Fear Of The Unknown Is

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.

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.

While Our Managers Debated What Steps To Take To Address The Sales And Cash-flow Crisis, I Began To Lead Week-long Employee Seminars In What We Called Philosophies. We'd Take A Busload At A Time To Places Like Yosemite Or The Marin Headlands Above San Francisco, Camp Out, And Gather Under The Trees To Talk. The Goal Was To Teach Every Employee In The Company Our Business And Environmental Ethics And Values.

What They Don't Realize Is That I'm Not In The Business To Make Clothes. I'm Not In The Business To Make More Money For Myself, For Christ's Sake. This Is The Reason Patagonia Exists - To Put Into Action The Recommendations I Read About In Books To Avoid Environmental Collapse. That's The Reason I'm In Business - To Try To Clean Up Our Own Act, And Try To Influence Other Companies To Do The Right Thing, And Try To Influence Our Customers To Do The Right Thing. So We're Not Going To Change.

Personally, I Would Rather Climb In The High Mountains. I Have Always Abhorred The Tremendous Heat, The Dirt-filled Cracks, The Ant-covered Foul-smelling Trees And Bushes Which Cover The Cliffs, The Filth And Noise Of Camp 4 (the Climbers' Campground), And Worst Of All, The Multitudes Of Tourists Which Abound During The Weekends And Summer Months.