59. David Gelles - Why Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away
About this episode
Andrew Horn interviews David Gelles about the complexities of ethical leadership and the story of Yvon Chouinard and Patagonia.
What if business could be as human, and as messy, as life itself? What if being an ethical leader wasn’t about hitting some mythical state of perfection, but rather about showing up, getting a little lost, and finding your values again and again along the way? On this episode of What’s the Big Idea, Andrew sits down with David Gelles, New York Times reporter, bestselling author, and one of the most thoughtful chroniclers of modern leadership and capitalism. If you’ve grappled with questions about doing “good business” or wondered whether it’s really possible to put planet and people on equal footing with profit, David’s the guy you want in your corner. His latest book, Dirtbag Billionaire, tells the wild and often contradictory story of Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, who not only built a world-class company on his own weird, gritty values, but ultimately gave the whole thing away. This episode goes way deeper than another pat case study in “purpose-driven business.” Andrew and David push into the real questions: What does it actually look like to build a values-driven company while wrestling with your own imperfections? Can you succeed in capitalism without losing your…
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