It's Not An Adventure Until Something Goes

The Most Important Thing Is To Get The Fish In Quickly And Leave It In The Water. Forget The Hero Pose.

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.

...there's No Such Thing As Sustainability. There Are Just Levels Of It. It's A Process, Not A Real Goal. All You Can Do Is Work Toward It. There's No Such Thing As Any Sustainable Economy. The Only Thing I Know That's Even Close To Sustainable Economic Activity Would Be Organic Farming On A Very Small Scale Or Hunting And Gathering On A Very Small Scale. And Manufacturing, You End Up With Way More Waste Than You End Up With Finished Product. It's Totally Unsustainable. It's Just The Way It Is.

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.

We're Not Citizens Anymore. We're Consumers. That's What We're Called. It's Just Like Being An Alcoholic And Being In Denial That You're An Alcoholic. We're In Denial That Each And Every One Of Us Is The Problem. And Until We Face Up To That, Nothing's Going To Happen.