From http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/:
Lululemon Founder Resigns
Photo by The Globe and Mail
Lululemon founder Chip Wilson will step down as the company’s chief innovation and branding officer effective Jan. 29, according to a press release. Wilson will continue to serve as chairman of the board of directors.
“I remain deeply committed to the company’s continued success and given the strength we’ve built into the organization over the past three years, I feel comfortable leaving the company with Christine Day at the helm of a world class management team whom I fully believe will continue to elevate our world, ” Wilson said. Day, a former Starbucks executive, was named CEO of the year by The Globe and Mail Business Magazine in late 2011.
No reason was given for the decision, but the announcement comes after widespread backlash following a controversial decision to put the Ayn Rand slogan “I am John Galt” on Lululemon shopping bags last November.
Wilson, who started off creating a surf, skateboard, and snowboard clothing company, founded Lululemon in 1998 and headed its rise to become the fastest growing yoga-lifestyle retailer in the world, with 151 stores in North America, Asia, and Australia.
Recognized as one of Canada’s wealthiest citizens, Wilson, who made Forbes’ 2011 World’s billionaire’s list, owns about 10 percent of Lululemon Athletica stock, according to The Globe and Mail. That stock hit an all-time high yesterday after the company reported strong holiday sales, contributing to an increase of roughly 80 percent over the past year, CBCNews reported.
For those of you who don't know about the "Who is John Galt?" controversy, this is from http://www.lululemon.com/community/blog/who-is-john-galt/:
This blog post was written by and posted on November 2, 2011 at 10:22 am
who is john galt?
This question appears many times in Ayn Rand’s classic 1957 novel, “Atlas Shrugged,” and, curiously, it also appears on the side of our shopping bags currently in our stores.
You might be wondering why a company that makes yoga clothing has chosen a legendary literary character’s name to adorn the side of our bags. lululemon’s founder, Chip Wilson, first read this book when he was eighteen years old working away from home. Only later, looking back, did he realize the impact the book’s ideology had on his quest to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness (it is not coincidental that this is lululemon’s company vision).
elevating the world from mediocrity to greatness
In “Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand describes a society where people work and reside in government-controlled environments that are tightly regimented. Without realizing it, this control created a society of mediocrity; propagating a cycle of listless, uninspiredexisting as opposed to living. The character John Galt encouraged all of the world’s innovators and intelligent minds to go on strike from the increasingly controlling government in order to create a vacuum of brilliance, proving that independent creativity and free-will is critical for quality of life.
what john galt teaches us
While the plot in the book may sound radical and far-fetched, we place many of these constraints and limitations on ourselves which impede us from living our best lives. Think about it: we are all born with magical machines, aka human bodies, able to think, jump, laugh and run. We are able to control our careers, where we live, how much money we make and how we spend our days through the choices we make. Of course, there are situations sometimes where we aren’t able to control what happens to us. Life can be hard, challenging and unfair. What we can control, however, is our reaction. We can choose to rise up and be great.
Many of us choose mediocrity without even realizing it. We think we “have” to do things or “aren’t able” to do what we want. We create rules and experience fear when we dream of a life we love. Why do we do this? Because our society encourages mediocrity. It is easier to be mediocre than to be great.
What do we want to create for our lives right now? We can do it. It might be hard but there is nothing stopping us. Think about the reasons and excuses that come up when we envision our best lives; it is remarkable how manipulative and clever mediocrity can be, sneakily convincing us to continue existing without what we desire most.
Our bags are visual reminders for ourselves to live a life we love and conquer the epidemic of mediocrity. We all have a John Galt inside of us, cheering us on. How are we going to live lives we love?
And here is what npr had to say about it:
The Literature degree student in me LOVES this controversy. I think good job Lulu, way to stir the pot!
From one former lit major to another, I submit for your reading pleasure the most entertaining Ayn Rand parody/synopsis of all time, courtesy of McSweeney's (although you may have to copy and paste, as I don't know how to enable a link in comment form):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/our-daughter-isnt-a-selfish-brat-your-son-just-hasnt-read-atlas-shrugged
Achieving our personal best is something nearly everyone can agree is a good thing. And although that is one element that Rand is championing, there is something much more insidious in her worldview that her proponents like to hide. She thought compassion for others was a weakness that needed to be weeded out. She was an absolute materialist and thought any kind of spiritual life or existence was delusional. The only moral code that made any sense in the universe was absolute self interest. A seductive philosophy to many, no doubt. Not the world I choose to live in. It is possible to help people reach their personal best without limiting them. We can argue about methods, but I believe compassion in the world is a fundamentally good thing, and fundamentally less destructive than selfishness. A close look at Rand's life reveals a classic sociopath - someone that doesn't understand human feeling. Why else would she have idealized a serial killer in New York for being truly free of moral feeling? Some of her ideas may have been good ones, but let's consider the source.
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