The Visionary
The future, and what is barely possible, reads round the next corner.
John Mackey carries The Visionary designation on the strength of what he built and how he speaks about it. As co-founder of Whole Foods, he is a leader defined by founding conviction, the belief that a business can embody an idea rather than merely exploit a market.
“Well, of course, I mean, that's the job of the entrepreneur is to see things as professionals. It would not see, or the professionals are making a more calculated decision on, is this good for my career or not? Or if this succeeds, will it really help my career? But if it fails, will I end up getting fired?”
“Yeah. Well, in that letter, I just kind of, kind of like I've done in this podcast, I just opened myself up and I just said, here's, I don't know exactly what I did wrong, but I knew I did something wrong. But here's who I am. I really like you. Here's who I think you are. I realize that I kind of blew the state, but it's okay.”
“I think I think it was A lot of them just didn't have the they were like my friend Mark. They liked being my co-founder Mark. They just wanted to be a big wheel and there Mark just would be happy just to be a big wheel with that one store. And I think that's true of the other people.”
“Not going to do that, no, and because there's always things that are nice to do. And when you're profitable and you have the resources to do it, you start to add things on, but you don't do a good job of sunsetting them or getting rid of them or just evaluating their cost effectiveness.”
The David Rubenstein Show: “John Mackey”
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