Reflection On The Book Shoe Dog By Phil Knight

The author of the book is Phil Knight (Philip Hampson Knight). He was the chairman, CEO and creator of NIKE. He has also written two books and lastly Phil Knight is a qualified accountant. Because the brand is so enormous and has a continuous rising popularity all over the world, everybody that he has mentioned and everybody that was involved can be contacted with great ease in order to verify and substantiate the story that Phil Knight has told in this book. The two other books that Phil Knight has written are, The Earth in Action in 1981 and All at Sea: A Geography Unit for Australian Schools in 1984.

The book is about the journey that Phil Knight embarked on during the earlier stages of his entrepreneurial career and bout how he was able to overcome many obstacles and uncover skills that he would find very useful in the later stages of his career. The book gives many reasons as to why you should keep up your integrity with the team that you are provided with and to be able to bring the team morale back to its optimum even when nobody believes in the goal anymore. It teaches that we must not be shaken by circumstances when trying to achieve an unconventional dream such as the one that Phil Knight had. Five facts that I’ve learnt from this book would include the following:

1. Nike is the Greek Goddess of victory.
2. Nike spent nearly two whole decodes on the brink of bankruptcy.
3. Phil Knight by qualification is an accountant.
4. In the early stages of the company Phil Knight sought inspiration from Adidas.
5. The trademark Nike Swoosh came about as Phil knight thought that it was the sound make as somebody passes you by in a race.

Five new words that I’ve encountered in the book are:

1. Grimacing, to contort your face into an ugly scowl or look of disapproval.
2. Irradiated, to expose someone or something depending on context.
3. Bolster, support or strength.
4. Pointedly, to do something in a way that in a direct way often indicating displeasure.
5. Disdain, to consider something or someone unworthy of one’s consideration.

Phil Knight went through many major problems but the most notable for me was when he stood in front of the board of Onitsuka Tiger and had very little information. He walked up and gave his presentation, he knew that he hadn’t had nearly enough information and to solve it, he improvised and came up with a company that he hadn’t had yet, he called it Blue Ribbon. I particularly liked this problem and how he was able to solve it as it shows what can be done with true determination. I didn’t see it so much as a lie but rather as an act of courage and the showing of great intellect and an ability to adapt to a new situation and to still succeed is just magnificent.

Somebody that is a shoe dog is a person that is a shoe expert and Phil Knight’s Nike started as a shoe company as his first dealings as an entrepreneur was selling sneakers for a Japanese brand. Over time he became a total expert with shoes which is what a shoe dog is. The book related to the section in business studies that entailed management. The book closely related Phil Knight to the acronym POLC. This means to plan, organize, lead and control. This relates to Phil Knight as he always had to take on the roll of a leader and do those for things in order to encourage the team to continue to work and think that everything was in order and trust him so that the company could prosper. Such as when the company faced bankruptcy and Phil had to keep his employees from leaving and convince them that the company would prosper.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book as it contained many lessons that anybody could learn from and it was able to give a clear depiction of the journey without losing my interest. The book also gave a clear vision of things on a timeline that was easy to understand and also was able to take you through the journey with Phil Knight such as the fake company to get the Onitsuka deal and the first sponsorship deal for Nike. I can relate to the way in which Phil Knight chased his goal to succeed and to be able to do what he enjoys everyday as that is what I constantly strive for in my own life. The incident that I could most closely relate to would be the argument over the name of the brand as I to am very indecisive but sometimes come up with very good ideas just as he did with the Nike swoosh and I can relate to that way that he quickly described it himself and came up with a meaningful reason behind the logo.

One of the things that I can most definitely apply to my own life that I saw in the book would be the amazing work ethic that Phil Knight had and also the perseverance that he had as he didn’t let anything distract or distort his vision for his final goal for the company. Interesting concepts and ideas that I’ve learnt is that you can make payment for something in company shares and I think that this is a great way to pay for something as it eases a cost and is therefore beneficial to the company itself and the person being paid, although it is a risk for both parties, an example of this in the book would be when the artist that made the logo for Nike was given shares instead of cash for her design, it has benefitted her greatly and the shares are now worth far more than what she would have gotten paid in cash.

My favorite part of the book was towards the end as it showed that with hard work and determination anything could be achieved and if you lack a strong willingness to achieve your goal then it is far from achievable. I also found it very enjoyable to read a success story of somebody that has achieved something so great and built it from the ground up.

My least favorite part of the book was the very beginning because it was at this point of the story that things were off to a rather slow and painful start with many obstacles along the way. I found that the most challenging part of the book was the rater confusing business terminology that was used and made it a bit hard to entirely grasp the the whole story and understand what those certain situations were about.

I would refer this book to somebody else because it is a clear indication of why hard work is the ultimate key to success and without it not much can be achieved. This book also is a very good read in general and very entertaining as well, I also find it quite entertaining when learning about a series of true events that heavily affect the world. The type of person that would enjoy reading this book would be somebody that is a person that has a rather unbelievable goal that they would like to achieve, especially aspiring entrepreneurs.