Blake Mycoskie won by losing. He lost the $1 million prize on the second season of the Amazing Race by four minutes, and yet if had won, he may not have founded his hugely successful and philanthropic TOMS Shoe company. He and his sister had entered the CBS reality race program and high-tailed it through 13 countries in 31 days, but another team beat them to the final treasure on the global scavenger hunt. “The experience opened my eyes to looking at the world in a new way,” explains Mycoskie, who is now best-known as the Chief Shoe Giver who appears on the popular AT&T television commercial. In fact, while I was meeting with Mycoskie in New York recently to hear about how his shoe company is bringing loyal customers to South America and Africa on community shoe drops, the ad appeared on a TV over the bar. Waiters and waitresses looked from the screen to our table and back.

Read the original here Melissa Biggs Bradley: TOMS Shoes: Why Doing Good Makes Good Business Sense