Last year, I had the good fortune of hearing Tom Brokaw do a question and answer session with Patagonia founder Yves Chouinard at Google’s partner think-tank.
Chouinard is a model of common sense embodied in a purpose-driven life. Tools and technology are useful not for their own sake, but for the contribution that they can make to clearing a path to the purpose of your life. For Chouinard is was to get outdoors, to travel the world, to find things that were natural, immediate and new.
Two of his quotes struck me so much they made it into my notebook, and have been transcribed into each of new notebook since.
First, the role of the CEO in a company.
The major role of a CEO in a company is to effect change, not to protect the status quo.
What was so remarkable was that for Chouinard this statement was a matter of fact, the by-product of his behavior, not an aspiration.
Second, the genius of making a product right.
A product is perfected not when you can’t add anything more to it, but when you can’t take anything else away from it.
Simple and elegant.
