13A Reading Reflection 1

Shoe Dog, Phil Knight

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

• What surprised you the most?

What surprised me the most is how obscure an entrepreneur’s path is and the amount of improvisation that’s required.

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

I most admire Knights courage and drive to follow his dream of making a Shoe company. He came up with the idea to sell Japanese running shoes in the United States while in school pursuing his MBA. He became obsessed with this idea, and when plans went astray, he rarely gave up for too long. He was also able to pitch his idea with confidence although he wasn’t sure his company would be a success.  

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

I least admire the way Knight wasn’t supportive of his team in the early days. For example, he repeatedly ignored letters from his first employee, Johnson.

• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

Knight experience lots of adversity and failure. He created business negotiations in Japan, a country with a foreign business culture that Knight wasn’t familiar with maneuvering. He struggled with recurring shipping delays, securing funding to pay for goods, and beating out competition.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

Knight was obsessed with his Japanese running shoe business idea. When things didn’t work out, he rarely gave up for too long. He was also fortunate to have a good support system and connected father that was able to connect with important Japanese businessmen. He was also able to pitch his ideas with clarity and confidence even though he wasn’t sure his idea would be a success.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I thought the reading was pretty straight forward.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

- How much of an impact did college and graduate school have in helping you develop Nike?

- What other parts of your life contributed to your business idea and design of your business model?

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

Knight seemed to be driven by passion and a search for happiness. Knight begins the book explaining that when he was young, he wanted to be successful but didn’t know what that looked like for him. He found out that pursuing his business idea made him feel like himself and made him happy. At the end of the day, he worked hard because he intrinsically wanted to. I agree that we should all discover and pursue our own versions of success.