""That was the most difficult thing I ever did was firing my dad from that board," Mackey said. "It took all the courage I had. I love my dad so much, and it hurt him so badly. It was so hard to do, but it was also a pivotal event in my own evolution.""
""It won't kill you," Mackey told the New Yorker in 2010, "but it's very unpleasant, and will make a lot of people not want to be your lover.""
""shirtless hitchhiking hippie""
""socialists are taking over,""
John Mackey fired his father from the Whole Foods board in 1994, a decision he regarded as the most difficult and pivotal moment in his business evolution. Mackey cofounded Whole Foods in 1980 and served as co-CEO until retiring in 2022. He began as a college dropout and a self-described "shirtless hitchhiking hippie" who embraced risk and wealth growth. Mackey expressed contradictory views: supporting marriage equality and crediting psychedelics for business inspiration while praising capitalism and sharply criticizing labor unions. In 2022 he warned that "socialists are taking over" and said many young people seek meaningful work. His father, an original investor, preferred conserving cash and grew more rigid with age amid an Alzheimer's diagnosis.
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