musings on the ad industry, the vcu brandcenter, + life outside

Just finished reading ‘let my people go surfing’ by Yvon Chouinard, founder & owner of Patagonia.

An amazing read – the perfect book to get lost in on a snowed-in Saturday.

There’s a lot to unpack in it; it’s a sobering but still uplifting read. Sobering because you feel the weight of the failing environment, but it’s that feeling of panic that moves you into action.

And because I’m a sucker for saving quotes, here’s a few top liners:

‘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 own 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.’ -Francois Auguste Rene Chateaubriand

And not everyone wants to change the world, but we want to feel like home for those who do. - Y.C.

The best managers are never at their desks yet can be easily found and approached by everyone reporting to them. - Y.C.

The owners and managers of a business that wants to be around for the next hundred years had better love change. - Y.C.

The most important mandate for a manager in a dynamic company is to instigate change. - Y.C.

As Bob Dylan says, “He not busy being born is busy dying.”

‘Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or a politician. ‘ – Miklos Dora paraphrasing Kenneth Boulding – Surfers Journal

‘So if you define wilderness as a place that is more than a day’s walk from civilization, there is not true wilderness left in North America, except in parts of Alaska and Canada.’ - Y.C.