![]() But definitely not Steve Prefontaine! In fact, I had never heard of the latter. The soul? Well, when I think of Nike, Michael Jordan immediately comes to mind. Who knows? Perhaps his 6 mile jogs helped him remain on-track while building what is now an empire & retaining at least somewhat of a soul. And, objectively embrace, encourage & build upon their skill-sets while facing lawsuit after lawsuit on a shoestring budget with a wife, young children & a very real fear of both imprisonment & bankruptcy persistently looming overhead. ![]() More importantly, I didn't realize this man had the courage, the drive & dare I say, the chutzpah, to do what so very few can - offset his own imperfections with an obsessively driven, mostly loyal & phenomenally quirky team. I don't think any of that is really a spoiler because it can also be found by doing a simple google search. I also did not know he had lost his oldest son. He felt a good product would sell itself. Unlike Steve Jobs, Phil Knight did not really have too much faith in advertising. Oh, and his logo? The famous swoosh? That had been designed for $35 by a previously unknown graphic design student he commissioned. Or that Nike literally means the Greek Goddess of Victory. ![]() I didn't know he had met his wife while teaching at Portland State (after leaving PWC to buy himself more time to work on building his entrepreneurial endeavor). I mean, I had no idea he's from Portland, Oregon, or that, by trade, he's an accountant, or that he identifies as an introvert. Phil Knight had been an unfamiliar name to me before I picked up this memoir. Twice! I did not know a book about what I had previously viewed as the definition of a big corporation could have that sort of power. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream-along with his early triumphs. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business-a business that would be dynamic, different. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today.īut Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.
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