WHY PEOPLE WILL NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT THE NIKE BOOK, SHOE DOG

Shoe Dog is the account of Phil Knight's journey as a dreamer and as an entrepreneur. Phil Knight is the founder of Nike and as of June 2019, Nike was estimated to be worth 134.78 Billion US Dollars. That's a lot of money!

This memoir sheds a good light on how Nike became the big brand we know today.
Here are a few key points to note from Shoe Dog:

1. He had a passion for running: 

By Phil's account, outdoor running was not popular in the 50s and 60s. It was the stuff of weirdos but

Phil liked running and believed that runners deserved better shoes for running. So, he turned his passion into a business. whatever is not mainstream is always considered weird and people like Phil are oftentimes regarded as the perpetrators of crazy until their plans work out just fine. The lesson here is for you to embrace your quirkiness. 

2. You can always make a detour. 

Phil left home (amidst the fears of his parents about traveling by air) for Asia with the hopes of learning more about shoe manufacturing but he ended up on a beach (still in the US) selling encyclopedias for 2 years. Then in a moment of Aha, he dusted himself and continued with his original plan. 

I think this just adds to the guy's eccentricity. The point is that you can always go back to your plan no matter how off the track you have gone. This applies to when losing weight so aptly (I would know). I like this quote by Caroline Myss: "you are never on the wrong path, wherever you are, that is where you are meant to be."

3. He had the right people around him. 

His family was very supportive. His father was not as enthusiastic at first but he eventually came around. In fact, he became very close to his dad and he would often call his father at night for some support. He was somewhat of a daddy's boy. 

Also, he had a mentor in the form of his university running coach, Bill Bowerman, who invested in his company and was responsible for a lot of the early Nike shoe designs and prototypes. 

He hired people who were aligned with his vision for Nike. There was an obese guy on his team. There was a bibliophile on his team. My point is that successful teams are made up of a mix of people blending their personalities and decision styles to make things work.

One of the poignant parts of Shoe Dog was reading about Steve Prefontaine.  He was actually the first track athlete to endorse Nike and he was someone who Phil admired a lot. Steve, unfortunately, died in a car crash in 1975 at the age of 24.

4. He just never gave up!

Let me just say that for Phil and his team, the struggle was real. Shoe dog details how the company struggled to keep its finances balanced for decades. They were always in need of loans and the company almost went bankrupt a couple of times.

They also had major legal issues with their Japanese partners, Onitsaka. 

In all, they stayed on and managed their circumstances until they broke through.

In my opinion, the underlying theme for this book is "the struggle is real". So if you are experiencing difficult times in your business, books like these help you realize that other people have had similar or worse experiences than you have, and have come out of them better people. However every business is unique, so if it is going very well for you, don't lose sleep because you are expecting calamity to befall you. 

I think I have said enough.  I urge you to go find Shoe Dog and read it.

-Tobi Amokeodo