Yvon Chouinard Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Most of the damage we cause to the planet is the result of our own ignorance.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Ignorance, Environmental, Damage

  Yvon Chouinard (2006). “Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman”, p.204, Penguin

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• 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 80 percent level I like to go off and do something totally different; that probably explains the diversity of the Patagonia product like - and why our versatile, multifaceted clothes are the most successful.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Sports, Successful, Clothes

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• I've accepted the fact that there's a beginning and end to everything. All species are born, evolve, and then die off. We're going through the 6th great extinction and the large mammals are going first and, you know what - we're large mammals!

  Yvon Chouinard

  Firsts, Facts, Beginnings And Ends

  "Don of the Dirtbags: An Interview with Yvon Chouinard". The Vertical Interview, theusualmontauk.com. October 22, 2016.

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• But I'm really trying to run this company like it is going to be here a hundred years from now. That's what's important.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Running, Business, Years

  "The TH Interview: Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia". Interview with Jacob Gordon, www.treehugger.com. February 7, 2008.

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• We grow by letting the customer tell us. So when the customer tells us that they're frustrated, that they just got their catalogue and we're already out of a product they wanted, then it tells me that we're not making enough. We let the customer tell us instead of creating an artificial demand for our products. Any time you're making products that people don't need, you're at the mercy of the economy, you're at the mercy of whatever is going on. So we tried to avoid that situation.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Business, Creating, People

  "The TH Interview: Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia". Interview with Jacob Gordon, www.treehugger.com. February 7, 2008.

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• Traveling is my form of self-education. Every stream I fish now is not as good as it used to be. Traveling is my form of self-education. Every stream I fish now is not as good as it used to be. If you keep your eyes open as you travel around, you realize we are destroying this planet.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Eye, Self, Realizing

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• Remember: if you take bivouac equipment along, you will bivouac.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Climbing, Remember, Equipment

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• So all of these companies that are going for the big growth, if it continues for any length of time, will outlast their resources and outlast their customers and go belly-up. And that's why these huge companies have massive layoffs all the time.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Business, Growth, Length

  "The TH Interview: Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia". Interview with Jacob Gordon, www.treehugger.com. February 7, 2008.

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• The whole purpose of climbing something like Everest is to effect some sort of spiritual and physical gain. But if you compromise the process you’re an asshole when you start out and an asshole when you get back.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Spiritual, Climbing, Purpose

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• What they don't realize is that I'm not in the business to make clothes. I'm not in the business to make more money for myself, for Christ's sake. This is the reason Patagonia exists - to put into action the recommendations I read about in books to avoid environmental collapse. That's the reason I'm in business - to try to clean up our own act, and try to influence other companies to do the right thing, and try to influence our customers to do the right thing. So we're not going to change.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Business, Book, Clothes

  "Patagonia clothing founder ponders politics, saving Earth". Interview with Amanda Griscom Little, www.nbcnews.com. October 28, 2004.

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• The goal of climbing big, dangerous mountains should be to attain some sort of spiritual and personal growth, but this won't happen if you compromise away the entire process.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Spiritual, Climbing, Goal

  Yvon Chouinard (2016). “Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual”, p.211, Penguin

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• You climb to the summit and there is nothing there.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Conquistadors, Summit, Climbs

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• Traveling is my form of self-education.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Self, Form, Self Education

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• Is climbing, as a passion and as a sport, better off now than it was in the past? We can do harder climbs now in faster times - techniques are more refined and equipement more sophisticated - but are we really any better off?

  Yvon Chouinard

  Sports, Passion, Past

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• I say the last 10 percent of the way to perfection takes so much of your life that it isn't worth the effort. This overzealous attitude is what creates religious fanatics, body Nazis, and athletes who are exceedingly dull to converse with.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Religious, Attitude, Athlete

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• Yeah, leading an examined life, I always say, is a pain in the ass. It adds an element of complexity to business that most businessmen don't want to hear about. They just want to call a fabric manufacturer, and say, "Hey, give us 10,000 yards of shirting."

  Yvon Chouinard

  Business, Pain, Giving

  "The TH Interview: Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia". Interview with Jacob Gordon, www.treehugger.com. February 7, 2008.

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• The reason it was so scary was that there was only one climber capable of rescuing us, and that was Layton Kor, and he was in Colorado.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Climbing, Scary, Colorado

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• At Patagonia, making a profit is not the goal because the Zen master would say profits happen 'when you do everything else right'.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Goal, Masters, Patagonia

  Yvon Chouinard (2006). “Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman”, p.160, Penguin

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• I'm the company philosopher and the burr in the saddle. I'm the one who says we need to try harder, improve the quality of our products, become a part of the political process, help elect people who are good for the environment.

  Yvon Chouinard

  People, Political, Trying

  "Yvon Chouinard on Entrepreneurship". Interview with Amy S. Choi, www.bloomberg.com. June 20, 2008.

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• Going back to a simpler life based on living by sufficiency rather than excess is not a step backward.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Excess, Steps, Sufficiency

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• We choose to believe that the granite is alive. If life is movement, then rock - with its atoms flying around like stars in cosmos - is alive.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Stars, Believe, Rocks

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• A real capitalist knows that $10 given today does a lot more good than $100 given 10 years from now.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Real, Years, Today

  "Yvon Chouinard on Entrepreneurship". Interview with Amy S. Choi, www.bloomberg.com. June 20, 2008.

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• Personally, I would rather climb in the high mountains. I have always abhorred the tremendous heat, the dirt-filled cracks, the ant-covered foul-smelling trees and bushes which cover the cliffs, the filth and noise of Camp 4 (the climbers' campground), and worst of all, the multitudes of tourists which abound during the weekends and summer months.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Summer, Weekend, Climbing

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• The most important thing is to get the fish in quickly and leave it in the water. Forget the hero pose.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Hero, Water, Important

  Bonefish on the Brain Interview, bonefishonthebrain.com. May 4, 2010.

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• While our managers debated what steps to take to address the sales and cash-flow crisis, I began to lead week-long employee seminars in what we called Philosophies. We'd take a busload at a time to places like Yosemite or the Marin Headlands above San Francisco, camp out, and gather under the trees to talk. The goal was to teach every employee in the company our business and environmental ethics and values.

  Yvon Chouinard

  Business, Philosophy, Cash Flow

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