The Founder of Whole Foods Shares His Recipe for Success

John Mackey shares 5 insights from The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism

Where did you buy your groceries this week? There are lot of options, of course, but one that’s hard to miss is Whole Foods, the supermarket chain that grew from one store in Austin, Texas to 540 in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, with annual sales of more than $22 billion. The man most responsible for this success is co-founder John Mackey, who wanted to change the way Americans ate and ended up overseeing a revolution in retail and nutrition. He recounts this story in the new book The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism. Our curator Adam Grant says it’s “a memoir filled with surprising life lessons.” Here’s John to share some of his big ideas.

1. Embrace your mistakes.

People often ask me if I have any regrets and what would I want to tell my younger self. First off, my younger self definitely would not have listened to me. But really, I wouldn’t tell my younger self to change anything! I am a firm believer that mistakes are opportunities to learn and grow. In The Whole Story, I’m very honest and candid about my mistakes because I think it is important to share the lessons I learned from them.