The illusion of your destination
"Air" is one of the best films I've watched in a long time. If you want to learn about the life of Nike's founder Phil Knight and the foundation of Nike, you must read "Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE"
Rather than telling the entire story of Nike, 'Air' shares a very crucial period with us. It's a film telling how a brand, being third in the market share following Adidas and Converse, gave a chance to a rising star and how this decision not only changed the course of Nike but also permanently altered the overall look of sports marketing.
The movie tells the story of risk-taking, innovation, resilience, and the transformative power of unique talent like Michael Jordan. (Spoiler: We never see Michael Jordan in the movie, he doesn't even have a single line.) I won't share a critique or details of the movie here. Instead, I want to focus on a dialogue that caught my attention for entrepreneurs and share other impressive speaking parts.
Phil Knight: Do you run?
Sonny Vaccaro: No, Phil, I don't.
Phil Knight: It's hard. It's suffering. It's difficult. The illusion is that the finish line is the destination. But the act itself is the destination.
I think I learned a longer lesson from this short dialogue. In this conversation between Nike's founder Phil Knight and talent scout Sonny Vaccaro in the early stages of the film, the act of running is used as a metaphor to express a broader meaning about life and chasing goals.
The metaphor of running for struggle: Sonny Vaccaro, a slightly potbellied man you wouldn't expect to see at Nike, wants his budget constantly increased for the success of the company's basketball department. In a dialogue taking place in the room of Nike's founder and CEO, Knight asks him if he runs. He's not asking to learn about his training habits, but to set the stage for the metaphor that life is a tough race. Running is a physically demanding action that requires endurance, perseverance, and often dealing with discomfort. This activity describes the difficulties a person may face in life or in a business context; nothing is easy.
The misconception about the finish line: Phil Knight talks about the misunderstanding or illusion that the finish line is the goal. It's the misconception that achieving a specific goal (the finish line) in life or work is definitive success.
You can also read this mindset in the book "The Infinite Game" by Simon Sinek The movie elaborates the perspective mentioned in this dialogue. According to Sinek, there are two types of games in life: finite and infinite. Finite games, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules, and agreed objectives. Infinite games, like business or politics, or life itself, have known and unknown players, changing rules, and the aim is to keep playing.
One might think they've reached the finish line or goal once they've achieved a promotion, graduated from university, or in Nike's case, signed a deal with a superstar basketball player.
The journey being the goal: Lastly, Phil Knight emphasizes that the goal is the journey, the action itself, the running. This means the process, daily struggles, learned lessons, minor victories and defeats are what truly matter. It's not about reaching a particular goal post, it's about how you've evolved, changed and what you've learned along the way.
In this short dialogue, Phil Knight's way of thinking reflects this "infinite game" perspective. When he says, "Assuming the finish line is the goal is an illusion. On the contrary, the goal is the action itself," he's actually opposing a finite game approach to life or business. He emphasizes the importance of the journey to the goal, which resembles Sinek's thesis related to the value of the continuity of the infinite game instead of trying to "win".
In summary, both emphasize the importance of the journey, learning, evolving, and change - these are the real measures of success, telling us there's no definite end point. In other words, the act of playing the game (managing business, living your life, etc.) is the real goal. These similar perspectives of Phil Knight and Simon Sinek tell us that processes and experiences are more important than results, whether in business or personal life.
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There were many dialogues I picked from the movie, but I guess it's impossible to squeeze them all into one post. I want to talk about these later.
The first three of Nike's 10 company rules, which are written below and the entire flow of the film is positioned over them.
The conversation Deloris Jordan had when Sonny came to the Jordan family's house unannounced.
"I believe the saying that if you say what you want, that's fine and good, but doing something about it that's what really counts. —Deloris Jordan”
We see it repeatedly in the movie, a shoe is not special or valuable on its own, but it only becomes valuable when someone wears it and adds meaning and identity to it.
"A shoe is just a shoe until someone steps into it."
The emotional speech Sonny made to Michael Jordan when the Nike executives were presenting to the Jordan family definitely deserves a post. The long monologue begins with these sentences.
"Forget about the shoes, forget about the money. You're going to make enough money, it's not going to matter. Money can buy you almost anything, it can't buy you immortality."