Reading Reflection: Shoe Dog, Phil Knight

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

·        What surprised you the most?

That when starting Nike, it was originally a company called Blue Ribbon. It was surprising too because they didn’t manufacturer their own shoes, they just sold shoes made in Japan, and it was also surprising because at the time, running was barely considered a sport or a hobby. I was also surprised that despite the success of the company, they didn’t have enough cash to pay Phil, the founder, a salary because they had to keep reinvesting it to buy orders. Because of this, Phil had to work other jobs during the first few years at Blue Ribbon to have enough money to live on.

·        What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

The hustle that Phil had and ability to negotiate to solve problems. When trying to get an exclusive deal with the Japanese shoe manufacturer, he lied to them and said they had an east coast store when they actually didn’t. This lie forced him to open an east coast store, which he did, and lead to more success for the company.

·        What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

That he had to steal a file from the Japanese distributor’s suitcase instead of hammering with questions about if they are looking for another US distributor. I admired this act of stealing least, but at the same time, it was unethical that the Japanese distributor continued to lie to Phil about their exclusive agreement. Also, Phil had to deceive Kitami to keep his company alive and instructed an employee to lie to Kitami which lead him to quit his job. I think shady practices like this could have been avoided but I understand why he did what he did.

·        Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

Yes, lots. He faced adversity first when he shoe manufacturer in Japan gave rights to a wrestling coach to be an exclusive shoe distributor for them and so the coach tells Phil he cannot sell the shoe manufacturer’s shoes. He solves this problem by flying to Japan and setting up an appointment with the company owner that let him have rights to sell the shoes in the Wester USA. In addition, he faced the problem of a bad breakup during this time but his sister consoles him through it.

Because of cash balance problems, Phil had to return to his accounting job. Because of having this extra money though, he was able to hire a passionate employee to help him through the tough time.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

Persistence and creativity. Phil Knight faced countless challenges but was determined to make his shoe company work. Phil always found a creative solution to get through his company’s financial, legal, and overall challenges.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I don’t understand why Phil didn’t immediately think to start manufacturing his own shoes from the beginning. I know there is a lot of money involved in this manufacturing, but right when he faced bad problems from the Japanese manufacturer I would have thought he would have immediately looked into his own manufacturing plant but he waited to do this.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

-> How did you handle leaving a secure accounting job to work full-time at the business you started? Did you face lots of criticism from family and friends?

-> What about you do you believe made you as successful as you are with Nike compared to other entrepreneurs? Was it hard work, luck, skill, some other aspect, or a combination of all of these?

These are the questions I would ask because I believe they relate to me. The first question is something I want to know because I want to start my own business but its hard to get away from the safe corporate route that so many people take and don’t enjoy. The second question is something where I want to know the amount he would contribute to hard work because I have the mindset that anything can be achieved with hard work if you put enough time into it and make the right relationships.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

I think his opinion is that it is necessary, if not everything. He mentions that he worked so hard on Nike that he feels like it deserves to be called more than a company. Even when he started his first shoe business, Phil was working a full time accounting job so that he could have money to live off of while running Blue Ribbon Shoes at the same time.