Former Patagonia CEO Serves Meals to Aspiring Entrepreneurs: ‘He Just Decides to Do Something’

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last week, the american prairie reserve honored Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, President and Co-Founder of Tompkins Conservation, with the 2023 Ken Burns American Heritage Award, which recognizes “individuals whose achievements have advanced our collective understanding of American heritage and the indomitable American spirit.” Past winners of the prestigious award have included filmmaker Jimmy Chin, musician Wynton Marsalis, poet N. Scott Momadayartist maya lin and writer david mccullough.

Tompkins is the former CEO of Patagonia, Inc. and one of the most impactful philanthropic conservationists in history. She and her late husband, Douglas Tompkins, have led efforts to protect approximately 14.8 million acres of parkland in Chile and Argentina, and that work continues to expand. Tompkins’ incredible career is the subject of new documentary WildlifeDirected by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the Oscar winning duo behind free solo.

Related: Ken Burns talks about leadership, productivity and how to achieve immortality through storytelling

Entrepreneur attended this year’s Ken Burns American Heritage Award presentation in New York City and afterwards spoke with Tompkins and Burns about starting a business and setting it up to succeed for generations to come.

What do you think is the most important thing a starting entrepreneur can do to find success?

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins: You have to fucking decide to do something, okay? Decide that you want to be doing something meaningful. No matter what it is. You go in, you get on and you meet people you never would have met before, and it grows. People have to stop giving up their future. My future is in the hands of the gods. Well, forget it. It’s not how it works. You have to participate in your own story. I mean really, what are we waiting for? And be useful. A lot of people in business aren’t really helpful. If you ever want to feel needed, take your business skills to organizations and people trying to do good in the world.

Ken Burns: The poet Robert Penn Warren once looked at me with those fascinating eyes and said, “The race is death.” And I’ve never used the word “career” again. I only refer to my professional life. Because what happens is we get stuck in expectations, so we abdicate, and as Kris was saying, abdication gets you nothing.

Between his work in the corporate world and his incredible conservation efforts, he cites the power of partnerships and “consulting the genius of a place.” How would you describe your leadership style?

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins: I believe in creating teams that know everything. Right after Doug died, I immediately started the process of making both teams in Chile and Argentina independent because I knew if anything happened to me, I would get screwed. If I drop dead this afternoon and they don’t succeed tomorrow morning, then we fail. I’m very proud of what we’ve done over the last 30 years, but that’s not the point. That was then. What are we doing in the future?

Related: Ken Burns says entrepreneurship is at the heart of the American dream

You are a great champion of conservation. What do you think most people misunderstand about environmental efforts?

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins: There is a deeply mistaken feeling that if I help protect a particular area or species, I am sacrificing something. I am going to sacrifice this life of mine to help with these things. That’s stupid. I can tell you, whether it’s Ted Turner or whoever, every conservation philanthropist who walks out the door and gets his feet wet realizes that the sacrifice he’s been making was the life he’s been living. That glorious house in the Hamptons or Jackson Hole or wherever? That is a box. That’s the real box you’ve gotten yourself into because that’s the current success story. When you step out of that box, it changes your life forever.