Having finished “Educated” recently I was really craving another memoir. I’m extremely glad that this is the one I picked up. I never cared or thought too much of the Nike brand, but my appreciation for it has ten folded. This book covers an unexpected founding story, gives a glimpse into what it was like to do a startup before Venture Capital was commonplace, and documents several fascinating interpersonal and work relationships.

~~ Favorite quotes/lessons from the book ~~

  1. Concentrate on doing only one small task at a time. It clears the mind and is more conducive to good work.

  2. Don’t tell people how to do things. Tell people what to do and let them surprise you.

~~ Phil Knight ~~

I didn’t know anything about Phil Knight prior to the book, but my takeaway is that he does things cautiously, but is still willing to take on risk and doesn’t overthink things too much.

As a 24 year old, he picked up his things, travelled the whole world, and pursued a crazy idea he got while doing his MBA at Stanford. When meeting with his Japanese business partners for the first time, he had the guts to say he owned a company called “Blue Ribbon” before anything ever existed.

He always prioritized and understood the importance of personal life even as he was growing his business. Finding a partner, and later balancing kids & work, was a struggle, but he managed to find a balance.

Though he hated selling, he still managed to be really good at it. When he wasn’t, he hired the right people to help him!

Everything about how he tackled and handled life challenges is extremely motivating and lines up perfectly for a great startup story.

~~ Blue Ribbon ~~

It’s impressive to think how big and well known Nike is these days given how long it took Blue Ribbon to gain traction in its early days. Founded in 1964, it wasn’t until 1971 that they officially re-incorporated as Nike, and introduced the brand to the world at a Chicago retail sports conference in 1972.

It’s not very difficult for startups today to find funding and get off the ground. In fact, companies like SoftBank often say “We know you only asked for $10MM, but what can you do with $1B?”. For Nike, while sales were good and doubling every year, they couldn’t take on any inventory risk because they were barely staying afloat paycheck to paycheck. Even though Silicon Valley started taking off in the 70s with the founding of Apple, no one was interested in Sports Apparel.

~~ Product Obsession ~~

One of the most important takeaways I got from the founding of Blue Ribbon is how important product obsession is with the founding team. Consider the following:

  • Phil Knight: Obsessed with following his ideas, taking action, and building a great company.

  • Bill Bowerman: Cofounder, Phil’s track coach and a “Shoe dog”. He was obsessed with experimenting different types of materials for new shoes, optimizing a person’s habits/diet, and anything else that will improve a runner’s results.

  • Jeff Johnson: Nike’s first employee who was obsessed with building a brand, creating popup stores, expanding, making sales and doing anything that’ll help the company thrive.

The first 10 employees at Nike/BlueRibbon were all obsessed with making shoes, expanding the brand, or building a great company. This is extremely important to the founding of a company.

~~ Cool facts about Nike ~~

  • The logo was originally bought for only $35! Phil Knight made sure that designer was appropriately compensated at a later point in time though.

  • The name Nike (meaning Greek goddess of victory) came as an idea to an early employee in a dream. Phil made a last minute decision to go with Nike instead of Dimension6. I wonder if the company would’ve succeeded with the different name?

~~ Nike Today ~~

I’ve never done in depth research of Nike but have overheard how they’re a sweatshop that takes advantage of workers in third world countries. What I didn’t know is that Nike did attempt to raise the minimum wage at different points in time, but this action was blocked by the foreign government. Specifically, they said that if a shoemaker ends up making more money than a doctor, it will lead to a loss in balance of power and wealth. Everyone would opt to being a shoemaker and no one would train to be a doctor…

~~ Appreciation for Sports ~~

I’m not a sports enthusiast myself, but there were two points in the book raised by Phil that made me gain some appreciation for it:

  1. When sports are at their best, the energy and spirit of the athlete merges with the audience. Like books, they give an option to live vicariously through other means.

  2. Since running laps has no finish line, one must find the willpower from within.

~~ Japan ~~

Japanese customs and stories never seize to amaze me. I’ve read several books and watched various documentaries or movies based Japan and it’s fascinating how different their culture is from the rest of the first world.

Businessman are very patient and respectful, but can get very cut-through unexpectedly. The takeover and negotiations with Tiger kept me at the edge of my seat.

In one of the meetings Phil had with Tiger executives, everyone left the meeting abruptly without saying anything. Though the outcome was positive, I’d be dumfounded on how to interpret the situation.

~~ Random facts ~~

  • Khaki pants used to be called “Suntans” in the 60s.

  • Phil mentioned how his Stanford education in the 1950s only cost 100s of dollars. Even with inflation, this is ridiculous…