“Have faith in yourself, but also have faith in faith. Not faith as other define it. Faith as you define it. Faith as faith defines itself in your heart.” These words by Phil Knight has touched my heart. How many times people tell you to have faith but you know very well it has to come from within so you can believe it. Having faith means trusting your intuition even if the whole world is against you. Faith will give you hope, courage to follow your calling, and maybe the answer to your very own existence.
This book is about how Nike is born, struggled, survived and now slying! The author Phil Knight is the founder of Nike and has shared his life in these pages. Phil Knigh was a runner and truly a shoe dog. His passion for shoe, his trust on his coach Bowerman, his team as passionate about shoes as he is, and his mindset to navigate through high and lows made Nike this huge.
As an American, after world war II, sitting in the conference room of a Japanese shoe making company and pitching for selling Japanese shoes in America had to do with passion after all. Phil had no idea how he would start this business of selling Japanese shoes but he had the vision, He wanted to sell the Japanese shoe making company named Tiger’s shoes when the market was dominated by two German brands, Adidas and Puma.
The vision was not only limited to just selling the shoes but improvising the quality of the shoes with the help of his coach Bowerman who was a real shoe dog and, always experimenting on his runners to create the shoes with best quality possible. Boweman was a well know coach who trained Olympic runners.
Phil stared blue ribbons with passion and vision. His confidence at the conference room of Japanese company, his broken heart which kept the flame alive to do something, his hard working attitude to do double jobs before he can fully depend on his business for living, his accountant mindset, the constant support of his wife Penny, his team who includes runners or shoe dog like him, him navigating to new direction and turning challenges into opportunities made him not only a successful enterpreneur but good leader to his team.
There has been so many inspiring people, stories, books out there, so why would you read this book specifically?
if i have to answer this shortly, i would say to get the experiences of Phil’s life who has only one thing, passion and he created something huge by following his calling. This is the book for every enterprenuer who go to the war everyday. you never know how many obsectles you will deal along the way but you do it because you have not started to give up easily. Nike is born when Phil got to know he could be out of business anytime, he dealt with challenges and at the same time he emphsised on delivering the quality, he who never believed in marketing, learnt the power of marketing, and endorsements. The team work will decide the future of the company and Phil had built the amazing team who are as passionate for shoes as he is.
Things I am taking from this book are
- The habit of constantly writing it out. He has the habit of putting out everything on his yellow bookpad either his to do list, his idea or anything that cross his mind.
- People you surround yourself with will play important part in your life.
- The team you build over the time is your most valuable assest in any business.
- Your partner, your family is the calm in the chaos.
- Follow your calling, even if you don’t know your calling, seek your calling.
- Have faith.
