Blake Mycoskie Quotes

We are all human beings and I believe that we all should have equal rights.

TOMS is no longer a shoe company ... we're a one-for-one company.

With technology today, companies are less in control of their brand

Exercise your purchasing power as a consumer, volunteer and bring joy to those in need, and share your experiences, tell your stories, and inspire others along the way.

Traveling as much as I do, I get lonely sometimes. I have friends now in cities all over the world, so I get to be social, but it's hard to have the deep meaningful relationships, especially an intimate one. With my guy friends, I can show up once a month and go to dinner with them and they're happy.

When you're buying a pair of TOMS, if you don't feel like you're part of a community, then I've failed.

Keep it simple: own as little as you can get away with, schedule everything, keep a notebook, don't let technology enslave you.

I never thought I would be in a position like this, where my words and experiences are now inspiring others to follow suit. It's challenging at times, but I can only look forward to the future of business and philanthropy.

The most important things are actually the easiest to obtain: great friends, good food, and a decent bottle of wine.

It may sound too good to be true, but once you've seen the happiest people in your life who have nothing, you really start rethinking what the world, and society, tells us that we need to be happy.

I feel a deep sense of responsibility to share everything that we've learned from TOMS, so that others can learn from both our mistakes and the counterintuitive principles that have guided our success.

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.

Learning how someone else is already doing the thing you want to do, or a version of it, can eliminate fear - every path is easier to follow when you see someone else's footprints already on it.

In regard to waiting for the right time to do something: "The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time.

Music is such an important part of my life.

I think the word 'social entrepreneur' is a really good description of what I am. What that means me to is that you have the entrepreneurial gift and spirit to create something out of nothing.

The future of TOMS is really creating a whole new business model of this one-for-one giving and expanding the TOMS model from shoes into other products as well.

Facts are important, but the story matters. Poorly presented facts can even get in the way of the story's impact.

I try and sweat every day even though I can't always get to the gym. I do a lot of running, which is a great way to see a city, and I try to bike to work.

Giving feels good, but it's also good for the bottom line. Charity is a viable growth strategy for a lot of companies. Our customers get excited to be a part of what we're doing. If you ask anyone wearing Toms how they first heard about us, most won't mention an advertisement; they'll say a friend told them our story.

Almost every morning I write in my journal. I've been keeping it for a long time - I've filled more than 50 books. I write about what's going on in my personal and spiritual life or what's going on at work. It helps me keep things in perspective, especially when things get crazy or I get stressed or we have obstacles.

I always thought that I would spend the first half of my life making money so I can spend the second half of my life giving it all away. And one of the defining moments of my life was when I realized that I could do both at the same time with TOMS.

A very big passion of mine and that of the people that run our production is finding factories that have fair labor practices and treating them more like partners in our family than people just who are going to produce for us.

If whatever you do helps just one person, you've done something wonderful.

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.

I credit my grandmother for my sense of style. She was known for wearing bright, outrageous things because it made people happy and she thought it made her more approachable. When you wear a brightly colored shirt or pants, it shows you don't take yourself too seriously and it puts everyone around you at ease.

The most important step of all is the first step. Start something! What if that idea you have in the back of your head is a really good one, one that might end up helping tens of thousands of people? You owe it to the world ot act. Or maybe it will help only a few people: The same advice applies. If you don't do it, you are missing out on something big, and so are the people who could have been helped.

Life is more fun when you stop caring what other people think.

When you incorporate giving into your business in an authentic and transparent way, your customers become your best marketers.

One day, when I own a house, I'll keep a library full of books. Books are different from other possessions-they're more like friends.

I think once you start traveling, you don't stop.

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.

Giving does not just feel good, but it's really, really good for business, and it's good for your personal brand.

If you have a sense that your money is somehow, even indirectly, contributing to a cause that you find morally problematic, then it seems somewhere between reasonable and obligatory for you to vote with your dollars.

[Our employees] do it not because we pay them more, but because they want to be part of something.

you must play by a new set of rules - because, increasingly, the tried-and-true tenets of success are just tried, not true.

Most people yearn to contribute, make the world a better place and have success ... all at the same time ... Make sure to give your business a background, a mission and a story. That might be the most important step part of any venture. And remember, giving may be the best investment you ever make.

I can honestly say that TOMS is my future. I mean I have no desire to start any other company for as long as I live because this is the perfect blend of business and philanthropy to me.

I love what I do, but it is hard to have a personal relationship when you're never home.

When people start serving together, they forgot about all their stress, [ ... ] all their own problems. They start focusing on someone else's.

Setbacks and fear are inevitable. The thing that distinguishes the ultimate successes from the ultimate failures is this: What do you do with them?

Everyone belongs to some community, whether it's based on your background, your home state, your college, or your favorite sports team. By identifying all the possible communities to which you belong, you may well find an affinity group - and a story - that helps get your business off the ground, secures your dream job, or lets you achieve whatever goal you are pursuing.

People often ask me what I consider my goal to be at TOMS. The truth is that it's changed over the years. When we first began, the goal was to create a for-profit company to help the children that I met in a small village in Argentina.

I would have never imagined that I'd become a shoe salesman so that I could give away shoes. I mean that idea is ludicrous.

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.

A leader can create a company, but a community creates a movement,

People are hungry for success - that's nothing new. What's changed is the definition of that success. Increasingly, the quest for success is not the same as the quest for status and money. The definition has broadened to include contributing something to the world and living and working on one's own terms.

Stories are the most primitive and purest form of communication.

Giving builds loyal customers and turns those customers into supporters ... You can find passion and profit and meaning all at once, right now.

I think sometimes we forget what we have, and occasionally it's important to remind ourselves.

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.

When I accept an invitation for a public speaking engagement, my purpose is to share the TOMS story and our giving mission. In no way do I believe this means I endorse every single aspect of that organization. That may be naive, and you may disagree, but it is my sincere belief.

As entrepreneurs, we often get pressured into hiring an industry executive. While it's good to hire people with experience, it can also be a stumbling block because they think about the business the same way everyone else does.

The idea of community and helping others has always been a part of who I am. Growing up, my parents always made sure that my siblings and I were doing our part to serve our local community.

A lot of people like the idea of companies being socially involved in their community, but if you want big companies to get involved in social issues, what makes you think they're going to come down on your side?

The greatest competitive advantage is to allow your employees to be part of something. Something bigger than what you're doing.

Anyone can make a difference, so you don't have to have it be some huge, global campaign ... you can start small, and that's just as important.

The goal isn't how much money you make, but how much you help people.

Be tenacious. One thing that has allowed me to have some level of success is that I am fine with cold-calling people. It doesn't scare me to call someone who has no idea who I am and say I'd love to take you to lunch.

Conscious capitalism is about more than simply making money - although it's about that too. It's about creating a successful business that also connects supporters to something that matters to them and that has great impact in the world.

I would never want to take TOMS or myself into an issues debate. That's not what we're about. We're about helping people.