What Can Phil Knight, the Creator of Nike, Teach You About Life and Business
15 powerful lessons from Shoe Dog.
Meet Phil, the creator of Nike.
Worth around $ 37.6 Billion, he’s here to teach you some lessons about life and business. Here are the main points I extracted from the book — Shoe Dog (which is a ridiculously good read if you ask me — go and read it).
1. Surround yourself with the right people
It all started with Bowerman, a legendary track and field coach, who designed shoes and running surfaces, installed explosives in his mailbox to deter a mailman (true story), and constantly brought his pupils to push their limits (many of his runners reached a mile under 4 minutes).
Then came Jeff Johnson as the Full-time Employee Number One. Not only did he design many of the most successful shoes Nike produced, but he was also the one who came up with the name Nike in the first place. Relentlessly innovative and adaptable, he was one of the building blocks why Nike became what it is.
Then there was Woodell, an organizational and managerial genius who helped set up factories, close deals, and run the first retail stores.
As the company grew, many others came aboard. Hayes, the accounting guru. Strasser, the ruthless dealmaker. But the names here are irrelevant. What’s more important is to have the right people on your team.
The lesson:
Surround yourself with brilliant people. People who are motivated, driven, and, most importantly, people who share your passion for the cause.
2. Grow relentlessly
Life is growth. You grow or die.
The book starts with Phil’s trip to Japan and the Crazy Idea (to import and sell shoes from Japan). From that singular moment, the company hasn’t stopped growing. Every cent made was instantly reinvested in the business.
But not just willy-nilly. There was a system to all that growth, priorities and values that steered it in the right direction (like a new shipment, acquiring athletes, and making deals with factories) and things that could wait (like fixing windows in the office space and wearing a jacket instead).
Phil waited years before he started paying himself a salary, working as an accountant to pay for necessities like rent and food.
The lesson:
You grow or die.
3. Have a higher purpose than money
Phil mentioned many times money wasn’t the main driver. Purpose, or calling was. He was a track runner and a huge sports fan before he founded Blue Ribbon (the original company name). Selling shoes enabled him to extend this part of the identity into his work life as well. And he thrived. Work then wasn’t work, it was fun, it was a challenge. But above all that, it was fulfilling even when the company was broke (almost always, till they went public). Had money been the main driver, Nike would probably not exist as the sports behemoth it is now.
The lesson:
Money isn’t everything. As Phil puts it:
“I’d tell men and women in their midtwenties not to settle for a job or a profession or even a career. Seek a calling. Even if you don’t know what that means, seek it. If you’re following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you’ve ever felt.”
4. Eyes on the prize
Phil focused on one thing — selling shoes. He transformed his whole life around it. He was a runner and he knew the nitty-gritty of the field. He knew what the runners needed, what they felt, what they feared. And he knew how to deliver all that because he was a runner himself. He lived surrounded by shoes, literally — his first apartment served as a storage space from where he sold Tigers, his first product. Everything he did had one common denominator — selling shoes, building a company.
“I wanted to build something that was my own, something I could point to and say: I made that. It was the only way I saw to make life meaningful.“
The lesson:
Focus on one thing and do it well. Transform your life around it.
5. Motivate yourself by pep talks
Phil is an introvert. And introverts have it difficult in the world of business — a battleground for extroverts. Nevertheless, he needed to sell shoes, he needed to persuade others. But for that, he first needed to persuade himself. He did that by giving himself encouraging pep talks he picked up from the coach Bowerman. Before a big presentation or an interview, he talked himself into performing well:
After shaving, I put on my green Brooks Brothers suit and gave myself a pep talk.
You are capable. You are confident. You can do this.
You can DO this.
Then I went to the wrong place.
I presented myself at the Onitsuka showroom, when in fact I was expected at the Onitsuka factory — across town.
The lesson:
Motivate yourself by pep talks! (and be funny like Phil)
6. Reflect daily and connect with others
Later in the book, Phil describes his evenings. He would sit down in his recliner and call his father or a friend and talk. This talk would be structured: he would ask his dad how’s mom, how was his day. The dad would do the same. Afterward, they talked about Nike’s struggles and competitors. Strategizing, contemplating, reflecting on how to one-up the competition, avoid legal disasters, or how to grow. When he wasn’t on the phone, he was devising plans on his yellow legal pad, writing down lists and ideas.
The lesson:
Reflect on the day. What went well, what needs improving, what to tackle the next. Do it daily and the results will compound. Most importantly, you’ll have a system to avoid making the same mistake all over again. You’ll weed out the unimportant and zero in on what matters.
7. Build a culture around you that scorns roles and mocks status quo
This dovetails well with the first point… Actually, the first point is kind of a requirement for this one. Phil built a culture of contrarians, of misfits, of Buttfaces (how they called themselves). Authority wasn’t sacred — it was relentlessly mocked. People didn’t live or die by their reputation. No idea was sacred. Needless to say that status quo didn’t flourish in this environment.
Johnson coined the phrase, we think. At one of our earliest retreats he muttered: “How many multimillion-dollar companies can you yell out, ‘Hey, Buttface,’ and the entire management team turns around?” It got a laugh. And then it stuck. And then it became a key part of our vernacular. Buttface referred to both the retreat and the retreaters, and it not only captured the informal mood of those retreats, where no idea was too sacred to be mocked, and no person was too important to be ridiculed, it also summed up the company spirit, mission and ethos.
