The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America's #1 Wine Brand by Houlihan Michael & Harvey Bonnie

Author:Houlihan, Michael & Harvey, Bonnie [Houlihan, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Barefoot Spirit
ISBN: 9780988224544
Publisher: Evolve Publishing
Published: 2013-05-20T14:00:00+00:00

Barefoot’s early support of Surfrider was one of the most prominent examples of a core principle of the Barefoot Spirit: Bet on people who are doing the right thing.

It’s both a moral stand and a good business choice to put your resources into a cause you believe in, even if the cause isn’t completely popular—yet. A start-up business and a start-up cause make good partners.

Bonnie and Michael believed that businesses should take a stand on things that matter to them, which does not exactly sync with a long-held idea that businesses are best off when they avoid controversy. Bonnie and Michael saw it differently. From a pure business standpoint, they were a start-up, but staying quiet and under the radar would get them nowhere. And they might as well make noise for causes they believed in.

From a personal standpoint, they wanted to make a difference or leave something good in the places they walked, and they believed any business they owned had the same obligation.

And sometimes, taking a stand means trusting the people who work for you. That’s where Barefoot landed in early 1997. It started with a call from Randy Arnold to Michael.

“How do you feel about Tahoe?” Randy asked him.

“I love it,” Michael said. “It’s beautiful. It’s a special place. Why?”

“You know there’s algae growing in the lake and it’s starting to get really serious,” Randy said.

“Yeah, I know,” Michael said. “Maybe we should try to help.”

“Glad to hear you say that,” Randy said.

Randy had connected Barefoot to a campaign called Keep Tahoe Blue. He was arranging for neck talkers on Barefoot displays around Northern California and Nevada and was preparing to donate wine to fundraisers.

“You know that’s pretty controversial,” Michael said. “There are a lot of people who don’t want to slow development up there.”

“I know,” Randy said. “But it’s the right thing to do.”

“Yeah,” Michael said. “It is.”

Keep Tahoe Blue was both a campaign and the trademark of a group called the League to Save Lake Tahoe. Even then, it had already been on a decades-old crusade to protect Lake Tahoe, its high Sierra watershed, the air in the Tahoe basin, and the quality of life around one of the most beautiful places in America. It started as a coalition of environmental groups, and by the 1990s it had stopped the sewage flow into the lake, reduced development in the region, and limited the size of the roads and the number of casinos in the basin.

But in the mid-90s, the fight got bitter. Some groups and companies—builders, casinos, ski areas, restaurant chains and more—worried that curtailed growth or tough environmental control would damage their businesses. There was anger and fear on both sides.

In 1997, Barefoot was still pushing to get into vacation spots, and Tahoe was a hugely popular destination for much of the West in winter and summer. Yet, despite warnings to skirt the bitter political fight, Barefoot stepped in. They put on the neck talkers, put up signs and displays, did what they could to make their case.

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