book review: shoe dog

i rarely finish books and i like to skim-read. but this one i couldn't help but finish.

how nike came to be is a surprisingly unknown and underrated story. i had never even heard of phil knight before picking up this book… it is a great mix of phil's life and nike's story. if you consider them separate, that is.

(mini spoler!) at age 26 with $10k in sales and a shoe company out of his basement, phil's dad told him the infamous line "how long do you think you're going to keep jackassing around with these shoes?"

this reminds me of jeff bezos' quote "If you absolutely can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting."

phil could tolerate critics, and did something new and interesting.

i will say that details that i would've found interesting were left out in many parts. stuff like how they approached problems, or how they went about signing athletes and coaches. suddenly they had 10 pro athletes signed?! i would've liked to know how they went about it. other than that, the read was enjoyable af.

here are some of my takeaways:

as with most people who do great work, phil got his calling when he wasn't looking for it. it seems some luck is involved in finding your life's work. but common among people who found it is they increased their surface area for luck (by reading books, talking to many people, travelling, trying lots of things). phil's trip around the world was exactly that.

he did many things that seemed useless at the time, like working as an accountant and taking on other tasks which didn't ultimately contribute to his life's work. was this necessary for his process? idk. but it seems most formidable people go through some time of bumbling about before finding their life's work.
how do you work hard for decades and not burn out? you do what you love. i honestly lost count of how many times nike was about to go out of business. yet phil seemed to have very little doubt. probably because he loved running and felt he was (or could be) making the world a better place.
phil was a perennial risk taker. at a time when no one was innovating with shoes, nike did. (spolier alert!) phil lied about offices he didn't have (to convince manufacturers of shipping more), used his army reserve uniform to get free military transport, stole information from his competitor, and the list continues. the company itself was built on debt and loans. even after the first decade and a half they barely had any liquidity. 90% debt. every payment needed a new loan from the bank… imagine that!
business is problems. over and over they had manufacturing problems, employees wanting to quit, banks closing their account, competitors trying to ruin them. just go for a run then solve the damn problem.

what amazes me upon reflection is that he did all of this with a wife and 2 kids?!

also, a fun facts: the company that originally manufactured nike shoes was asics (when nike was still called blue ribbon and asics was called onitsuka.) and nike was originally named "blue ribbon"

without glazing too much, i give shoe dog a 4.7/5. i hope you'll read it.