Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual
    Unavailable
    Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual
    Unavailable
    Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual
    Audiobook7 hours

    Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    Narrated by Christopher Grove

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In his long-awaited memoir, Yvon Chouinard-legendary climber, businessman, environmentalist, and founder of Patagonia, Inc.-shares the persistence and courage that have gone into being head of one of the most respected and environmentally responsible companies on earth. From his youth as the son of a French Canadian blacksmith to the thrilling, ambitious climbing expeditions that inspired his innovative designs for the sport's equipment, Let My People Go Surfing is the story of a man who brought doing good and having grand adventures into the heart of his business life-a book that will deeply affect entrepreneurs and outdoor enthusiasts alike.


    With a Preface to the Second Edition, Introduction, and Epilogue read by the Author
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 6, 2016
    ISBN9781524752101
    Unavailable
    Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual

    Related to Let My People Go Surfing

    Related audiobooks

    Personal Memoirs For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Yvon Chouinard

      Mar 25, 2019

      Yvon Chouinard
      3 min read

    • Article

      Discovering Her ‘Life’s Work’, BBC Newsreader Kate Silverton On Retraining As A Child Psychotherapist , Her New Book And Making Her Kids Proud

      May 3, 2021

      Discovering Her ‘Life’s Work’, BBC Newsreader Kate Silverton On Retraining As A Child Psychotherapist , Her New Book And Making Her Kids Proud
      2 min read

    • Article

      E.F. Schumacher

      May 16, 2018

      E.F. Schumacher
      7 min read

    • Article

      Is Omicron Milder?

      Dec 22, 2021

      Is Omicron Milder?
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Planet in Peril

      Mar 5, 2018

      THE WIZARD AND THE PROPHET: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World BY CHARLES C. MANN Knopf, 640 pp., $28.95 ONE OF THE PLEASURES of reading Charles C. Mann’s new book, The Wizard and the Prophet, is the simpl

      5 min read

    • Article

      Running With Sherman

      Mar 17, 2020

      What do you do when you see the words “running” and “Christopher McDougall” on the front cover of a book? You buy the book. After all, this is a writer who triggered a running movement with his debut book, Born To Run, published in 2009. The story ab

      3 min read

    • Article

      How Senator Ben Sasse Became the Anti-Trump

      May 13, 2017

      NEBRASKA SENATOR BEN SASSE IS NOT YET running for President, and his new book, The Vanishing American Adult, is not about politics, policy or his own life story, all of which someone like him would normally write about if he were thinking about runni

      3 min read

    • Article

      Through the Human Lens: The Millions Interviews Meghan O’Gieblyn

      Aug 23, 2021

      I’m always baffled when self-professed “rationalists” object to the supernatural claims of religion—that a virgin could give birth, that God could be three persons. Modern science contains just as much mind-bending absurdity. The post Through the Hu

      10 min read

    • Article

      Yvon Chouinard Tells Some Stories

      Mar 31, 2020

      Yvon Chouinard Tells Some Stories
      4 min read

    • Article

      50 Years Of Patagonia

      Mar 23, 2023

      50 Years Of Patagonia
      8 min read

    • Article

      Mid-life Reflections

      Jun 28, 2021

      Forty years is a long time, whether for a human, a business, or a magazine. And when you consider how much has changed since 1981, it’s amazing that Wild Magazine is still going. We’ve gone from A-frame tents to ultralight flies; steak and potatoes t

      3 min read

    • Article

      Holding out FOR A HERO

      Oct 28, 2021

      Holding out FOR A HERO
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Backcountry Boom

      Dec 15, 2020

      The Backcountry Boom
      3 min read

    • Article

      Letter of the Month

      Jan 26, 2017

      I took your advice to “Just Commit” (45.3). The Midwest doesn’t have a lot of great skiing. I grew up skiing the hills of Wisconsin’s Wilmot Mountain (“Mashed” 45.3) and more recently Ohio’s Mad River Mountain. So when I found out I was going to Banf

      6 min read

    • Article

      Letter Of The Month

      Oct 19, 2018

      I took your advice to “Just Commit” (45.3). The Midwest doesn’t have a lot of great skiing. I grew up skiing the hills of Wisconsin’s Wilmot Mountain (“Mashed” 45.3) and more recently Ohio’s Mad River Mountain. So when I found out I was going to Banf

      6 min read

    • Article

      Pigeon Post

      Aug 24, 2022

      Thank you so much for the story ‘A trip called perseverance' (August 2022). Not only was it an aspiring route over the Richmond Range, but it was fantastic to see a fellow female tramper going it alone. Over the past few years, I have been trying to

      3 min read

    • Article

      Editor’s Letter

      Oct 28, 2021

      Editor’s Letter
      2 min read

    • Article

      Ed’s Words

      Feb 28, 2020

      Ed’s Words
      2 min read

    • Article

      Viewpoint: It’s What’s Inside That Counts

      May 18, 2021

      Does anyone still believe that for a wine to be good it has to come in a heavy bottle? Or that all heavy bottles contain great wine? Jancis Robinson, MW, has drawn a line and declared that it doesn’t matter if the wine is good or not, the heavy bottl

      2 min read

    • Article

      Your Letters

      Dec 2, 2020

      A woman, making wine and selling Champagne? Really! They’ll be becoming surgeons, engineers and prime ministers next! Your feminist lecture on the ‘Women of Champagne’ (December issue) was really not the sort of thing for which I – and, I suspect, ma

