Nike and Knight = ne plus ultra!

At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business—a business that would be dynamic, different. Phil Knight borrowed just $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. 

In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today.

All this and more in this candid and riveting memoir, titled Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE

Some of the lovable quotes from this book are so much of an inspirational for us all days of the week, 24 x 7!

I was also quite surprised to find a lot of literary interpretations and interpolations from this ‘knight’ in shining armour – Phil Knight!

Well, in a nutshell, the entire book is all about running far far far far far away from mediocrity and shunning pessimistic, negative people in one’s life, and instead, surround yourself with positive, vibrant, dynamic minds who would inspire you to giving the best that you are!

I thought of highlighting some real impactful quotes from Phil, that’ve got some mighty literary interpolations!

There’s a Heideggerian, a Nietzschean, a Kantian, a Deleuzian, in some of his spontaneous yet mighty lines.

And as reviewers have quite raved about him, he aint preachy or platitudinous, ever! That makes his read all the more endearing!

As the webportal startup says, “It is an interesting journey, full of struggle and problems, but also full of hope and victories. Knight distributes small morsels of wisdom throughout the chapters.”

So here goes…

1. “So that morning in 1962 I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy . . . just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where “there” is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop.”

2. “When you see only problems, you’re not seeing clearly.”

3. “You are remembered, he said, prophetically, for the rules you break.”

4. “I thought back on my running career at Oregon. I’d competed with, and against, men far better, faster, more physically gifted. Many were future Olympians. And yet I’d trained myself to forget this unhappy fact. People reflexively assume that competition is always a good thing, that it always brings out the best in people, but that’s only true of people who can forget the competition. The art of competing, I’d learned from track, was the art of forgetting, and I now reminded myself of that fact. You must forget your limits. You must forget your doubts, your pain, your past. You”

5. “I’d tell men and women in their mid-twenties 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.”

6. “How can I leave my mark on the world, I thought, unless I get out there first and see it?”

7. “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few. —Shunryu”

8. “I was a linear thinker, and according to Zen linear thinking is nothing but a delusion, one of the many that keep us unhappy. Reality is nonlinear, Zen says. No future, no past. All is now.”

9. “Like books, sports give people a sense of having lived other lives, of taking part in other people’s victories. And defeats. When sports are at their best, the spirit of the fan merges with the spirit of the athlete.”

10. 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. Luck plays a big role. Yes, I’d like to publicly acknowledge the power of luck. Athletes get lucky, poets get lucky, businesses get lucky. Hard work is critical, a good team is essential, brains and determination are invaluable, but luck may decide the outcome. Some people might not call it luck. They might call it Tao, or Logos, or Jñāna, or Dharma. Or Spirit. Or God. 

11. “Have faith in yourself, but also have faith in faith. Not faith as others define it. Faith as you define it. Faith as faith defines itself in your heart.”

12. “History is one long processional of crazy ideas.”

13. “He was easy to talk to, and easy not to talk to-equally important qualities in a friend. Essential in a travel companion.”

14. “Don’t go to sleep one night, wrote Rūmī, the thirteenth-century Persian poet. What you most want will come to you then. Warmed”

15. “The art of competing, I’d learned from track, was the art of forgetting, and I now reminded myself of that fact. You must forget your limits. You must forget your doubts, your pain, your past.”

16. “So that morning in 1962 I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy . . . just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where “there” is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop. That’s”

17. “When you make something, when you improve something, when you deliver something, when you add some new thing or service to the lives of strangers, making them happier, or healthier, or safer, or better… you’re participating more fully in the whole grand human drama. More than simply alive, you’re helping others to live fully, and if that’s business, all right, call me a businessman.”

18. “Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

19. “The single easiest way to find out how you feel about someone. Say goodbye.”

20. “The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us, ladies and gentlemen. Us.”