Although this is not exactly about skiing I wanted to share some information of the book I found very interesting. Most of our readers are skiers, snowboarders, surfers, skateboarders, mountain bikers, climbers and such outdoor enthusiastic, so I believe many of you share similar values and lifestyle with Yon Chouinard and HBS team. I figured you guys might be interested in this book.

Yvon Chouinard is the founder and owner of Patagonia Inc that makes clothing for outdoor people. Patagonia is not only known from being one of the world’s top 100 companies to work for but also from being highly respected for their values and environmental activism. What makes Patagonia interesting to us is their exceptionally strong background in climbing, skiing, surfing, kayaking and river running. I would say Patagonia is “one of us”.

In his book “Let My People Go Surfing” Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard shares the lessons learned and philosophies defined during the years. He starts it all from beginning by describing his childhood and early years in climbing, continuing to the birth of Chouinard Equipment and Patagonia, and finally describing the philosophies shared by Patagonia leaders and employees.

Yvon Chouinard’s “Let My People Go Surfing” is not only a great book for entrepreneurs and corporate leaders, but also very inspiring and interesting read for any outdoor-minded people. I got hooked in this book and I strongly recommend it to anyone to read, especially today when we all should learn to live hand in hand with the nature.

Let My People Go Surfing – A book and a company policy

In his twenties Yvon Chouinard founded a small blacksmith shop creating climbing hardware. Yvon got interested in climbing in Yosemite and wanted to create good tools for himself. Soon his friends started asking “where I could buy those”, so Yvon had to make some more tools. He sold climbing hardware from the trunk of his car, quite quickly Chouinard Equipment was known from making the best climbing gear in the world.

Yvon Chouinard was a very active outdoor man. During his climbing trips he got an idea of making better and different clothing for climbers, and soon Patagonia was founded. Again they started selling colorful down jackets and such to their climbing friends. Patagonia made clothing with excellent quality and colorful design. Just like Chouinard Equipment also Patagonia was different and provided high quality products. Naturally sales figures went up.

It took a long time for Yvon Chouinard to build Patagonia and reach their current position in the market. Although Patagonia makes $230 a year they could probably make $2.3 billion, but it’s not what they want. Dozens of buyers approach Patagonia every year saying “you guys are low valued. We know how to get you listed in stock market and make gazillion dollars”, but every time their offers are turned down.

So why are they in business? According to Yvon Chouinard he wants Patagonia to show corporations the way to ecologically better future. Patagonia wants to be an example of a responsible company who cares about the planet, people and other values than financial.

What makes Patagonia so successful? There is probably no one “big reason” but several small reasons. First of all Patagonia was one of the first one in the market, so they naturally had a good starting point although the climbing hardware market was rather small back in the day. Anyhow I believe one of the biggest “secrets to success” with Patagonia is that they have been good at building a strong community and fan base that works as a “natural marketing wheel”. Patagonia doesn’t advertise much because they Yvon believes that people who need Patagonia’s products can find them without advertising on buses and such.

Another reason for Patagonia’s success is probably in their way of treating people and environment. From their early days Patagonia has been responsible for environment and people, which can be seen in their philosophies. Patagonia was one of the first one using totally organic material in their products, and in people side they were one of the first ones offering day care to the children of company employees.

Few years ago Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard founded One Percent for the Planet organization who exists to build and support an alliance of businesses financially committed to creating a healthy planet. Each member provides one percent of their yearly sales to the organization that supports scientific research organizations looking for solutions to climate change problem.

Why do I love Yvon Chouinard’s Let My People Go Surfing

How would you like to work and live your life? Would you prefer working 9-5 or “all the time” like typical entrepreneurs and career rockets? Would you prefer chasing money on Wall Street or feeding your own chicken in southern Portugal? Would you prefer having a clear distinction between work and leisure time or would you prefer creating a work from you hobbies? Whatever you prefer a key question is “are you happy with your life”.

I started thinking this kind of questions few years ago. For years I used to spend months and months skiing and traveling before I became a workaholic. I did prefer “skiing forever and working whenever”, but as soon as I stepped into university the course of my life changed. The first few years were absolutely great. I loved to study fast and see my income growing as I progressed in my job, but I was never really happy because I didn’t feel like living my life to the full. I realized I really don’t want to be a corporate junkie. I just don’t belong there.

I was in my career path or “pipe” when I decided to make change. For the last couple of years I have been building two businesses with my mates and I feel a lot better, even though I still can’t spend time enough outdoors. I just know that I’m on the right direction. I was faced with a dramatic drop in my income but I don’t care because money is not my number one priority. What I really enjoy is creating things based on my own ideas and working hands-on with my mates. What is my ultimate goal? To survive on my own and spend lots of time outdoors with my friends and kids, and to connect my hobbies and lifestyle with my entrepreneurial goals.

I love Yvon Chouinard’s book “Let My People Go Surfing” because I share the values and philosophies with Yvon and I believe there are a number of lessons for corporate junkies to learn from Yvon and Patagonia. It’s the lifestyle, attitude and mindset that make Yvon Chouinard an interesting person and a good leader, and all this can be learned from his book. And as an entrepreneur I want to adapt Yvon’s philosophies in my own entrepreneurial actions because I believe with Yvon’s philosophies we young entrepreneurs are on the right path.

There is also another reason why I fell in love with this book. I had no clue how much healthier we could live. I had no clue about all the junk I eat with processed food. This book kicked my ass and made me study more about organic food, recycling and such. I might sound naive, but yes, I am jumping into the ecology bandwagon and I believe it’s only good.

Yeah, it’s a great book for sure.

If you are interested in the book place an order in Amazon (just click this link). It costs only $11.05.