The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism by John Mackey offers a comprehensive account of the rise of Whole Foods Market and Mackey's personal and spiritual journey. With a runtime of 13 hours and 6 minutes, it truly is the whole story.

As a business management major, I was vaguely familiar with John Mackey, but I got a better glimpse through an episode of the Freakonomics podcast titled 'How to Succeed by Being Authentic (Hint: Carefully)'. I highly recommend it as a starting point before diving into this book, to grasp Mackey's thinking style and see if his ideas resonate with you and if you can handle some of his political rantings. If they do, this audiobook is a good suit for your commute.

I particularly enjoyed his reflections of how much compromising of himself, or backing off his own ideals, he was wanting to do to make space for others in his businesses, and to grow said businesses. Mackey is quite eccentric but very logical in explaining his thinking. 

I always find it interesting if when a business leader accomplishes something that their team or others were unsure of or thought was impossible, what lessons they take from that. That is, do they jump to the notion of, 'Oh, no one thought I could do it, I'm a genius, they're wrong,' which you certainly don't learn anything from as a reader. Or, are they of the mindset of, 'Okay, we were playing with fire a little bit there, that was an uphill battle, we really came together and made that work, what do we change for next time?' Mackey certainly strikes me as the latter, emphasizing relationships, collaboration, and personal mistakes in this memoir rather than basking in his successes. 

Thank you to RB Media, Ascent Audio, and Netgalley for the advanced copy.