Assignment 13A - Reading Reflection 1

Assignment 13A – Reading Reflection 1

Reflection on Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

1.     I think a more fitting question for this autobiography is what didn’t surprise me. I think there is a stereotype of entrepreneurs today in that they are extremely extroverted, eloquent speakers, and brilliant salesmen. What surprised me the most was how different Phil Knight was from all of these adjectives. He was brilliant in so many other ways- most notably his ability to keep going. It also surprised me that he was not the one to come up with the infamous Nike swish logo or even the brand name Nike itself.

a.     Not only do I admire Phil Knight’s perseverance, but also his belief that “it’s never just business.” He has always believed in something more, something greater than just selling a product. He encourages people to “have faith in faith.”

b.     I can’t say that there’s anything I disliked about Phil Knight. However, if I had to pick one thing that I least admired I would say it is how much his work took him away from his family and children. However, that is ultimately the price he paid for greatness.

c.     He absolutely encountered adversity and failure. I don’t think there’s ever been a successful (or unsuccessful) entrepreneur that hasn’t. He was constantly in debt and constantly had to borrow money and worry about being able to pay it back. He also had to go through many lawsuits, unsuccessful products, and even a $25 million fine from US Customs.

2.     Like I mentioned before, his greatest competency was his perseverance, his ability to keep going when everything was working against him. He is extremely humble and gives credit where credit is due. After all, he didn’t even come up with the name Nike or the trademark symbol himself. He also believes that what he is doing is much more than just business- instead he is adding value to the world and changing people’s lives for the better.

3.     What was most confusing to me was how much fabrication Phil Knight did in order to get Onitsuka to work with him. In the very beginning, he simply makes up the fact that he works for a company called Blue Ribbon, which could distribute the shoes, when in reality this company did not yet exist. He also lies to them on other occasions, like when he says that he has offices on both coasts, when in reality no such east coast office existed.

4.     I would ask what he would do differently if he were given the opportunity to do it all over again, because I would want to know what the most important lesson he learned was. I would also ask what his opinion is of the things Nike is doing today and the company culture since he has left. I’m sure it is vastly different than what it was like when he was building it from the ground up and so I would be interested to know what he thought about the changes.

5.     I think Phil Knight’s opinion of hard work is that it is the single most important thing. Throughout the whole book, this is the one concept he kept repeating and emphasizing. Hard work is the only thing that got him through the countless failures and obstacles that he had to encounter along the way. It is an absolutely necessary part of any successful endeavor.