Episode 02: Shoe Dog
What is purpose? or why are we here?
You may have experienced this dual seeking from time to time.
I believe that everyone is taught to aspire goals, or that we tend to aspire them, instinctively. But no one teaches us how to find purpose, better, no one can answer some of the deepest questions in the far recesses of our mind.
This book offers a roadmap, through the journey of Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, who questioned, what being successful meant. He realised that time is shorter than we know, and he wanted his to be meaningful, purposeful, and creative.
Shoe Dog is about the creation of Nike, the brand with the swoosh, the sound of someone whizzing past you that evokes a sense of motion. Today Nike has redefined health and fitness to an extent where owning a pair of Nike gives power to the belief that anyone can be an athlete.
The recollections are beautifully crafted, as you embark with him on his tour exploring the eastern world. Starting from his hometown in Portland, Oregon in the year 1962. At 24, freshly out of Stanford Business school, he travelled to Japan, at a time where US-Japan relations ran amok. He had a crazy idea, (again, in the pursuit of this crazy idea), he had done a presentation on Japanese shoes and saw that as a potential to disrupt the American market to undercut Adidas pricing.
This starts a dialogue with Onitsuka Tiger, where Phil seeks distribution rights for his fictitious company Blue Ribbon Sports. Quoting this exchange from the book - "Mr Knight- what company are you with? Adrenaline surged through, I recalled the safest place in the world, which got me to my room filled with blue ribbons, significant of my victory from track, this was something I was unabashedly proud of and blurted, Blue Ribbon Sports of Portland, Oregon"
For nearly a decade Blue Ribbon Sports lives a modicum of success in importing low-cost high quality running shoes from Japan. Phil, deftly observes the life-altering relations created in the process.
A key takeaway lies in sharing several words of wisdom placed throughout the book. Like, "The Cowards never started, and the weak died along the way- and that leaves us, ladies and gentlemen. Us". (talking about the association of employees at Blue Ribbon and the grit and passion of the athletes they supported.)
Nike is introduced when problems ensue with Onitsuka, as they reach out to several distributors to replace Blue Ribbon. Mulling over several names for their inhouse shoe brand, a thought transpires, in the inception of Nike as he revisits his tour… walking up the steps of the Temple of Athena Nike, the Goddess of Victory…
Which makes him think that some coincidences are more than coincidental. “Can it really be nothing but a fluke of geography that the oldest shoes ever discovered are those salvaged from a cave in Oregon?”
Fast forward to 1972, as the story continues Nike becomes a public company. Averting several crisis and going through the worst storms of difficulties the book guides to answers for some deep questions which I found to be helpful.
My first takeaway, as Phil recommends is to
"Seek a calling. Even if you don't know what that means, seek it. Sometimes knowing when to give up, when to try something else, is genius. Giving up doesn't mean stopping. Don't ever stop.” Have faith in yourself. but also have faith in faith. Not faith as others define it. Faith as faith defines itself in your heart.”
He acknowledges the truth as he believes it,
My second takeaway is about channeling inspiration. Phil talks about inspiration, divine inspiration. Inspiration from quotidian things, things you might eat, or find lying around in the house. Like, his coach, Bowerman, who sought inspiration from a waffle iron to enhance the soles of an athlete’s shoe. He speaks to working like Edison in Menlo Park and Da Vinci in Florence in your respective field. In some fashion, he encourages one to adopt or emulate the habits of the people one admires. For him at that time, it was Churchill, Kennedy, and Tolstoy.
One can harken this back to the naming of Nike, as Phil writes,
“It was Winston Churchill who said, “You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory.” Somewhere, the victory medal awarded to all veterans of World War 2, was a bronze medallion with Athena Nike on the front, breaking a sword in two.”
In other words, he encourages one to achieve greatness by chasing inspiration.
My final takeaway is to remember, “When self-doubt, uncertainty kicks in, in those moments, one must remember. Life is growth. You grow or you die (as simple as that).”
Phil begins by questioning why is it hard to get started?
This line surmises it best…
The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
He talks about starting small. “I believed if people got out and ran a few miles every day, the world would be a better place”
How fascinating is that?
I truly hope, you enjoyed reading through the second episode of Metamorphosis and like always, ending with some words to live by
“To study the self is to forget the self. Mi casa, su casa. Oneness- in some way, shape of form, it’s what every person I’ve ever met has been seeking." -Phil Knight
