It's a bit surprising to see that Blake Mycoskie repeatedly invokes such a hoary old self-help slogan. But there it is, in foot-high, wooden letters on an upstairs landing at the Los Angeles headquarters of his shoe and accessories company, Toms. There it is again, in a painting on the wall of his office/man cave. And you'll find him repeating it several times in his book, Start Something That Matters.

If there's anyone who can make a case for seizing the day, it's Mycoskie. He has done it repeatedly and successfully over the past seven years, orchestrating toms shoes sale
's rise into the top flight of fashion and establishing it as a new kind of business. More than any other brand, Toms has integrated old-fashioned, for-profit entrepreneurship with new-wave, bleeding-heart philanthropy, bonding moneymaking and giving in an unprecedented manner. The company has become so closely identified with giving away a pair of shoes to a poor child for every pair sold--Toms has trademarked the tagline "one for one"--that it's often mistaken for a charity. And it has spawned buy-one-give-one copycats offering everything from dog treats to cups of coffee.
"With his deep tan, untamed mess of curly brown hair, and sometimes-questionable hygiene, Mycoskie appears almost feral."

This spring, toms natural canvas gave away its 10 millionth pair of shoes. "Within the next 18 to 24 months," Mycoskie says, "we expect we'll have given away 10 million more." It now also sells sunglasses--more than 150,000 pairs in the past two years--and in turn has helped deliver eye care to more than 150,000 people. Toms currently donates shoes in 59 countries and eye care in 13. The figures add up to remarkable growth for a remarkable company, one that has put shoes on the feet of many poor children, made its owner a very rich man, and pioneered a much-admired business model. "I had no idea it would ever get this big," says Mycoskie, a 36-year-old Texan whose laid-back, surfer-dude vibe masks the ambition of an entrepreneur who prefers to talk less about the company he has built than of the movement he is building. "Now that we've grown, it's all about: How do you use these resources to do even more?"


Mycoskie says the university of arizona toms one-for-one model could involve much more than your feet and your eyes--he envisions a Toms empire that encompasses all sorts of everyday products. But what many of his critics would like him to talk about instead--and what, during two long interviews with Fast Company, he discussed publicly at length for the first time--are Toms's failings on the giving side and its plans to change its ways. You could sum that up with a different Latin phrase: Mea culpa.


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