13A Reading Reflection 1

I Chose to read the book Shoe Dog which is an autobiography for Phil Knight.
What surprised you the most?
The most surprising part to me was how Phil Knight cold called the CEO of a Japanese shoe company and then was able to meet with him and then get distribution rights in Western United States. I do not think many people at such a young age would be confident enough to not only cold call the CEO, but also have a successful meeting with him. I think part of his success at the beginning was also contributed to luck.

What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
I most admired Phil Knight’s ability to take risks. He quit his accounting job to sell shoes out of his green Plymouth Valiant car at track meets for the first year.

What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
I least admired how he did not talk about some of the luck involved with getting the rights to sell the Japanese shoes in Western United States. I think nowadays it is very hard for a young adult to be able to cold call a CEO of a company and get a meeting and eventual rights to that product.

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
I would not say that he encountered failure, but it took him many years to build up his brand and continue to design and redesign shoes before he had a successful product.
2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 
I think Knight’s main skills were work ethic, drive, and daring. He preaches taking many risks at a young age and says, “You only get a few chances to start something crazy, so go for broke when you’re young.” I think his daring nature combined with having a strong work ethic and drive contributed to his great success.
3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
I would say that the beginning was a little confusing on how he was able to strike this deal out of nowhere with the Japanese company.
4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
1. How did you identify the Japanese shoe brand in the first place and was that the only CEO that you cold called?
2. What was your biggest motivation for becoming an entrepreneur?  
5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
I think Phil Knight was a big proponent of hard work. One of the jobs he had was working for a newspaper where he entered in sport scores the night before. He would then run 7 miles home from the work. Knight constantly worked hard to build up Nike and if he was not so persistent or dedicated then Nike would not be a global brand like it is today.

Comments

  1. Joseph PlotkinFebruary 26, 2020 at 10:45 PM

    Michael,

    Thats very interesting to hear what you had to say about Phil Knight. Phil Knight is one of the most credited entrepreneurs in history. The company Nike is considered one the most powerful sports apparel brands in the world. Phil has done a tremendous job leading the company due to efficient marketing, business analytics, and sales. I wonder what the future of NIKE will be like in 10 years. Im sure they will continue to keep dominating the market.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bernard BynumMarch 7, 2020 at 6:18 PM

    Michael,

    There was a lot of interesting things about Phil Knight that you discussed. What I got most of out of your post was how big of a risk taker he was. It took a lot of courage out of him to cold call that CEO and gain distribution rights. As awesome as that is, I also agree with you that Knight's luck with securing that deal should've been discussed more. It was a different time back then and unfortunately today you can't easily get a call with the CEO of a company to arrange a quick meeting and come to a business agreement. However, this shouldn't take away the fact that he was a daring and motivated hard-worker that was able to establish Nike as one of the most global powerhouse brands of all time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sharay PichardoMarch 8, 2020 at 2:32 PM

    Hi Michael,

    I also choose to read this book. I agree with you it was pretty amazing how he manage to meet with the Japanese and get the distribution rights for the USA. I also agree that he never though luck was involved in his success he just works really hard to get to where he is today. I also agree he had an impeccable work ethic and he took risks. I think the questions that you ask where interesting I would particularly like to know what he would say to the question number two. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Mainzer PostMarch 9, 2020 at 10:43 AM

    Hi Michael,

    I found your post very interesting but there was one thing that stood out to me the most and that was the idea that Phil Knight took a lot of risk. I am a big believe in taking risk because risk creates the opportunity for failure. Failure is very important in entrepreneurship because when you make a mistake you learn how to fix it through trial and error.

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