38. A review of a book : Shoe Dog by Phil Knight - The man who created a brand called 'NIKE'

Do you know Adidas and Puma are owned by brothers who turned rivals in one part of their life and one of the brothers decided to quit and open his own company. The elder brother owns Adidas, and the younger brother owns Puma. It is a wonder that they started two companies separately and son both company turned to be one of the best brands of the world.

Well, I started with the Tivia to build your interest into the article.

I read this book few days back and i immediately wanted to write the review of this book but then procrastination took over and i didn't write any blog for few days. It was the the first thing that i wanted to put on my blog because i know many of you people don't even know about it. The journey of Phil Knight and is nothing less than amazing.

Frankly, I used to think that NIKE was a very old brand and it's owner might have died till now leaving his abundance of wealth to his grand kids. I never tried to know about it but it came on a suggestions while i was browsing biographies to people on Amazon. I immediately downloaded it. I have always been intrigued by NIKE, probably because for many years i have seen it to be the top most trusted brand in the world. It innovates and also it produces some of the best sports shoes of the world.

Phil Knight is not a rich Kid, I am sorry, Phil knight was not a rich kid.After reading the book I feel that he is someone whom i know closely and it s because in the book he has told me everything wrong thing that could possibly happen to a businessman who ever tries to open his own business. He was just a young kid when he told his parents that before taking any job, he was from Stanford by the way, he wants to travel the world. He even came to India and lived in Kolkata, at that time Calcutta, and had a miserable experience of life. But this life changed when he went to Japan and saw very amazing shoes that are also cheap made by a company called Tiger and he met their executives and decided to sell those shoes in America by taking a franchise selling rights from them for America. The executives in Tiger shoes were looking for a way to find a footing in America but since World War has severed the relations between them, they just didn't know how to do it. The solution came int he face of Phil Knight. A young boy who was ready to take over the world, though it took him nearly twenty years before he actually took over the world.

The relationship that went really well for some years turned sour after some time which gave birth to Nike, a name which Phil Knight took from a temple he visited during his World Tour, it is the name of the Greek Goddess of Victory - What an apt name.

But I digress, I am not here to Retell what is already written in the book. Read it yourself if you are curios about his journey. I am here to tell you what i learned from reading that book and from that great man.

For nearly half of his life when Phil was selling shoes, he had literally no money and you must be wondering why not, it was because the whole money was floating. They would sell shoes, earn money, make profits but then invest the whole money into buying more and manufacturing more shoes. It made my wonder that this guy, who was graduate from Stanford who could have gotten a job anywhere in the whole world and would have earned six figure salary but no, he chose to live on the edge doing a job in which he was getting nothing much in return but more in the form of Kick. What was the motivation ? I think his motivation was his passion towards shoes. Phil is a runner and everyone around him likes to run and they made a career out it which is so exciting. He was trying to overtake Adidas which was the market leader in shoes a that time. It seemed like David was trying to fight Goliath. It is like me trying to establish in film production house in Mumbai and make it bigger than Yashraj.

It again comes back to the same point. The passion for what you want to do, the motivation to keep doing it and the hard work with which you do it always gives successful result. I don't think (anymore) that success is an accident. I think there are certain things that you have to do and success is sure in life. That one thing is repetition. You pick one thing and keep doing it again and again till it starts giving your fruits.

Nike today is one of the biggest brands in the Human history. Almost all the top celebrities and sportsmen endorse it and every new one desires of getting hired by them. Phil Knight is a billionaire, a one woman guy who remain married to the love of his life all his on going life. This man is an inspiration. After reading he book, I have stopped calling myself a film maker, now i like to call myself Entrepreneur.