Blake Mycoskie quotes:

Exercise your purchasing power as a consumer, volunteer and bring joy to those in need, and share your experiences, tell your stories, and inspire others along the way.

Instead of squirreling away your earnings early in your career, spend on experiences that will enrich your life - like diving with great white sharks. It can expose you to influential people who could open doors for you.

I never thought I would be in a position like this, where my words and experiences are now inspiring others to follow suit. It's challenging at times, but I can only look forward to the future of business and philanthropy.

Giving feels good, but it's also good for the bottom line. Charity is a viable growth strategy for a lot of companies. Our customers get excited to be a part of what we're doing. If you ask anyone wearing Toms how they first heard about us, most won't mention an advertisement; they'll say a friend told them our story.

Traveling as much as I do, I get lonely sometimes. I have friends now in cities all over the world, so I get to be social, but it's hard to have the deep meaningful relationships, especially an intimate one. With my guy friends, I can show up once a month and go to dinner with them and they're happy.

I believe each of us has a mission in life, and that one cannot truly be living their most fulfilled life until they recognize this mission and dedicate their life to pursuing it.

Music is such an important part of my life.

You know, you hear people talk about soul mates? That one person that you see, and that's it for you? Well, TOMS is the business equivalent of a soul mate for me.

I'm not a late-night person. After 10 P.M., I'm falling asleep. If I'm out at that time, I'll be the one falling asleep at dinner.

We believe Skype in the Classroom will be a milestone in inspiring the next generation of social entrepreneurs and we can't wait to connect students with TOMS partners.

When I accept an invitation for a public speaking engagement, my purpose is to share the TOMS story and our giving mission. In no way do I believe this means I endorse every single aspect of that organization. That may be naive, and you may disagree, but it is my sincere belief.

I feel a deep sense of responsibility to share everything that we've learned from TOMS, so that others can learn from both our mistakes and the counterintuitive principles that have guided our success.

As entrepreneurs, we often get pressured into hiring an industry executive. While it's good to hire people with experience, it can also be a stumbling block because they think about the business the same way everyone else does.

The idea of community and helping others has always been a part of who I am. Growing up, my parents always made sure that my siblings and I were doing our part to serve our local community.

Walk away from anyone who is unduly focused on vacation and compensation. It's a sign of potential trouble. No matter how talented you are, if you don't really want to work at TOMS, you'll never work out here.

People always ask me, when I had the idea for TOMS, did it change my life? As romantic and noble as it is, no it did not change my life. But when I went to Argentina on that first shoe-drop, it did change my life.

Almost every morning I write in my journal. I've been keeping it for a long time - I've filled more than 50 books. I write about what's going on in my personal and spiritual life or what's going on at work. It helps me keep things in perspective, especially when things get crazy or I get stressed or we have obstacles.

I credit my grandmother for my sense of style. She was known for wearing bright, outrageous things because it made people happy and she thought it made her more approachable. When you wear a brightly colored shirt or pants, it shows you don't take yourself too seriously and it puts everyone around you at ease.

Most people yearn to contribute, make the world a better place and have success.... all at the same time... Make sure to give your business a background, a mission and a story. That might be the most important step part of any venture. And remember, giving may be the best investment you ever make.

I've been blessed with a lot of things in life, but God did not give me rhythm. Still, I love to dance - which past girlfriends always found hilarious.

Anyone can make a difference, so you don't have to have it be some huge, global campaign... you can start small, and that's just as important.

I did what I think a lot of entrepreneurs do. I started putting up a lot of ads on Craigslist for interns.

I think the word 'social entrepreneur' is a really good description of what I am. What that means me to is that you have the entrepreneurial gift and spirit to create something out of nothing.

I would never want to take TOMS or myself into an issues debate. That's not what we're about. We're about helping people.

With TOMS, I found a way to create sustainable giving and consistently help those who are in need.

The goal isn't how much money you make, but how much you help people.

Keep it simple: own as little as you can get away with, schedule everything, keep a notebook, don't let technology enslave you.

A very big passion of mine and that of the people that run our production is finding factories that have fair labor practices and treating them more like partners in our family than people just who are going to produce for us.

I always thought that I would spend the first half of my life making money so I can spend the second half of my life giving it all away. And one of the defining moments of my life was when I realized that I could do both at the same time with TOMS.

When you're buying a pair of TOMS, if you don't feel like you're part of a community, then I've failed.

If you just go out and try to make money by starting a business, you're going to come up with something that's just like what everyone else has done. But if you look at the world and see opportunities that can be taken more seriously, then you come up with a great idea.

I love what I do, but it is hard to have a personal relationship when you're never home.

People often ask me what I consider my goal to be at TOMS. The truth is that it's changed over the years. When we first began, the goal was to create a for-profit company to help the children that I met in a small village in Argentina.

One thing I'm so grateful for is sidestepping the usual venture capital, private equity route. My friends who have gone that way are many times beholden to their boards of directors, to 'sell' ideas to a team.

