Jim Nowlan
This is a “good news” story (we could use a few). I am late to the game here, as you will see, but worth the telling, and lessons to be learned.
A year or more ago I made friends with Rick Brooks of Princeton. Only later was I told that Rick is the co-founder of the Little Free Libraries. You’ve seen them, the little school houses on posts along sidewalks and in parks, wherever. Passersby put in their books, take out someone else’s. Nice.
Rick and co-founder Todd Bol are do-gooders of the highest order. Their idea wasn’t so much book exchange but sharing, and the good feelings that flows from it.
Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Zumiez, Inc. fourth-quarter fiscal 2020 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will conduct a question-and-answer session toward the end of this conference.
Before we begin, I d like to remind everyone of the company s safe harbor language. Today s conference call includes comments concerning Zumiez, Inc. business outlook and contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements and all other statements that may be made on this call that are not based on historical facts are subject to risks and uncertainties.
Actual results may differ materially. Additional information concerning a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the information that will be discussed is available in the Zumiez s filings with the SEC. At this time, I ll turn the call over to Rick Brooks, chief executive officer. Mr.
Rick Brooks Perspective March 10, 2021
I woke up at 1:15 in the morning and reached for something boring to read so I could go back to sleep. It was a mistake.
The book I found was
The Impossible Will Take a Little While, edited by Paul Rogat Loeb. Its subtitle was
Perseverance and Hope in Troubled Times. And it was perfect…and imperfect.
Perfect because it had 52 short essays by people I have admired for years. Brilliant thinkers and writers like Alice Walker, Desmond Tutu, Diane Ackerman, Vaclav Havel and John Lewis. Arundhati Roy, and Bill McKibben. One of the best pieces was by Parker Palmer, a former sociology professor at Beloit College.
Rick Brooks Perspective December 29, 2020
Since her divorce from the richest man in the world, MacKenzie Scott has done something unusual. She pledged to give “the majority of her fortune back to the society that helped generate it.” She promised to get started soon, then delivered more than 6 BILLION DOLLARS in the past year.
She gave to causes related to the pandemic and longer-term issues of race and gender-based inequities, poverty, food insecurity and climate change; strengthening democracy, colleges that welcomed low income students, and much, much more.
So far she has given away less than 10% of her net worth, which may well exceed 60 billion dollars. Can you imagine what might happen if more of us used our good fortunes like that?