A Social Entrepreneur Who Always Lands on her Feet

Interview with Patrice Wynne

Photo credit: Patricia Langan, WEConnect International

By listening to her heart, Patrice wins, over and over. She spins the wheel and it lands on triumph! For over five decades, she pushed, she pulled, and embraced change, while following her instincts. 

“I come from a family of entrepreneurs, mostly women who owned shops and candy stores in a coal-mining village in Pennsylvania. My grandmother, Kitty, was a huge influence; she was always adventuring, always had ideas. She was my beloved life force. I modeled myself after her.”

“In my teens, my family moved to a suburban community where everyone looked the same, and did the same things. I didn’t like it; I felt like there's got to be more to experience.”

“So…I started imagining a different life for myself…”

“As the oldest of six, I helped care for my siblings and postponed college to help my mother. During that time, I went to Philadelphia to get a job in a bank, and when I stopped off in a cafe a woman sat next to me and said, “By any chance, are you looking for a job?? I'm looking for employees to work at a store called Fotomat.” (Fotomat was an American retail chain of photo development drive-through kiosks located primarily in shopping center parking lots). I told her I was on my way to Philadelphia, but what the hell? I started training that afternoon, and I became Regional Director for all of Northern California, with 500 employees. When I quit, in my late 20s, I thought, ‘I'm like, a really boring person. I don't know anything about anything except management and selling.’”

“I took time off, and I traveled through Europe. I wanted to experience myself as a human, not just an executive. I wanted to break out of the mold that I created for myself. It was shell-breaking.”

“There's an enormous amount of trust when you’re traveling. If you stay open, trust your instincts, and use your head, you can have incredible experiences. I saw La Scala on the Italian stage, and when the audience didn't like parts, they would throw shoes onto the stage! Seeing this wild, absolute passion emphasized how I wanted to freely give myself over to my heart’s delight. It changed everything.”

“And, so…I returned to the US and found an apartment in San Francisco in a house with four women, all from different countries. I registered at the University of San Francisco, in the law department.”

“Except once I started carrying around books the size of cookbooks, I thought, ‘I don't want to devote the next six years to this,’ and I transferred to the Native American and Philosophy department. While at college, I co-founded Rising Spirits Cafe at the Ecumenical House of San Francisco State University. The cafe sponsored readings by authors (including poetry by Vietnam Vets), conversations with professors, and organized events for the nuclear freeze movement. Important work, but psychologically very challenging. When I graduated with a degree in Women’s Studies, I went to the Ojai Foundation to revive myself. There a Buddhist Llama serendipitously pointed at me and said, ‘She is a leader, she can run your store.’”

“So, I opened their bookstore in the yurt and discovered that I loved being in the book world, and later opened my own bookstore, Gaia, in North Berkeley, where I was living.”

“Running a bookstore is extraordinarily rewarding. People are happy to read books, to share what they're reading, to talk about how their mind is growing, and how their heart, spirit, and soul are expanding. You're in this huge field of positivity every day. I am wired so that I don't remember bad things. I was there 20 years, so there had to be bad people, but I don't remember them. It was the most awesome kind of life and career. I'm not bragging. Muhammad Ali said, ‘It's not bragging if it's fact.’”

“As a result of the competition from the big box stores and Amazon, I had to close my bookstore. It tore my heart out. It was like I lost my whole family in a tragic car accident. No matter how heartbreaking, what tears your soul, reveals a gift, a little gemstone. It takes time to come to it.”

But Patrice is an adapter. An explorer. And she charged forward to a new discovery.

“I moved to Mexico, and now I've had 24 years of good. I met my husband and I don't think that would have happened in Berkeley. I did something totally original with Abrazos, my store in San Miguel de Allende. It brings together what I value–community, fair trade, engagement with the Mexican people. And I love textiles. My mother and grandmother made all our clothes.”

“At Abrazos, we have nine seamstresses, and two staff managers who are part of a collective. They set their wages. It's like a family, with boundaries.”

“When you own a business, it asks everything of you. I'm fortunate that the managers handle much of the day to day. I have deep attachments to the employees, the seamstresses, and my life here in San Miguel. I also love being embedded in this culture and society with the Mexican people. It's very gratifying. The vast majority of them live from the heart.”

“As for doing things? I always say, if I had a penny and I had to move to Saudi Arabia, I could figure out how to start a business. I have confidence in my generative capacity. My parents would always say, ‘You can do whatever you want to do. You can be whatever you want to be. I never had limitations put on me.’”

To learn more about Patrice and her store Abrazos visit http://sanmigueldesigns.com/ or when in San Miguel de Allende, drop in!

Abrazos Boutique San Miguel, Zacateros 24, Centro Histórico, San Miguel de Allende, GTO, Mexico