Shoe Dog Book Review

Slowly working my way to completing all the book recommendation I keep finding. Shoe Dog was recommended from many different sources as a must read business book. The story is the journey of Phil Knight building the company that is today Nike. This book is filled with stories I had never heard of about Nike. Find out what I thought of the book and my favorite part by watching the video below.

Transcript Shoe Dog Book Review

Hi, folks, Thomas Henson here with thomashenson.com, and today, we͛’ve got a special episode for you. I͛’m going to tell you about a book that I just read called Shoe Dog. And so, it͛s about the creation of Nike and how the company that we know now as Nike with merchandising, all the apparel, and it͛s just a worldwide leader in footwear especially when you start thinking about major athletes and contracts that they have with them. And so, it͛s a book all about how Phil Knight and his team started Nike. So, find out more right after this. So, today, I͛’m doing a book review on Shoe Dog. So, it͛s a memoir. It͛s called a memoir of the creator of Nike and how Phil Knight built a team and built the company. This is worth billions of dollars. So, think about most famous athletes in the world, so Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, tons of Olympic stars from around the world involved in anything from tennis all the way to football, Ken Griffey, Jr. The names just go on and on. And, they started out just as a shoe company. And, in fact, this is a little tidbit that I learned while reading the book and this is one of the reasons that I͛’m recommending it because there is so much in this book. So, Nike, the name Nike actually used to be Blue Ribbon.

So, it started as Blue Ribbon. It started out as a dream by Phil Knight after graduating from a graduate school. He went to a business school at Stanford and he was an athlete as an undergrad, and he wanted to continue running and being a part of running community, so he had this dream. And, it was a paper that he written about how to disrupt the shoe industry in America. And so, that paper that he had in grad school, he thought he did pretty well with it and so he had a dream to do that, and he actually did it. So, he started by booking a trip. So, he wanted to do kind of before he started his real career, he thought he wanted to give a one shot. And so, he booked a trip around the world, talked to his dad about being able to see things before settle down and getting a job, and kind of like your last hurrah, so a lot of people have that. And so, on that trip, he actually stopped by Japan, met with a shoe manufacturer there and started the business relationship there, and that͛s what really started him being able to start selling shoes in America. And so, time grows, it͛s actually a start-up culture. So, for me. it was really interesting to hear about this company and for me, when I grew up, Michael Jordan, just do this and be like Mike, that͛s how I thought of Nike. There are some controversy in the ͚90s about where the shoes are manufactured and some of the working conditions, and they actually touched on it in the book, too. But for me, I always thought of Nike as this big, huge enterprise, not like this little feisty startup. But throughout the book, you hear about how they were a feisty startup. And, they pushed off going public, so having an IPO quite a few times because they were like, ͞Hey, we don͛t have to wear suits and ties to work, and we don͛t want to disrupt our culture.͟ They͛re like, ͞We have a culture.͟ And, it͛s kind of like what we hear about whenever you think of Apple and a lot of the start-ups going on right now. That͛s how Nike was. And now, they are a big and they͛re an enterprise company, but it͛s just kind of amazing that they pushed off going IPO so many different times and now you look at it, they͛re like a billion-dollar company, multibillion-dollar company right all around the world. So, I thought that was really cool. There͛s a lot of tidbits. So, if you͛ve read Walter Isaacson͛s book around Steve Jobs and kind of his life and a lot of his career in Apple, you͛ll see a lot of similarities.

One thing that was really interesting too is Phil Knight was more of an introvert and so it was just kind of funny to hear his management style and his critique on himself as well as his management style saying, ͞
I wasn͛t really big on encouragement at times.͟ But, for him to be an introvert, he had to break out of his shell when they were going through troubling times because everybody was looking at him for a leader.

So, I think it͛s a must read just because of what Nike has meant for the shoe industry and how he disrupted it, and it͛s really cool to see that perspective. Another couple points too, you are just getting one side of it, too.

So, if you͛re going back to making that comparison with the Steve Jobs͛ book I read by Walter Isaacson, it wasn͛t written by Steve Jobs, but you get to see both sides of it, where with Phil Knight, you͛re really just looking through his lens, but it͛s a really cool book. I recommend going out and finding it, and learn as much as you can from it.

So, that͛s all. Make sure you subscribe, so that you never miss doing Isilon tips. I͛ve got some interviews that we͛re doing. I͛m doing these book reviews, too. And, honestly, if there͛s a book that you͛ve read that I haven͛t reviewed yet or you want to suggest it to me, put it in the comment section here and I͛ll read it, and I͛ll give you a shout out, too. We could kind of go through it. So, make sure you subscribe and I will see you next time