Is Climbing, As A Passion And As

It's Not An Adventure Until Something Goes Wrong.

No Young Kid Growing Up Dreams Of Someday Becoming A Businessman. He Wants To Be A Fireman, A Sponsored Athlete Or A Forest Ranger The Lee Iacoccas, Donald Trumps, And Jack Welchs Of The Business World Are Heroes To No One Except Other Businessmen With Similar Values.

How You Climb A Mountain Is More Important Than Reaching The Top

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.

Growth Isn't Central At All, Because I'm Trying To Run This Company As If It's Going To Be Here A Hundred Years From Now. And If You Take Where We Are Today And Add 15% Growth, Like Public Companies Need To Have For Their Stock To Stay Up In Value, I'd Be A Multi-trillion-dollar Company In 40 Years. Which Is Impossible, Of Course.