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

This book is an inspirational guide on the shifts that companies must make and the steps they must take in today's world if we are all to be able to continue to live on this planet for the foreseeable future.

Chouinard founded Patagonia through earnest intentions: he wanted to employ his friends, make high quality climbing equipment, and then spend as much of his free time as he could climbing. His mission has always been to protect and preserve the natural world, and his company has become his vehicle for doing so. He's never been interested in simply profiting, at the expense of the environment or anybody else. As his book details, coincidentally, each and everytime he chose to do what he believed was right in his heart for the people of the company and for the planet, he was rewarded with increased sales and profits. Chouinard considers this his positive feedback that consumers are ready to become more environmentally conscious and aware - and he chooses to expand Patagonia operations only when the market gives him this signal. I find this a refreshing and inspiring alternative to the money-hungry, ever-expansive, stop-at-no-cost models that many businesses have adopted today.

As Chouinard puts it - if you want to operate under the assumption that your business will be around for the next 100 years, then you've got to conduct business in such a way that allows for a planet to exist for the next 100 years for you to continue to do business on. Let My People Go Surfing outlines the product design, production, distribution, marketing, financial, HR, management, and environmental philosophies that Chouinard has implemented at Patagonia in order to operate his business as such.

The frameworks he provides rely heavily on the concept of leading an examined life - asking difficult questions about the way we proceed in every domain in order to get to the very route of the problem, and then address it. Ignorance is not an excuse.

Chouinard and Patagonia's values include emphasizing product quality, transparency, successful communities, and sustainable environment. This value set stands in stark contrast to the currently prevailing corporate primacy of expansion and short-term profit. Let My People Go Surfing recounts the numerous decisions that Patagonia has made in pursuit of maintaining these values, in a way that feels like a breath of fresh air.