To kick off the new year, I just finished reading the 10th anniversary edition of Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Choiuinard, which I started reading late last year while in South Africa.

It's an important book on many levels (e.g., Our planet's environmental crisis and the culture of consumerism driving it). I won't attempt to try and summarize or pontificate about its importance here. Let's just say that I highly recommend it and it's changed my world view on several dimensions. 

What I did want to address however, is how Patagonia's philosophy and deep understanding of their customer base impacted every aspect of their business. The chapters on philosophy - from product design and distribution, to marketing and management - in particular are both inspiring and should be recommended reading for any start-up, regardless of their product space. 

I'll leave you with perhaps my favorite paragraph in the book that describes their core values:

"The basic tenets of that philosophy are a deep appreciation for the environment and a strong motivation to help solve the environmental crisis; a passionate love for the natural world; a healthy skepticism toward authority; a love for difficult, human-powered sports that require practice and mastery; a disdain for motorized sports like snowmobiling or jet skiing; a bias for whacko, often self-deprecating humor; a respect and taste for real adventure (defined best as a journey from which you may not come back alive - and certainly not as the same person); and a belief that less is more (in design and consumption)."

Happy 2017!

Best, 

Marc