Reviewing Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

The best business memoir book I have read so far.

I'm sure you've heard this statement over and over, especially in the how-to-be-successful business nonsense. However, in this case, it is fair to grant this hefty label.

I would have definitively read the extended version if it were one. I mean one was each of his colleagues (a gang of geeks, the Buttfaces:) and family would share their real personal view on each decisive moment instead of Phil's interpretation. That way, I could satiate my curiosity knowing the reasons behind the betrayals, the hustle of Woodell and Johnson, or the eternal patience of Penny. Maybe a kind of the Last Dance.

Surely, he has done a superb journalistic and writing job. It seemed as it was fiction at times, a tough journey but full of wry humor and deep insights.

Throughout the book you will notice that Phil is not the best CEO, I mean he has committed huge mistakes even when he was in the spotlight.

Notwithstanding, he has an amazing knack of making people feel they are part of something. A culture. Even while I was reading it in 2020, knowing that Nike had a happy ending, I suffered like one more Buttface. Thinking in the back of my mind for solutions to their struggles.

A must-read even if you are not into business. It is particularly enticing to empathize with the regrets and drives of this overachiever, Phil Knight. Thank you, I really appreciate your dedication to make this a better world and to share your experience.

Bonus: Lessons & Interesting facts:

1. He had patience. He has not been with a girl until his junior year in college.

2. He was happy dedicating his life only to his business. No friends, social life, no workouts. Everything is temporary. He made necessary sacrifices because he is a one task man. If something else was in his life, he would have had been dispersed and Blue Ribbons would not have succeeded.

3. He studied a degree in the top college of his state Oregon, achieved an MBA in Standford, went on a worldwide journey, and even when he came back home he still did not know what to do with his life.

4. He made lots of mistakes, even when the stakes were extremely high. For instance, he laughed and made a fool out of himself when he was being litigated. His honesty saved him, playing his cards directly was his only way out.

5. Hilarious. Rephrasing him: "I am not paying 25 million dollars because of a gimmick of my competitors. In fact, I am going to speak to everyone in the Parliament and trick the competitors that played me the same way".

6. Despite being discouraged and commanded by the banks risking to cut out the financing, he nodded to what the banker said, and then he did what he thought was correct.

7. He did not reply to any letter from his employees. In fact, he puts down this management technique with the following line: "Do not tell employees how to do it, tell them what to do, and let them surprise you". I feel that his management method is effective for successful people, as they crave autonomy. While inexperienced ones would need some kind of guidance.