The people that already do it, Lourdes Dooley, Aaron Mulliss, Nick Bearshaw, Claire Kreigenfeld and all of their amazing support team, and of course the amazing Alex Longstaff who has to deal with my childish antics on an hourly basis.

I have no team business-wise. I should mention that I have no assistant or team at all.

There are so many people I’ve loved working with, but you’ve got to get the right person for the project.

He could do his job teaching, I could do my job writing, and the two of us could do the house and the kids. And it worked out great, but it took full collaboration between him and me.

One option was to sell Patagonia and donate all the money. But we couldn't be sure a new owner would maintain our values or keep our team of people around the world employed. Another path was to take the company public. What a disaster that would have been. Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility. Truth be told, there were no good options available. So, we created our own.

I wanted to be a fur trapper. No young kid dreams of becoming a businessman.

I absolutely don’t believe in doing … focus groups and all that shit. Proctor and Gamble-style, no risk. Just do it

If I’m in California, and the waves are good, I’m surfing by 7 a.m. If the surfing is good, I might stay out all day. I like being able to see the horizon. When I am sitting in the water facing Antarctica, waiting for a wave, it opens up my mind.

That was certainly the single darkest day of the company's history.

Patagonia has time and again broken the rules of traditional business and proven we still can be successful. The average lifespan of a corporation currently is a little over 20 years, but we’re still here after five decades of doing things on our own terms. I’m proud of our employees for getting us to this point. Our success is based on quality in whatever we do, and we’re taking that into the future.