When you have a memorable story about who you are and what your mission is, your success no longer depends on how experienced you are or how many degrees you have or who you know. A good story transcends boundaries, breaks barriers, and opens doors.
If you just go out and try to make money by starting a business, you’re going to come up with something that’s just like what everyone else has done. But if you look at the world and see opportunities that can be taken more seriously, then you come up with a great idea.
Allow your team to incorporate giving into their life through their job. Not only do employees stay around a lot longer, they do a lot more good.
The goal isn’t how much money you make, but how much you help people.
Giving does not just feel good, but it’s really, really good for business, and it’s good for your personal brand.
Keep it simple: own as little as you can get away with, schedule everything, keep a notebook, don’t let technology enslave you.
The most important things are actually the easiest to obtain: great friends, good food, and a decent bottle of wine.
The most important step of all is the first step. Start something.
The greatest competitive advantage is to allow your employees to be part of something. Something bigger than what you’re doing.
I don’t get jet lagged that much. I’m so used to traveling and being in different places every day that I can sleep anywhere.
I don’t think college is for everyone. School is awesome, but for me, I was learning a lot more outside the classroom in the real world than I was in school.
Complicated lives and heaps of possessions don’t necessarily bring happiness; in fact, they can bring the opposite.
I did what I think a lot of entrepreneurs do. I started putting up a lot of ads on Craigslist for interns.
My goal was to go back to Argentina, and give them all-all the shoes-away. Not just to give them away, but to place them on each child’s foot.
People always ask me, when I had the idea for TOMS, did it change my life? As romantic and noble as it is, no it did not change my life. But when I went to Argentina on that first shoe-drop, it did change my life.
Who is Tom? There is no Tom. If we sell a pair of shoes today, we give away a pair of shoes tomorrow. Originally we thought of “Tomorrow’s Shoes,” but I could only fit “TOMS” on the label. I had no idea everybody would want to meet him. There is no Tom; it’s an idea for a better tomorrow.
When you incorporate giving into your business, you attract the most amazing partners.
When you don’t know the rules, you break them all. It’s hard to take big risks when you know the history of an industry and what has worked and what didn’t.
Vogue Magazine does something really interesting here: They make it look like I know exactly what I’m doing. Because Vogue made it look like I knew exactly what I’m doing, stores from all over started calling.
TOMS didn’t have to focus on advertising, but on giving in a way that’s sustainable.