most people.When you have the opportunity and the ability to do good and you do nothing, that’s evil.Evil doesn’t always have to be an overt act, it can be merely the absence of good.”
- “The Zen master would say if you want to change government, you have to aim at changing corporations, and if you want to change corporations, you first have to change the consumers. Whoa, wait a minute! The consumer? That’s me. You mean I’m the one who has to change?The original definition of consumer is “one who destroys or expends by use; devours, spends wastefully.” It would take seven Earths to provide enough raw materials to allow the rest of the world to consume at the same rate Americans do. Ninety percent of what we buy in a mall ends up in the dump within 60 to 90 days. It’s no wonder we’re no longer called citizens but consumers. Our politicians and corporate leaders are fair reflections of who we’ve become.When I look at my business, I realize one of the biggest challenges I have is combating complacency. If I say we’re running Patagonia as if it’s going to be here a hundred years from now, that doesn’t mean we have a hundred years to get there! Our success and longevity lie in our ability to change quickly. Continuous innovation requires maintaining a sense of urgency—a tall order, especially in Patagonia’s seemingly laid-back corporate culture. In fact, one of the biggest mandates I have for my managers is to instigate change. It’s the only way we’re going to survive in the long run.
The American dream is to own your own business and grow it as quickly as you can until you can cash out and retire to the golf courses of Leisure World. The business itself is really the product, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re selling shampoo or land mines. When the company becomes the fatted calf, it’s sold for a profit, and its resources and holdings are often ravaged and broken apart, disrupting family ties and the long-term health of local economies. The notion of businesses as disposable entities carries over to all other elements of society.
When you get away from the idea that a company is disposable, all future decisions in the company are affected. The owners and the officers see that, since the company will outlive them, they have responsibilities beyond the bottom line. Perhaps they will even see themselves as stewards of the earth.
Patagonia will never be completely socially responsible. It will never make a totally sustainable, nondamaging product. But it is committed to trying. We simply don’t have any other choice. As the late environmentalist David Brower once put it, “There’s no business to be done on a dead planet.”
Tarek Naim's Blog 