Yvon Chouinard Quotes

My desire to participate in the business is not to make more crap.

If you keep your eye on the profit, you’re going to skimp on the product. But if you focus on making really great products, then the profits will follow.

Companies that grow for the sake of growth or that expand into areas outside their core business strategy often stumble. On the other hand, companies that build scale for the benefit of their customers and shareholders more often succeed over time.

Companies that build scale for the benefit of their customers and shareholders more often succeed over time.

Business must be run at a profit, else it will die. But when anyone tries to run a business solely for profit, then also the business must die, for it no longer has a reason for existence.

A frustration I have is that a lot of people increasingly seem to equate an advertising business model with somehow being out of alignment with your customers. I think it's the most ridiculous concept.

The goal should be to build a sustainable lifestyle business that does good for employees and customers - and that steadily builds wealth.

If we look at pricing holistically, we'll create a more solid business.

If I make a good product and deliver value to users and to the world, the financial gains will come.

Profit is not the legitimate purpose of business. The legitimate purpose of business is to provide a product or service that people need and do it so well that it's profitable.

I always feel like 'as long as I'm doin' what I love to do, the money's naturally gonna come.' When you start thinkin' business and you start thinkin' 'What's hot? What's the wave? Who is hot? Let's get at that person,' it becomes a point where you're tryin' to strategize to make money. And that's always a gamble.

You can't just tell your team, 'Think long term.' It doesn't work that way. When you are starting out, you have to always think about trying to build something of value for the customer: something they can use all the time, something of use.

We don't look at what happens in our business in six-month periods.

And our size: The company this year is going to be close to $50 billion, so if that's the case and you can continue to grow that fast, I would rather put my energies to solving customer problems and growing our business than worrying about integrating and laying people off.

Many business leaders are seeing the relationship between long term success and sustainability, and that's very heartening.

At a lot of companies founded on principles, the notion of making money is almost antithetical to the ethos of the place. From the very beginning, our business has existed to meet the needs and desires of multiple constituencies: customers, team members, vendors, shareholders, the community.

A company shouldn't get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn't last.

We need to temper the idea that this company has to have some earthshaking event every 15 minutes.

I make no claim to being a business genius. You can make so much money in this business that it loses its value.

Business is Business.

Too many companies are running their business into the ground, I would argue, by being myopically short-term focused on the shareholder.

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

The best way to make money is not to have money as your primary goal. I've seen great people come into the business world primarily motivated to make money. Almost without exception they failed.

Companies that solely focus on competition will ultimately die. Those that focus on value creation will thrive.

Not one of the good-to-great companies focused obsessively on growth.