The lesson:
In order not to calcify you must create an environment where nothing is sacred, where anyone can express themselves without fearing repercussions.
8. Fight for what you believe
Throughout the book, Phil faced many a crisis and tough decisions. In situations where most of us would curl up in a ball and hide behind our mother’s skirt, Phil persevered. He pushed on for what he believed in. He constantly faced money problems, where his bank wouldn’t give him any credit because he didn’t have any equity. No matter his sales doubled each year; equity was what mattered.
So, he would order the shoes regardless and went to persuade the bank later. And persuade them he did.
A story that illustrates this point poignantly is his badminton game with his cousin Houser:
“When we were kids Cousin Houser and I used to play vicious, marathon games of badminton in his backyard. One summer we played exactly 116 games. Why 116? Because Cousin Houser beat me 115 straight times. I refused to quit until I’d won. And he had no trouble understanding my position. “
The lesson:
Fight till your last breath. You never know how things turn out.
9. Believe in others
Phil was a great believer. Believer in other people.
He managed by the motto:
Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.
He was a laissez-faire manager. He didn’t micromanage, tell people what to do, or pester people. He believed people know what to do.
The lesson:
Surround yourself with brilliant people (lesson 1) and trust they know what to do. Proceed to reap the benefits.
10. Move
Throughout the book, Phil mentions his running routine. Every evening come rain or snow; he would do his 6-mile run. He would keep in shape. The way the running was presented makes me think it was more than just movement. It was a meditative activity. Something that he’d do to let go of his daily struggles and come down to rewind so that he can start all over again the next day.
As he puts it:
“At the close of those difficult days, it was my nightly six-mile run that saved my life. And then it was my brief time with Matthew (son) and Penny (wife) that preserved my sanity.”
The lesson:
Many of us forget the importance of physical exercise when we’re stressed or depressed. But that’s exactly when we need to move. Moving clears the mind.
11. Play it straight
Phil didn’t always play fair. He cheated when he saw no other options. When Tigers manufacturer (Onitsuka’s manager Kitami) visited the US on a business trip, Phil had a suspicion he might cut Blue Ribbon’s exclusive distribution rights. And this despite they had an agreement. So, he did the most sensible thing — he stole files from Kitami’s briefcase when he went to the toilet, looked over them, and returned them before Kitami noticed a thing. Knowing what the files said, Phil made sure to take measures to protect his company.
But it backfired on him. He got caught. He got sued for breaking the contract (and a bunch of other things). He had a choice, then, to play it straight or keep this information to himself. He chose to play it straight and ended up winning.
The lesson:
Own up to what you did. Honesty trumps lying.
12. Belief and confidence in what you do
Shortly after the first batch of shoes arrived, Phil learned a valuable lesson. People don’t buy the product; they buy the belief. Since he believed in his product and was confident in its quality, he had a different flair than all the other salesmen. Selling shoes was never a problem throughout the book. Getting them in the first place to meet the demand was.
“So why was selling shoes so different? Because, I realized, it wasn’t selling. I believed in running. I believed that if people got out and ran a few miles every day, the world would be a better place, and I believed these shoes were better to run in. People, sensing my belief, wanted some of that belief for themselves. Belief, I decided. Belief is irresistible. “
The lesson:
Have faith. It not only affects you but others as well.
13. Just do it
“The cowards never started and the weak died along the way.”
The now ever-present slogan was not once mentioned in the book, but it permeated Phil’s worldview regardless. He had a goal, he started, and he hasn’t dropped the ball since. Sure he planned, strategized and thought about how to achieve it, but this never interfered with taking action.
The lesson:
Action over words.
14. Enjoy the ups and downs, you’ll look back on them fondly when you’re older
Some things seem catastrophic at the moment. You lost your job, got dumped, or had an accident. You don’t know how you’ll ever get up from this mess. But remember, it will all pass. Looking back, Phil thought back fondly on all those nerve-wracking moments of near insanity and imminent destruction.
“God, how I wish I could relive the whole thing. Short of that, I’d like to share the experience, the ups and downs, so that some young man or woman, somewhere, going through the same trials and ordeals, might be inspired or comforted.”
The lesson:
Things aren’t as grim as they seem now. The emotion will fade, and you’ll adapt.
15. Giving up and stopping aren’t the same thing
“And those who urge entrepreneurs to never give up? Charlatans. Sometimes you have to give up. Sometimes knowing when to give up, when to try something else, is genius. Giving up doesn’t mean stopping. Don’t ever stop.”
Although Phil didn’t have to quit the company he built like Steve Jobs, he acknowledges the power of giving up. Oftentimes, we’re mired in our day to day struggles, unable to see that there’s a simpler solution — to quit and start something new. Not only will it save us a lot of trouble along the way, but it will also open new possibilities, things we’ve never even conceived of since we haven’t tried them yet.
The lesson:
Don’t be afraid to quit something that doesn’t feel right.
Even though I’m not an entrepreneur, Shoe Dog has taught me a lot. I hope some of the lessons here will resonate with you, as they did with me.
Thanks for reading.
