13A - Reading Reflection No. 1

I read Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike. He came up with the idea at the Stanford MBA program when he wrote a business plan for a class talking about bringing cheap and high quality shoes from Japan to sell in the US. After school he asked for his dad's money to travel to Asia to experience culture and witness the manufacturing. He ended up getting a meeting with the CEO of the main Japanese shoe manufacturer and told him he would like to be the distributor of their Japanese shoes and to his surprise he said yes. He made up his company name "Blue Ribbon" and started the business. He sent the first shoes to his track coach from Oregon and the coach liked them so much he became the co-founder. Through both of their hard work over many years and connections with runners/athletes they were able to build a successful shoe distribution company. Eventually, they started manufacturing/creating their own designs and creating jerseys/other apparel to create a booming business with over $30 billion in sales annually. 

1. I was most surprised by how poor the actual gross sales were when he started the business. His first batch of shoes took almost a year to sell and his first year of business grossed around $8,000. It also surprised me how much capital he needed (over a million dollars) early on to fund the purchasing of 20,000+ shoes at a time. I most admired his ability to stick through the hardships. He thought about quitting at multiple times and even got another job at PwC as an accountant, but this was to help fund his business. This one is tough but I least admired when he stole his Japanese distributors information out of a briefcase at a meeting to figure out if they were working with another distributor. He was able to figure out some important information and pivot from that company but I think there is an ethical issue with that. Phil encountered countless adversity and failures but he learned from every mistake. Just getting in business and getting the brand out required him to takes years of no salary and living like a true entrepreneur. Trying to overcome two large lawsuits, one with the US government required him to remain tenacious. He ordered shoes that failed to meet the requirements and was short of capital on the brink of failure, but overcame all of this by working hard. 

2. Phil talked about a little bit of luck to get to where he is today. But his core competencies of hard work, being a team player, and surrounding himself with the right people paid off. He talked about when you are young and you don't have much to lose, it is best to go for broke because it is the best time in your life to give it your all. He stresses that if you have an idea you should give it your all because even if you fail you will learn a lot. The way he describes being a team player is to let people do their own work. Instead of telling them what to do he always gave people the end goal and let them be creative with how they got there. Lastly, he surrounded himself with smart business people who were motivated and had a diverse set of ideas. 

3. I was a little confused by the legal settlements with the US government and what exactly it was for. He was able to get the $30 million dollar fine expunged because he knew someone that had connections in the government. 

4. I would ask him what is the biggest risk he took in his whole life. I would be interested if it was simply starting the company or if it was a personal decision outside of business. I would also ask him how his work and personal life balance shifted as the business grew. It seems like he always worked very hard but perhaps he got better at balancing both.

5. Phil (the entrepreneur) constantly talks about hard work but I truly thinks he wants people to have fun with their work. He stresses the importance of finding your own path and pursuing all your goals because that will allow you to want to work hard and be successful. I certainly agree with this viewpoint.