Authors in August: Whole Foods Founder John Mackey’s “Whole Story”

Rule Breaker Investing

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4.5 • 928 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2024

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Continuing our 7th annual Authors in August series, David welcomes John Mackey, co-founder of Whole Foods Market, for a deep dive into his 2024 book, The Whole Story. Reflecting on the journey from Safer Way to Whole Foods to Amazon.com to Love.Life, John shares how passion, purpose, and unexpected surprises shaped a company that’s transformed the way America eats. With a nod to their 2020 conversation on Conscious Leadership, this episode explores the intersection of purpose and profit, and the enduring joy of playing the game of life—and business.

Companies Discussed: AMZN, CMG, SBUX, WMT

Producer: Desirée Jones

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to my seventh annual authors in August series for Rule Breaker investing.
0:04.4	This week we get to hear from one of the great living entrepreneurs.
0:07.6	A Rule Breaker who is a young man thought we can, we should eat better.
0:13.0	His first store in Austin, Texas was called Safer Way,
0:17.0	a punning jab at Safeway, of course.
0:20.0	Well, when more than 40 years later John Mackie sold that company, Whole Foods Market, to
0:26.2	Amazon.com, his empire had grown to 85,000 employees, 16 billion dollars in sales, regularly listed as one of America's top companies to work for
0:36.5	and perhaps most importantly John had ignited and then let a full-blown cultural
0:40.8	revolution around better food and healthier habits, since imitated by everyone
0:45.8	from Walmart to Trader Joe's.
0:49.0	What is it like to start something beautiful but small, long and watch it, help it grow, grow, grow,
0:58.6	and leave the entire world off so much better for your efforts. Let's hear the whole story. Only on this
1:06.4	week's Rule Breaker Investing.
1:07.6	It's the Rule Breaker Investing podcast with Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner.
1:15.0	Well, I'm delighted this week to be joined by John Mackie.
1:20.0	Full disclosure, John is a member of the Motley Fool Board of Directors.
1:24.3	More Full Disclosure, I'm on the board of his new company, Love Life, which I'm sure we'll talk about.
1:29.6	And one more Disclosure, John is a friend of mine, I deeply esteem I've learned so much
1:34.2	from for over 15 years and counting. John first join me on this podcast in
1:39.6	September 2020 talking about his new book at the time conscious leadership.
1:44.4	It's one of the better books I've ever read on the topic.
1:46.8	I highly recommend it, but this week we're talking about John's new book just out in
	...

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