Well I was planning to add my review about Shoe Dog , but you have well summarised it ! Some thing’s which I thought of adding are below :
Personal View :
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It was one of the books which showed what it took to built such a great business and how at every turn there is an obstacle which needs to be taken with a different approach , but what matters is your determination and your passion to reach your end goal .
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What else it taught me was history and how the business changed throughout from 1960s to 1980s and how doing international business was so tough back then , and it changed over time . Nike was the first shoe-company to enter into the Chinese market breaking the 25 years of no business with China. Later on out of the 5000 employees they had worldwide in 206 , 800 were from China itself ( The seeds which were planted in 1980) !
→ When the author was confused if he should pursue studies or continue with his current job , or look for a better job
Soln : "Everyone, but everyone, changes jobs at least three times. So if you go to work for an investment firm now, you'll eventually leave, and then at your next job you'll have to start all over. If you go work for some big company, son, same deal. No, what you want to do, while you're young, is get your CPA. That, along with your MBA, will put a solid floor under your earnings. Then, when you change jobs, which you will, trust me, at least you'll maintain your salary level. You won't go backward.”
Some real life images to visualise the things discussed on the book :
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At first they had partner shipped with onitsuka and they had built one of the first mordern looking shoe named “Aztec” but had to rename because of the similar name by adidas , and they didn’t had the financial power to fight , so they changed it to Cortez who had defeated Azetec (irony) xD
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Prefontaine(the inspiration for Phil Knight) - Nike (6453 ) Best time record 3:54.6 ( When nike number’s in keybad reversed )
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When Phil in 1971 had gone to Japan to setup first nike plant there ( some of the name’s of the shoes he had thought of on spot )-
Lastly inspired by this -
" You measure your self by the people who measure themselves by you “