A lot of people like the idea of companies being socially involved in their community, but if you want big companies to get involved in social issues, what makes you think they're going to come down on your side?

I can honestly say that TOMS is my future. I mean I have no desire to start any other company for as long as I live because this is the perfect blend of business and philanthropy to me.

I always have my journal with me. It was handmade by a guy at the San Telmo market in Buenos Aires. If you go there he can make you one. It's leather and bronze and I'm able to replace the paper when it runs out. It has a lion on the cover that I say is there to protect my thoughts.

The future of TOMS is really creating a whole new business model of this one-for-one giving and expanding the TOMS model from shoes into other products as well.

If you have a sense that your money is somehow, even indirectly, contributing to a cause that you find morally problematic, then it seems somewhere between reasonable and obligatory for you to vote with your dollars.

We are all human beings and I believe that we all should have equal rights.

It may sound too good to be true, but once you've seen the happiest people in your life who have nothing, you really start rethinking what the world, and society, tells us that we need to be happy.

The more you give, the more you live.

If you organize your life around your passion, you can turn your passion into your story and then turn your story into something bigger - something that matters.

The most important step of all is the first step. Start something! What if that idea you have in the back of your head is a really good one, one that might end up helping tens of thousands of people? You owe it to the world ot act. Or maybe it will help only a few people: The same advice applies. If you don't do it, you are missing out on something big, and so are the people who could have been helped.

When you have a memorable story about who you are and what your mission is, your success no longer depends on how experienced you are or how many degrees you have or who you know. A good story transcends boundaries, breaks barriers, and opens doors.

If whatever you do helps just one person, you've done something wonderful.

No matter how convenient it is for us to reach out to people remotely, sometimes the most important task is to show up in person.

A leader can create a company, but a community creates a movement,

Giving does not just feel good, but it's really, really good for business, and it's good for your personal brand.

One day, when I own a house, I'll keep a library full of books. Books are different from other possessions-they're more like friends.

I don't think college is for everyone. School is awesome, but for me, I was learning a lot more outside the classroom in the real world than I was in school.

The most important step of all is the first step. Start something.

Who is Tom? There is no Tom. If we sell a pair of shoes today, we give away a pair of shoes tomorrow. Originally we thought of "Tomorrow's Shoes," but I could only fit "TOMS" on the label. I had no idea everybody would want to meet him. There is no Tom; it's an idea for a better tomorrow.

Make the most out of every single day you have on earth and be thankful for them.

Allow your team to incorporate giving into their life through their job. Not only do employees stay around a lot longer, they do a lot more good.

The most important things are actually the easiest to obtain: great friends, good food, and a decent bottle of wine.

The greatest competitive advantage is to allow your employees to be part of something. Something bigger than what you're doing.

I don't get jet lagged that much. I'm so used to traveling and being in different places every day that I can sleep anywhere.

What got us to where we are today is not going to get us to where we need to go tomorrow.

I am a big believer in the value of traveling while you are young. The experiences you have in other countries can inspire greatness.

Giving builds loyal customers and turns those customers into supporters...You can find passion and profit and meaning all at once, right now.

Be tenacious. One thing that has allowed me to have some level of success is that I am fine with cold-calling people. It doesn't scare me to call someone who has no idea who I am and say I'd love to take you to lunch.

A good story transcends boundaries, breaks barriers and opens doors.

[People] had never heard about someone giving something away every time they sold something.

TOMS is no longer a shoe company... we're a one-for-one company.

[Our employees] do it not because we pay them more, but because they want to be part of something.

When you incorporate giving into your business in an authentic and transparent way, your customers become your best marketers.

When you incorporate giving into your business, you attract the most amazing partners.

TOMS didn't have to focus on advertising, but on giving in a way that's sustainable.

When people start serving together, they forgot about all their stress, [...] all their own problems. They start focusing on someone else's.

Vogue Magazine does something really interesting here: They make it look like I know exactly what I'm doing. Because Vogue made it look like I knew exactly what I'm doing, stores from all over started calling.

Stories are the most primitive and purest form of communication.

Simplicity is simple. Perhaps this sounds redundant. But it's true, and it's important.

I surround myself with inspirational quotations.

I surround myself with inspirational quotations. This easy-to-follow piece of advice has played a huge role in my being able to get past my own fears and insecurities throughout my entrepreneurial career.

Setbacks and fear are inevitable. The thing that distinguishes the ultimate successes from the ultimate failures is this: What do you do with them?

With technology today, companies are less in control of their brand

My goal was to go back to Argentina, and give them all-all the shoes-away. Not just to give them away, but to place them on each child's foot.

Giving is what fuels us. Giving is our future.

When you don't know the rules, you break them all. It's hard to take big risks when you know the history of an industry and what has worked and what didn't.

Your backpack is a part of your identity as a student.