Shoe Salesman: The Story of Nike as Told by Its Founder
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2025 7:05 am
Phil Knight is a living legend not only in the world of business, but also in the world of sports. Having founded the company NIKE in 1964, he managed to turn it into a leader in sportswear in a few decades. Today, the market capitalization of NIKE is $109 billion.
Before this book was published, little was known about Phil Knight - he rarely gave interviews and appeared in newspaper headlines mainly due to his generous donations. So Phil Knight's autobiography was a real revelation.
Here is a summary of this sensational autobiography from the Smart uruguay whatsapp list Reading service. After reading it, you will learn how one of the most famous companies in the world was born and what business lessons its founding father learned: why you shouldn’t quit your permanent job and start your own business, where to find effective employees and how sometimes you need to be able to give up.
Smart Reading is a summary of the most popular books of our time. Convenient filters, different formats and tests will help you expand your horizons every day and consolidate what you have read. There is a special offer until February 13 : a printed book as a gift for the Lifetime tariff. It's time to subscribe!
Part One 1962–1975
1.1 The world moves forward only thanks to Crazy Ideas - ideas that seem impossible to implement, but thanks to the persistence of their followers, they are realized and, accordingly, change reality. All history is a sequence of triumphs of crazy ideas at first glance.
Running is a great image of a Crazy Idea. Running is painful, the physical sensations involved are not the most pleasant, and the health benefits are not very obvious. But despite all this, running is fun - the process of running becomes its goal, you yourself determine where to start and when to stop. Likewise, implementing a Crazy Idea can be unbearably difficult, but this is the path that brings joy and pleasure. It is the long journey of building a great company that brings happiness, not the company itself, money and fame.
Phil Knight got his Crazy Idea - selling inexpensive Japanese running shoes - during his first year of graduate school at Stanford University. Phil Knight, a professional runner, was sure that popularizing running among non-athletes would make the world a better place (in the 1960s, running was not nearly as popular as it is now, and was considered an eccentric hobby).
After graduating from university, Phil Knight returned to his native Oregon and asked his parents (his father was a respectable publisher) to sponsor a trip abroad to implement the Crazy Idea. At that time, 90% of Americans had never been on an airplane, and memories of the brutal war with Japan were still fresh, so Phil's idea seemed crazy and dangerous to many. In 1962, Phil Knight went on a year-long trip, during which he visited Japan, where he signed his first contract with the Japanese company Onitsuka for the supply of Tiger brand athletic shoes. Phil Knight had to wait about a year for the first batch of shoes.
1.2. Crazy Ideas can only be realized by breaking the rules. Playing by someone else's rules will never achieve success. The hardest thing is to go against your family and society, which expect certain actions from you. But you should never cross the line separating rebellion from dishonesty. In business, this line is often not obvious - the same actions can be interpreted either as enterprise or as fraud.
"You are remembered by the rules you break" - this quote by General Douglas MacArthur became a favorite quote of Phil Knight, and he put it into practice many times. To get his first contract with Onitsuka, Phil Knight made up his own company (Blue Ribbon Sports) on the fly and assured that the company was already selling shoes in the USA.
Four years later, when Onitsuka was considering transferring the exclusive right to distribute to a larger player, Phil Knight lied that Blue Ribbon Sports already had offices on the West Coast of the USA, and got the long-awaited contract.
The company's existence depended on the relationship with Onitsuka, so when Phil Knight learned a few years later that Onitsuka was looking for another distributor, he stole documents confirming this fact from the briefcase of an Onitsuka representative. At that moment, he realized that he had crossed a line that he should not have crossed.
1.3. At the initial stages, it is important to find a mentor and partner who will not only help with advice, but can also become the face of the company. This is especially important when promoting specialized products - it is difficult to enter closed communities, for example, athletes, without support.
Additionally, if the founder is young, it is more difficult to gain respect and trust from older counterparties, so a senior partner can help build trust.
The second person after his father, to whom Phil Knight turned for help, was his former running coach, the legendary Bill Bowerman, who trained more than one generation of Olympic runners. Bowerman not only invested in the future company, but also played a key role in the development of the unique design of sneakers. He helped hire employees among former athletes, was an unofficial ambassador of the brand, attracted suppliers, bankers and clients with his reputation and experience. Later, Bowerman wrote a book about running, which became a bestseller and started the "running epidemic" in the USA.
1.4. Not everyone is born a genius salesman, but if you believe that the product or service you are selling is really worthwhile, then selling becomes surprisingly easy. Believing in a Crazy Idea helps you overcome your limitations.
Phil Knight admits that he is hardly a natural salesman. He started out selling encyclopedias in Hawaii and wasn't very successful at it. But selling running shoes was surprisingly easy for Phil Knight because he believed that running changed lives for the better, and the shoes he sold were the best for that purpose. Since selling his first batch of sneakers, he has managed to at least double his sales every year.
1.5. Many stories about successful entrepreneurs emphasize their absolute dedication to the cause and their willingness to take significant risks - for example, mortgaging their apartment or quitting a promising job. However, the degree of "sacrifice" of an entrepreneur does not correlate with his subsequent success. On the contrary, it is important to diversify risks - a permanent job can provide the financial cushion an entrepreneur needs and allows him to stay afloat longer. You do not have to sacrifice everything to be successful.
