Book: Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard. Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

It was 3 stars until 70% of the book but the ending deserves 4.

This book is the story of Patagonia and how its founders deal with business, people, and the environment.

Their way of life resonates a lot with what I think is a good way to live. Maintain a sustainable business, hire people you trust and give them enough freedom to live a good life while giving their best to make the company grow, thinking about the environment, grow only when you have to grow (to supply your demand), live a minimalistic life, and so many other stuff.

Here is my raw notes about the book:

  • You don’t make it perfect when you add everything you can, but when you remove everything possible and keep it to the bare minimum
  • Employ people who share the fundamental values of the corporation while representing cultural and ethical diversity
  • The quality of the product is related to its use
  • Provide ways to fix the product because each new product manufacturing is a piece of the environment that goes away
  • People say they can’t contact someone but this is a dishonest answer. They don’t want to do it or it doesn’t have a high priority for them
  • Deliver what your client wants when he wants it. If you don’t do that he will look for a company that does. After he does that it’s hard to get him again.
  • Expect your supplier to deliver on schedule, but you have to do the same
  • American companies fail in the Japanese market because they try to do business by the book.
  • Show people who you are as a company, not a fictional character. There are companies creating fictional characters for what they want people to see, not the real truth. It’s easier to show the real company if you really live what you say.
  • Profits happen when you do everything right. It’s a consequence.
  • Grow only at a natural rate. If there is no product in the stock, it means we have to produce more, and its natural growth
  • Don’t create an artificial advertisement for your goods just to increase the demand. Create a product that your clients really need. We want customers that need our product, not just desire it.
  • We don’t want to be a big company, we want to be the best company.
  • Hire many as people as possible who use your product and like it, they will make it even better
  • I never saw a company that wants to build the best product ever when people who work there are not passionate about it
  • We prefer to hire from our network of friends and business associates. We don’t want stars seeking special treatment, we look for the best person for the job, even if it means keeping a position open for a long time.
  • It’s easier to teach the work to people who have your culture and like your product, but it’s really hard to teach culture to high-skilled people
  • Let my people go surfing and believe they will not abuse their benefits. Everyone can make their own work time. Work whenever you want and feel more productive and enjoy your life.
  • We don’t want soldiers who obey orders, we want people who question every decision and wants to make the best for the product
  • Managers must be always available for those who report to them. Have a commonplace for people to exchange ideas (cafeteria)
  • The answer to global environmental change is action. Don’t wait for others or for the technology to solve the problem, act now
  • No businessman change aggressively one department without thinking on the rest of the company, but that’s what is happening to the environment
  • A company that builds landmines but doesn’t know what they do should go to a country where they are a problem to locals, so they can see what their product does to the people. All companies should do the same with the environment.
  • Evil is the absence of good. If you can do good and you’re doing nothing, you are doing evil.
  • The more you know, the less you need