Shoe Dog | Journey of creating a dent!

Life is growth, You grow or you die!

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“It’s never just business. It never will be. If it ever does become just business, that will mean that business is very bad.”
― Phil Knight, Shoe Dog

Recently, I got a chance to read this amazing book Shoe Dog and it reminds me of the fact that while Entrepreneurship might look sexy (can’t find a better word) from the outside but is simply hard! All the struggles and challenges are highly unpredictable, especially in the long term.

This book shows the path to business success from the late 20th century but all the learnings are relevant even today. It portrays the journey of Nike across decades which teaches us that the line between success and failure is very fine and luck also plays, but passion is always the starting point due to which many decisions come from within.

I haven’t been an Entrepreneur but I have worked for years at various startups at different scales and observed things very closely and I cannot stress enough the fact that startup life is all about daily hustle and frequent ups and downs but nothing can be more satisfying. These things are more evident in the lead roles but the desire to create an impact can be translated into all hands.

Sharing a few learnings from the book that I could gather —

1. Nothing is more important than a team of like-minded folks: There are multiple instances mentioned by Phil Knight from the journey of Nike which showed the importance of a team or groups of members that 100% align with the passion of the founders and feel the same way for every adventure in the entrepreneurial journey. The team that is ready to give everything in their hands, step up when required, and own things. Nike exists today because one or more team members stepped up and helped when the company needed it the most :)
2. Nothing is constant and things can get fragile at times: Things are sailing smooth and suddenly you find that everything is going to end — It happened multiple times in the journey of Nike due to investors, business partners, dipping sales, lack of capital, and quality of products, etc. But there was always a way out!
3. A little bit of luck is important, but it has to be earned: With hard work comes the luck. While everything is important — Team, Passion, Dedication, etc., a little bit of luck is required. The subconscious decision, intuitions, and directions that come from within can make things happen in a very unique way.
4. Passion & Perseverance: Passion helps you sail through the rough and provides you the strength to never give up and perseverance keeps you going in the journey. After reading the journey of Nike, I realized that passion and perseverance are at the roots of everything for any successful business. The portrayal of a runner wearing Nike shoes and winning gold in the Olympics showed passion and it was no less than a dream come true.
5. Money is just the fuel but it's never at the front-end: For almost half of the Nike journey mentioned in the book, money was a scarce resource. Banks refused to provide credits, suppliers threatened to stop the supplies, and at times there was no money to give to the employees, but in the words of Phil Night — “Getting rich had never influenced my decisions and the other partners cared even less”. This shows that the problem, purpose, and passion are larger than the idea of getting rich.

This is just a small portion of what this book has got to offer. Many of these are applicable in any career path and not just in the entrepreneurial world.

Hopefully, I was able to add value to the time you spent reading the blog :)

P.S. For the folks who prefer to read fictional books or novels, this book is not a typical entrepreneurial book with tons of life lessons. It's a journey that almost feels fictional at times.

Thanks, Anit Bhandari and Uddish Verma for the recommendation!