Book Review : Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Hi guys so I finished reading shoe dog by Phil Knight and I must say that this was a pleasant read. It's a beautiful story about research , hard work , determination, passion , teamwork and the journey to success. The main learning points for me were the ff: 1.People can focus when they believe they've seen the world. Phil knight traveled the world in his early day , he then had the ability to focus his attention on a lifetime goal. 2. Phil read widely and I know this because he could relate to various places when he traveled around the world. 3. His father funded his trips around the world, without money you cannot travel , see and get exposure. 4. Phil started the shoe business off his thesis paper he wrote in college , which teaches us to spend our time wisely. Phil spent his time researching on making shoes from Japan to beat the U. S market and he spent the rest of his life executing that plan and becoming a billionaire 5. Phil surrounded himself with passionate obsessive people. His coach, Bowerman who joined as a partner was committed to continuos improvement of his athletes and their shoes / running resources. If you surround yourself with people dedicated to excellence,their passion and commitment adds and supports the vision 6. In the African context , a story like the Nike one is not likely to happen because of our Culture. You see when Phil first received his shoe samples he sent a pair to his former coach. This coach then met up with Phil and declared his interest in partnering Phil because he saw the potential. In the African environment, an older person is only seen to be an advisor and that is the role to be played. An older person will not propose joining forces with you but would rather prefer to be seen advising you on issues. 7. Having a good partner / wife is very important, Phil's wife played an important role in the success of Phil and Nike and details are shown in the book. For eg. She showed up to work even when she was heavily pregnant. 8. Africa has a long way to go before such stories start emerging , why? Because I realized after reading Mans search for meaning by Victor Frankl, that when people are living for survival they loose all their moral senses. You see africa for the most part is in that state , so politicians and "leaders" have a survival of the fittest mentality and so steal state resources to enrich themselves. The mass of people also have this mentality and so there are few people who can sit to think creatively and think to execute in honest credible terms. Thinking about all that I've read so far , I think we are special, in fact I believe we are very special because by this reading group alone we are sharing info that a large percentage of the world are clueless to. So again I believe that we have an opportunity to create something by continuing to be each other's keeper by reminding ourselves of how important it is to continue to search for information that will help us to leave a dent in this world. 9. Phil also had one guy called Johnson who was a star salesman and an avid reader. Even Phil comments severally about J's reading habits. This reading thing cannot be taken for granted. 10. Phil spent time researching cultures before going into business with the Japanese or Koreans. I love this because I also noticed that preparation is 🔑 to success. The educational system in this part of the world is invariably preparing us to take instructions and not be creative. It's actually scary when you think about it. Finally the beautiful thing about this story is that Phil shows you how he started , takes you through the journey and ends with his symbols of finally making it by telling you that he now associates with the likes of bill gates and Warren buffet. definitely a good read , get a copy and dig in!
