American Made

I watched a show yesterday that reaffirmed my belief in congruence or alignment.  “American Made,” a show on CNBC covers company founders and their stories (a topic I could seriously watch 24 hours a day, CNBC think about it…I’m not the only one).  Anyway last night’s story covered a man who was a college drop out, a major hippie, and a philosophy major who NEVER took a business class or even an interest in business.  After dropping out of college at the age of 23, he decided to open a grocery store because he loved food and thought it would be fun “to play store owner” for a little while.  As a store owner he was able to do things exactly as he wanted, free of outside pressure to “maximize profits (not that their is anything wrong with that)” he operated a store that treated employees at “partners,” offered the finest organic foods (which tasted better and usually came from local growers), and was filled with fun and excitement that reflected his personality.  He was able to pour his beliefs and values into this company, hiding nothing, holding nothing back, and always working on the things that made him happy.  The result?  Whole Foods is now a $10 billion dollar company with sales of nearly $5 billion this year.  If you had invested $10,000 into the stock in 1995, your stake would be worth $148,000 today. Not too shabby, and I  believe it all comes down to the founder, John Mackey’s personality…he wasn’t looking for a $10 billion company, but with alignment comes growth.

For more on John Mackey’s story go here