Mel Ziegler

Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin

Rick Rubin

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.6 • 908 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2025

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mel Ziegler is the co-founder of Banana Republic and The Republic of Tea. In 1978, with $1,500 in savings and no prior business experience, he and his wife, Patricia Ziegler, launched Banana Republic, reimagining military surplus as stylish safari and expedition wear. After leaving the company, the duo went on to co-found tea company The Republic of Tea with Bill Rosenzweig. Ziegler is also the co-author of the memoir Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic, chronicling their unconventional entrepreneurial journey. Before his business ventures, he worked as a journalist for the Miami Herald and the San Francisco Chronicle, and he wrote for New York Magazine. A multi-faceted creative, Ziegler has also been an abstract painter for nearly 30 years. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: Athletic Nicotine https://www.athleticnicotine.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Sign up to receive Tetragrammaton Transmissions https://www.tetragrammaton.com/join-newsletter

Transcript

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0:00.0	Tetrogrammaton
0:02.0	Tetracket
0:05.0	Tetracketamato
0:07.0	All my life, I've been, I've been, I'm a writer at the core who's wandered into other paths in life.
0:31.6	But I found my way into Eastern philosophy after I sold my company. After 10 solid years, it seemed like one day
0:42.8	in building a company, I don't think we saw a movie. I don't think we went any, we just did
0:49.9	anything except work for 10 solid years. It was over, and it was a very strange experience.
0:57.0	I was 43 years old.
1:00.0	It was over, something I had built from $1,500 to a substantial company was gone.
1:08.0	The 3,000 employees were gone because it was a sort of an acquisition and
1:13.6	we didn't quite fit into the corporate culture of the gap and it was time to leave.
1:20.6	And I decided to go to a retreat. I had never done it, and it was one of the Vapasana retreats,
1:29.3	somewhere up in Santa Rosa, and when I went there,
1:33.3	I didn't know anything about it.
1:35.3	So I took a whole pile of books,
1:37.3	and I took sketch pads, and I was just gonna pour out
1:40.3	and everything on those pages.
1:43.3	And the teacher said, well, here's the burles.
1:47.7	No talking. No reading. No anything. Just sit for 45 minutes and walk for 45 minutes.
1:57.9	I said, what? I'm like, okay. I I was game I stayed for it it was odd I
2:04.5	was unsettled for the first day or two and then I got this excruciating headache
2:12.1	and it wouldn't go away and I said I'm I'm never going to let this happen to me before.
	...

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