Before this book was published, little was known about Phil Knight - he rarely gave interviews and appeared in newspaper headlines mainly due to his generous donations. So Phil Knight's autobiography was a real revelation.
Here is a summary of this sensational autobiography from the Smart uruguay whatsapp list Reading service. After reading it, you will learn how one of the most famous companies in the world was born and what business lessons its founding father learned: why you shouldn’t quit your permanent job and start your own business, where to find effective employees and how sometimes you need to be able to give up.
Smart Reading is a summary of the most popular books of our time. Convenient filters, different formats and tests will help you expand your horizons every day and consolidate what you have read. There is a special offer until February 13 : a printed book as a gift for the Lifetime tariff. It's time to subscribe!
Part One 1962–1975
1.1 The world moves forward only thanks to Crazy Ideas - ideas that seem impossible to implement, but thanks to the persistence of their followers, they are realized and, accordingly, change reality. All history is a sequence of triumphs of crazy ideas at first glance.
Running is a great image of a Crazy Idea. Running is painful, the physical sensations involved are not the most pleasant, and the health benefits are not very obvious. But despite all this, running is fun - the process of running becomes its goal, you yourself determine where to start and when to stop. Likewise, implementing a Crazy Idea can be unbearably difficult, but this is the path that brings joy and pleasure. It is the long journey of building a great company that brings happiness, not the company itself, money and fame.
Phil Knight got his Crazy Idea - selling inexpensive Japanese running shoes - during his first year of graduate school at Stanford University. Phil Knight, a professional runner, was sure that popularizing running among non-athletes would make the world a better place (in the 1960s, running was not nearly as popular as it is now, and was considered an eccentric hobby).
After graduating from university, Phil Knight returned to his native Oregon and asked his parents (his father was a respectable publisher) to sponsor a trip abroad to implement the Crazy Idea. At that time, 90% of Americans had never been on an airplane, and memories of the brutal war with Japan were still fresh, so Phil's idea seemed crazy and dangerous to many. In 1962, Phil Knight went on a year-long trip, during which he visited Japan, where he signed his first contract with the Japanese company Onitsuka for the supply of Tiger brand athletic shoes. Phil Knight had to wait about a year for the first batch of shoes.
1.2. Crazy Ideas can only be realized by breaking the rules. Playing by someone else's rules will never achieve success. The hardest thing is to go against your family and society, which expect certain actions from you. But you should never cross the line separating rebellion from dishonesty. In business, this line is often not obvious - the same actions can be interpreted either as enterprise or as fraud.
"You are remembered by the rules you break" - this quote by General Douglas MacArthur became a favorite quote of Phil Knight, and he put it into practice many times. To get his first contract with Onitsuka, Phil Knight made up his own company (Blue Ribbon Sports) on the fly and assured that the company was already selling shoes in the USA.
Four years later, when Onitsuka was considering transferring the exclusive right to distribute to a larger player, Phil Knight lied that Blue Ribbon Sports already had offices on the West Coast of the USA, and got the long-awaited contract.
The company's existence depended on the relationship with Onitsuka, so when Phil Knight learned a few years later that Onitsuka was looking for another distributor, he stole documents confirming this fact from the briefcase of an Onitsuka representative. At that moment, he realized that he had crossed a line that he should not have crossed.
1.3. At the initial stages, it is important to find a mentor and partner who will not only help with advice, but can also become the face of the company. This is especially important when promoting specialized products - it is difficult to enter closed communities, for example, athletes, without support.
Additionally, if the founder is young, it is more difficult to gain respect and trust from older counterparties, so a senior partner can help build trust.
The second person after his father, to whom Phil Knight turned for help, was his former running coach, the legendary Bill Bowerman, who trained more than one generation of Olympic runners. Bowerman not only invested in the future company, but also played a key role in the development of the unique design of sneakers. He helped hire employees among former athletes, was an unofficial ambassador of the brand, attracted suppliers, bankers and clients with his reputation and experience. Later, Bowerman wrote a book about running, which became a bestseller and started the "running epidemic" in the USA.
1.4. Not everyone is born a genius salesman, but if you believe that the product or service you are selling is really worthwhile, then selling becomes surprisingly easy. Believing in a Crazy Idea helps you overcome your limitations.
Phil Knight admits that he is hardly a natural salesman. He started out selling encyclopedias in Hawaii and wasn't very successful at it. But selling running shoes was surprisingly easy for Phil Knight because he believed that running changed lives for the better, and the shoes he sold were the best for that purpose. Since selling his first batch of sneakers, he has managed to at least double his sales every year.
1.5. Many stories about successful entrepreneurs emphasize their absolute dedication to the cause and their willingness to take significant risks - for example, mortgaging their apartment or quitting a promising job. However, the degree of "sacrifice" of an entrepreneur does not correlate with his subsequent success. On the contrary, it is important to diversify risks - a permanent job can provide the financial cushion an entrepreneur needs and allows him to stay afloat longer. You do not have to sacrifice everything to be successful.