      2 min read

    • Article

      Uncorked

      Apr 5, 2023

      Uncorked
      7 min read

    • Article

      Karibu

      Aug 31, 2020

      Well, what a year it has been! In my editorial for issue 89, back in January, I said it felt like the world was in a bit of a mess and that we had become more aware of the need to be kinder to each other and to the planet. And then Covid-19 came alon

      2 min read

    Reviews for Let My People Go Surfing

    4.5/5

    106 ratings10 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      A very fast story. It's somewhat interesting, but also a fair bit of marketing for Patagonia clothing. There are enough specifics to keep even those sections engaging. Chouinard is principled, but often in a naive way, e.g., he is against nuclear power. As a billionaire, he also comes across as being a bit out of touch. (He quotes a speech he gave in 1985 predicting the death of the one-stop supermarket.)
    • 5/5
      A quick read, very enjoyable. Chouinard tells the story of his life, Chouinard Equipment, Patagonia, and his evironmental initiatives. I had never been interested in environmental issues, but this book has opened my eyes and caused me to be more concerned.
    • 5/5
      Probably one of the most entertaining business books I've ever read. Yvon's insights are thoughtful, funny, spot-on accurate and a delight. I often suggest that every CEO should have a fundamental role model...their ideal leader.Mine is Yvon Chouinard.Take, as an example, this piece of pithy brilliance:"You have to be true to yourself; you have to know your strengths and limitations and live within your means. The same is true for a business. The sooner a company tries to be what it is not, the sooner it tries to 'have it all,' the sooner it will die."Or this:"The best-performing firms make a narrow range of products very well. The best firms’ products also use up to 50 percent fewer parts than those made by their less successful rivals. Fewer parts mean a faster, simpler (and usually cheaper) manufacturing process. Fewer parts mean less to go wrong; quality comes built in. And although the best companies need fewer workers to look after quality control, they also have fewer defects and generate less waste. In business heaven we shall all have businesses making simple products like WD-40, or bottled water that we could sell for two to four times as much as gasoline."Would that every technology company could internalize that wisdom...And this, from a series of ads Patagonia ran in 2004:"FINANCIAL PHILOSOPHY Who are businesses really responsible to? Their customers? Shareholders? Employees? We would argue that it’s none of the above. Fundamentally, businesses are responsible to their resource base. Without a healthy environment there are no shareholders, no employees, no customers and no business."and finally, quoting the great French Romantic writer and politician, Francois Auguste Rene Chateaubriand:"A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both."I think I'm going to make this required reading for every CEO who wants me to work with them.
    • 3/5
      Stumbled upon this in a pile of books given to me by someone's mother in the hopes that I'd BookCross them. Curious about Patagonia, I gave it a whirl. I went in knowing the company had a good reputation, and that even at my fittest, I wore a size larger than I usually do. The respect for the company has only grown, and the glimpse into this company was an amazing view of shared vision, and of a company that not only has a heart, but has a soul and a conscience. I learned an amazing amount about all sorts of outdoor related, and even chuckled at some of the stories (Like how Chouinard abhorred the idea of computers, but recognized them as a necessary evil. One day, he decided he really needed to actually see this marvelous machine that his employees had even given a name. He saw a metal rectangular contraption and stared at it. "Is this [it]", he asked. No, he was told. That's the air conditioner. The computer was on the other side of the room.
    • 4/5
      While a lot of the information in the book is common knowledge to your average green consumer, the real story is how Yvon Chouinard was able to create a great company, with great products and real profit, while still looking out for the planet. I can't believe a company with these kinds of values exists. There aren't that many individuals who can live the way Patagonia does.
    • 4/5
      A spirited but somewhat rosy account of Patagonia (the apparel company)'s origins and its operating principles. Outspoken and inspiring, especially when it comes to the environment.
    • 5/5
      This book is a one-sit read. All people concerned with environmental friendly business must read and reflect on Chouinard's words. The founder of 1% for the planet shares his experiences and in turn promotes environmental awareness. Patagonia first tries to educate consumers about global issues, and then it sells and guarantees it's products. As a lover of the outdoors, I'm a fan and a supporter.
    • 4/5
      Super insights into how to care whilst growing a brand - excellent stories & initiatives
    • 5/5
      Yvon and his team have a real vision and this book does an excellent job in framing their work. I’m not much of an outdoor sport kind of person but this read really opened my eyes on this new world of adventures, and how we must keep our earth clean. After reading I recommend watching the documentary 180• south by (co-author)Jeff Johnson super neat, gives you a great look into the inspiration of the real life Patagonia.
    • 5/5
      Part biography, part ecological call-to-arms, part business strategy guidebook, Let My People Go Surfing tells the tale of both Yvon Choinard and the businesses he founded, Patagonia (outdoor clothing) and Choinard equipmet (climbing gear). Choinard's writing is straight-foward and to the point, with none of the self worship or pats on the back common to so many business biographies. Instead, Choinard tells in very simple terms how he started the business, how it progressed, and both how it succeeded and how it has failed. There are several instances where Choinard touts the company's horn about being so far ahead of the game in worker's rights and ecological trends-- Patagonia was one of the first companies to offer maternity leave for workers and in-house childcare for famiies; it was also one of the first to go to organic cotton and using recycled plastic in its clothing. Choinard comes to the conclusion that he's in business not to make money-- although the company has certainly done that-- but to set an example for other companies to follow in being as Earth-friendly as possible. It's an inspiring story that begs the question: can other companies follow Patagonia's example? Simple answer: no. But Chouinard explains it's not so much the companies that need a change, it's consumers. Companies will respond to demand, since they are in business to make money. If we as consumers make the changes necessaryto save our planet, businesses will respond. I quite enjoyed this, and am recommending it to business students and those interested in the environment.