John Mackey

Most people live in a win-lose paradigm, where self-interest is the thing they think of the most.

There's a better way.

A win-win-win paradigm.

And this is more than just a game metaphor.

It's a philosophy of human interaction that seeks mutual benefit for everyone.

I had a major epiphany in the early days of Whole Foods that helped me wake up to this idea of a win-win-win way of life.

It was Memorial Day, 1981.

The very first Whole Foods we ever had went through the worst flood that Austin, Texas had experienced in over 70 years.

Overnight, our store was completely destroyed.

We were near bankruptcy.

It looked like our story had ended only nine months after we'd started it.

And then something really cool happened.

When I went to the store the next morning to help clean up,

There were a lot of people there helping us.

Our team members were there, of course, but so were our customers, and so were our neighbors.

And I was deeply moved by this.

They were helping us because they loved our store, and they didn't want us to die.

Over the next 30 days, our team members worked for free until we could get back open to begin to pay them.

Our suppliers fronted us more inventory, our investors invested more capital, and our local bank loaned us more money.

Whole Foods was resurrected from death by this interconnected group of stakeholders who saw