Top Yvon Chouinard Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Yvon Chouinard Biography

Yvon Chouinard (born November 9, 1938) is an American rock climber, environmentalist, and outdoor industry billionaire businessman. His company, Patagonia, is known for its environmental focus.

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Yvon Chouinard Quotes

To do good, you actually have to do something.

Actually, Good

The whole purpose of climbing something like Everest is to effect some sort of spiritual and physical gain. But if you compromise the process you’re an asshole when you start out and an asshole when you get back.

Asshole, Climbing, Physical, Purpose, Spiritual, Start

There's a movement for simplifying your life: purchase less stuff, own a few things that are very high quality that last a long time, and that are multifunctional.

Long, Movement, Quality, Simplifying, Things

The more you know, the less you need.

Know, Mlm, Positivity, Tao Te Ching

I drive old cars, all my Patagonia clothes are years and years old, I hardly have anything new. I try to lead a very simple life. I am not a consumer of anything. And I much prefer sleeping on somebody's floor than in a motel room.

Prefer, Simple, Sleep, Years

You have a whole life in the outdoors, you realize you have a sense of responsibility to protect these wild places.

Outdoors, Places, Realizing, Responsibility, Sense, Wild Places

So all of these companies that are going for the big growth, if it continues for any length of time, will outlast their resources and outlast their customers and go belly-up. And that's why these huge companies have massive layoffs all the time.

Business, Growth, Huge, Length, Outlast, Time

Doing risk sports had taught me another important lesson: never exceed your limits. You push the envelope and you live for those moments when you’re right on the edge, but you don’t go over. 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.

Mean, Right, Risk, Sooner, Sports, True

You can solo-climb Everest without using oxygen or you can pay guides and Sherpas to carry your loads, put ladders across crevasses, lay in 6,000 feet of fixed ropes, and have one Sherpa pulling you and another pushing you. . . . The goal of climbing big, dangerous mountains should be to attain some sort of spiritual and personal growth, but this won't happen if you compromise away the entire process.

Attain, Away, Climbing, Feet, Loads, Spiritual

Most of the damage we cause to the planet is the result of our own ignorance.

Cause, Damage, Environmental, Ignorance, Planet

During the sixties, all the risk-type sports were very popular, because everybody was rebelling against their parents, or rebelling against the whole system. But those days are over. This is the day of conservatism.

Climbing, Parent, Popular, Rebelling, Sports, System

We took special pride in the fact that climbing rocks and icefalls had no economic value in society. . . We were like a wild species living in the edges of an ecosystem - adaptable, resilient and tough.

Adventure, Like, Pride, Rocks, Special, Species

How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top

Climb, Important, Mountain, Positivity, Reaching

Going back to a simpler life based on living by sufficiency rather than excess is not a step backward. Rather, returning to a simpler way allows us to regain our dignity, puts us in touch with the land, and makes us value human contact again.

Allows, Backward, Excess, Land, Simpler, Way

I say the last 10 percent of the way to perfection takes so much of your life that it isn't worth the effort. This overzealous attitude is what creates religious fanatics, body Nazis, and athletes who are exceedingly dull to converse with.

Athlete, Attitude, Effort, Perfection, Religious, Way

The secret to happiness is to be working at your passion. If you want to be miserable, lead a desperate life like everybody else where they drag their asses to work everyday because they hate their job.

Desperate, Hate, Jobs, Lead, Miserable, Passion

We're not citizens anymore. We're consumers. That's what we're called. It's just like being an alcoholic and being in denial that you're an alcoholic. We're in denial that each and every one of us is the problem. And until we face up to that, nothing's going to happen.

Alcoholic, Citizens, Denial, Faces, Problem

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

Goal, Making, Masters, Patagonia, Profits, Right

Hire extremely independent, intelligent, and passionate people, not necessarily "experts. " Maybe three or four of my employees have MBAs, and those guys aren't necessarily at the top of the food chain.

Extremely, Four, Independent, Intelligent, Mba

You have to remember this was the '60s, when climbing was dangerous and sex was safe.

Climbing, Remember, Safe, Sex

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Yvon Chouinard Biography

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