13a: Reading Reflection #1
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
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What surprised me the most about this autobiography
by Phil Knight on how he built up the Nike empire was the decades of struggles
he went through in order to reach the pinnacle at which he’s at now. In saying
this, he started by selling the ‘Tigers’ out of the back of his car for several
years before venturing out to Japan to try and strike up a deal
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I most admired Phil Knight in how these Nike
shoes manufactured in Japan was an idea for his Entrepreneurship class at Stanford,
and how he pulled the trigger for this to come to a reality.
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Honestly, I feel like Phil Knight could of
gotten more help early on in the process of trying to start up Nike, I felt he
was a little egotistic about his idea.
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Phil Knight went through multitudes of adversity
& failure throughout the 25 plus years it took him to build up Nike. From a
competitive standpoint there was the other salesman from New York attempting to
strike a deal with the Japanese manufacturers as well that Phil Knight had to
out duel.
The competencies I saw in Phil Knight throughout the book included
his never-ending and stubborn persistence that he emulated throughout the text.
This was by far the most striking thing to me, he battled for years in order to
get his shoe company ‘blue ribbon’ off the ground
The biggest thing that was confusing to myself was I felt Phil
Knight really stretched out certain parts of the text with exact details that
weren’t 100% relevant to the reader
My two questions would be: If you could go back and do everything
over again, what would you change or attack differently? And, to what extent is
bringing in a partner or asking for help a necessity vs an obstacle?
I believe Phil Knights opinion of hard work is epitomized
through digging through the trenches in order to get something done. Myself
personally, 100% agree w this.
Hey Evan,
ReplyDeleteThis was a really interesting analysis. I had no idea Nike had so many hardships and obstacles when it was just starting. That is interesting how his idea first originated in the Japanese market and how he brought it to America. Phil Knight has become so successful through his hard work and dedication and you definitely showed that in your review. Good job!
Hey Evan!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on this week’s post! I never knew that Phil Knight struggled to build the Nike empire. I always imagined that Nike was loved by everyone across the globe. I was very surprised to hear that Phil created his idea for Nike in an Entrepreneurship class at Stanford. Most major innovators and entrepreneurs come from Ivy League schools or very well-known schools, so I was not surprised to find out that he attended school at Stanford. Overall, great blog post for this week!