For many business leaders, joining the billionaires club is the ultimate badge of success—placing them among the ranks of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos.
“I don’t have $1 billion in the bank. You know, I don’t drive Lexuses.”
A lifelong rock climber, Chouinard spent years sleeping in his car or on dirt floors in the wilderness, surviving on just $1 a day and even eating dented cans of cat food. That scrappy existence makes his billionaire milestone all the more remarkable—especially as a pioneer in the climbing world.
However, the now 86-year-old did not believe being a billionaire was something to tout. Instead, he viewed it as a “policy failure” due to the growing divide between the rich and poor and demanded his staff get him off the list—but selling the $3 billion company or going public was off the table.
Selling the company would make Chouinard go from asset-rich to having actual billions in the bank—defeating the purpose of the exercise.
And he refused to IPO. “I don’t respect the stock market at all,” Chouinard said according to Gelles’ new book. “Once you’re public, you’ve lost control over the company, and you have to maximize profits for the shareholder. You lose all control, and then you become one of these irresponsible companies.”
So in 2022, Chouinard and his family decided to transfer their ownership in Patagonia to a trust and a nonprofit organization that ensured the company’s $100 million a year in profits were used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land.
And while a majority of Americans, 55%, remain unconcerned, many billionaires have taken it upon themselves to give away their masses of wealth. In 2010, Warren Buffett as well as Bill and Melinda French Gates created The Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away 50% of their wealth to philanthropy during their lifetimes.
