The Patagonia Story
Most billionaires spend their lives figuring out how to protect their wealth. This one figured out how to get rid of it.In September 2022, Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, did something almost unheard of. He gave away the entire company. Not the profits. Not a percentage. The company itself.
What a story these people have to tell. A few years ago, I was asked to give a talk at a dinner meeting of environmentalists. There was a problem, however. I went on right after some extremely senior guy at Patagonia, who had totally entranced the entire audience with his company’s extremely unusual business philosophy, i.e., that they don’t want you to buy their product. They want to sell you one coat that you will use for the rest of your life.
This guy’s passion of the planet and the reduction in the consumption of resources totally blew the room away.
It was like going on stage immediately after Winston Churchill or playing the piano for a group of people right after Vladimir Horowitz took his bows.
Clearly, some do. There is no other explanation for how someone who won an election could, just a year later, have an approval rating of 37%.
As opposed to what? An accident? An accounting error?
Driving up the price of electricity by squashing renewable energy may be good for Big Oil, but it’s most definitely not helping the American people.
We would far prefer that he go down for his crimes rather than his senility.
This is a significant issue for our nation?
This is not a joke, though at first glance it may be seen as such.
Good news.
Yes, he will have done all these things, but he will have done it for a really good cause: his own enrichment, at the cost of the fall of the United States.
To anyone who possesses both a brain and a conscience, this is the ultimate no-brainer.
