“My entire life, I never had one big idea. I like to think I woke up one day and figured out how to make the world’s best canvas-and-rubber, waffle-soled deck shoes, how to distribute said shoes, and thus create the first vertically integrated tennis shoe company in the world; but the fact of it is, I could have been growing potatoes. Actually, shoes have nothing to do with my success. What I’ve accomplished comes down to one thing: my knack for identifying and then solving problems. What I do better than anything else is cut out distractions. If a system isn’t working efficiently, I can see where it’s jammed, eliminate the problem, and find a way to keep everything moving forward. Everyone has something they naturally do better than anyone else—this happens to be mine, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to leverage it.”
— Paul Van Doren.
