I read the book “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight, the creator of Nike. It was very interesting to learn how Phil started his company and all the trials and tribulations he experienced.
1. The thing that surprised me the most was that he began his shoe company selling Japanese shoes, not his own. I always assumed big brands like Nike started up with an entrepreneur creating his/her product in their garage; but Phil was different. I admired most Phil’s unwillingness to fold in and give up, despite the debt and challenges he faced. I found it astonishing how he would make up random names and store locations on the fly when negotiating with the Japanese. I least admired the fact that he would continually leave his first employee, Jeff Johnson, on read after receiving letters from him every day asking for advice and encouragement. When Phil was faced with the letter from the Marlboro Man regarding selling Tigers in America, Phil jumped on the next plane to Japan to try and negotiate with Onitsuka, which I found very inspirational.
2. I noticed that Phil exhibited several competencies, including his ability to trust that everything would work out in the end and take risks. After graduating college and serving in the military for a few years, he asked his dad for a loan so he could travel the world to discover new cultures and pitch his Crazy Ideato the Japanese. His willingness to venture off without knowing whether the company in Japan would even see him is very brave.
3. One part that I am confused about from the reading is when he returned to work for his accounting firm, Price Waterhouse. He said that he took 2 weeks off to focus on his shoe company, but didn’t discuss how or when he returned to the accounting firm. He simply mentioned the firm in the following chapter, and the chapters go by years.
4. I would ask how he opened up his store on the East Coast because he claimed that he was in debt when he had the idea but somehow managed to move an employee out there. Another question I would ask is where his friend Carter is, who he originally began his trip around the world with but ended up staying in Hawaii with a girl he found.
5. Phil expressed hard work in several aspects of his life. His hard work got him to be a runner for the University of Oregon and get his CPA and be an accountant for a top eight accounting firm in the US while starting his shoe company. While I consider myself heavily involved with organizations here at UF and believe I work hard in the classroom, my devotion to these things is nowhere near Phil Knight’s devotion to the success of his shoe company. His opinion of hard work, if I had to guess, would be to not give up even in the darkest of circumstances, and I hold this opinion too.
Adam,
ReplyDeleteIt's important you read the book and understood the basics of Nike's story but for the sake of the assignment you might want to put some thought into this post. Its great you thought Phil worked hard but you never included any tangible goals he had and why he worked hard. You always need to go deep in this assignment and take a deep dive in this assignment and make the effort like you cared about this book.